The DreamWorks film Shrek established DreamWorks Animation as a prime competitor to Pixar in feature film computer animation, and grossed $484.4 million at the worldwide box office against its $60 million production budget. It was acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children.

 It tells the story of a ogre named Shrek and a donkey. Shrek lives in a swamp that gets infested with fairy tale creatures. He then goes on a life changing quest to rescue a princess.

The BFA Drama department will be putting on the musical in the Fall of the 2018-19 school year. According to NPR, Shrek is the 3rd most performed musical in high school.

“Over the past 78 years, the most popular plays have consistently been Our Town and You Can’t Take It with You, according to our analysis.

Why, you ask?

“Most high school teachers need a big cast, lots of female roles, and something that won’t scare your grandma,” says Corathers, who has been with Dramatics since 1979.”

“I initially asked the Drama students and then I started doing some work in other classrooms and I noticed that some students were excited about High School Musical. They were so excited about it that I thought that I should be asking the whole school and not just the Drama students. So I asked to get 3 choices on the ballot,” Susan Palmer, BFA Drama Director, said.

There were three choices that the BFA community voted on: Addams Family; High School Musical; and Shrek.  Shrek won the most votes.

“The popularity of many productions (especially musicals) seems to depend almost entirely on licensing. High schools can’t produce a show until it has run its course on Broadway and in regional theaters.

In 1975, the amateur performance rights for Godspell became available, and it’s rumored that the licensing agency’s telephone switchboards were jammed for days after. That year, Godspell was the top high school musical.” (NPR.)

Workshops take place on May 21 and 22 with auditions and call backs on the 24 and 25.

“The workshops are really low risk and informational, no one is going to be getting up and acting by them self. It’s a great opportunity to just come and learn,” Palmer said.

People who audition will get little parts of the script which feature music, dancing, and a speaking section from the script.

The purpose of the workshop is to get people who are interested in auditioning familiar with the Musical and how to do a proper audition. On both days, students will be practicing the music and learning the lines for the part that they want. “I really like the fairy and the gingerbread man, if I were to go for anybody, that’s who I would go for. I like that they sing and dance a lot,” Adsel Sparrow (‘20) said.

Sparrow is in the BFA chorus and has been active in the Drama department since freshman year. She looks to continue her acting career next Fall with this popular fairy tale. Sparrow is no stranger to the film, she recently watched the musical on Netflix.

“There both pretty good and I think they both follow a similar line. I like the added music because I like musicals, and I think it was really fun,” Sparrow said.

On May 18th, there will be a viewing of the musical in the PAC after school for all BFA students and the rest of the public. It will be a great way to get shrek fans ready for the the musical for next fall.

“It’s going to be really fun and a lot of laughs. It’s definitely going to be different from Godspell. It will be going from serious to fantasy land and something that we all know, even if we haven’t seen the movie, we at least know what Shrek is,” Sparrow said.