Students at Langley Fundamental Middle Secondary School are letting their “freak flag fly” in a magical musical filled with fairy-tale creatures, and a whole lot of humour.
Shrek The Musical, running the last weekend of April and first weekend of May, takes audiences to a medieval kingdom where ruler Lord Farquaad has banished a group of misfit fairy-tale characters to the swampy home of Shrek the Ogre.
Starring 60 students from Grades 6 to 12, the musical not only challenges the cast technically, but teaches valuable life lessons as well, says producer and music teacher Steve Thompson.
“What’s really exciting about the show is how it relates to students — it’s really relevant,” he said.
“Even though it’s really funny, it has a lot of great themes going through it (like) self-respect (and) bullying. These fairy tale creatures basically feel like they are cast out. They are looking for a home, they don’t fit in, they’re misfits. This is kind of how a lot of us feel in our teens, we don’t really fit in anywhere.”
At a cost of around $30,000 to $40,000, the school only produces a musical once every two years. This year, they lucked out and were awarded a grant from the AJK Foundation in the United States, allowing them to rent costumes and props from a theatre group in Everett, Wash.
“That really gave us a boost because we do everything here ourselves,” Thompson said.
“We have parents — moms, dads — people that are associated with the community doing all of the directing, all of the wardrobe. Normally we make all of our own stuff, too, but this is such a big show that we’ve been equally as busy as we have for any other musical, even though we already had a head start — 75 per cent of the stuff was already done.”
The students, too, have been enjoying the experience. Grade 12 student Bradley Thompson has been involved in LFMS productions since he was in Grade 6. Playing Lord Farquaad in Shrek, he says one of the most enjoyable parts of the play is mentoring the younger students.
“I’ve grown up through the school and through these musicals since Grade 6, and I’ve just noticed it’s really cool becoming the person who people look up to and admire so you can lead them — that’s a really cool experience,” he said.
“This musical in particular is a lot better, in my opinion, than The Wizard of Oz (the production the school put on two years ago). This musical you can actually involve a lot of people with cool parts. There’s a bunch of different fairy tale characters and creatures, and there’s at least 14 of those fairy tale creatures, so that’s a lot of girls that get parts and get to shine.
“So that’s really cool, that’s why I like it. And for me, as Farquaad, it really shows my talent as well.”
For Grade 8 student Annie Davey, working on a production with the entire school has led to new friendships.
"They (the older students) are really nice, you make lots of friends and you get to know the people in the school," she said.
"I have someone who shares the same role as me, and through Shrek we’ve been able to practise together and hangout a lot and we’ve become really good friends."
Arianne Thompson, a Grade 12 student, says the messages in the play have been very motivational for her.
"I love the humour, I love how lighthearted it is. But I also love the underlying themes, they aren’t thrown in your face, they are kind of hidden under layers," she said.
"It’s about letting your "freak flag fly," so it’s about showing your uniqueness and not hiding it. It’s about appearances and how they don’t mean as much as society thinks."
But overall, the musical is a great laugh for both audiences, and the cast members, says Grade 12 student Brock Fast, who plays the lead role of Shrek.
"It is so funny," he said.
"Me and donkey have lots of jokes that we do and lots of fun things. We have our own handshake, we do a dab in the middle. It’s funny. And also the songs are so awesome, although they have lots of key changes in them. Just a really well written musical."
To purchase tickets and for more information on Shrek The Musical, visit the website www.shreklangley.com.
