The cast of Cullman High School's Shrek — the Musical fills the stage at a Monday performance.

Productions like the one Cullman High School’s fine arts students are staging this week don’t just come together casually.

It takes months of planning and preparation to pull off a show as elaborate as Shrek —The Musical, a highly choreographed and lavishly-adorned piece of theatre opening Thursday at the Cullman High School auditorium.

“We started way, way before Christmas,” said CHS Theatre Director Wayne Cook on Monday. “It starts with the planning, and then it takes a long time, and a lot of effort, to work on the different sets and lights, the practicing, and then, finally, the rehearsal. There are a lot of moving parts.”

Shrek had a soft, closed-access opening Monday before a daytime audience of children from local elementary schools. The show continues with additional matinees today for CHS students, and again on Wednesday for more elementary school kids.

Starting Thursday, with three days of matinee performances under their belt to work out the kinks, the theatre department will take the show before a paid audience.

If the outings on Day One offer any indication, the rest of the week should go off without a hitch. After a successful pair of performances Monday, the full cast took time to mingle with the young audience, many of whom exhibited genuine awe at meeting, in person, the stars of the show they’d just seen.

“The kids’ shows are honestly the most fun, because they think everything is funny. They wouldn’t care if I sang painfully flat the whole time — they’d still love it just as much,” said CHS senior Sarah Helms, who plays the role of Fiona.

“The kids are so much fun to talk to afterward, because sometimes they think that you are your character, and it’s really neat to get that kind of appreciation from them,” she added.

“But then, you’ll get that one comment from someone who just has a different take. Today, there was this one little girl who came up to me afterward, and she just shook my hand and said to me, ‘I really enjoyed your acting.’”

Helms, who plans to pursue a career in musical theatre, is one of Shrek’s three principal players. Rutland Turner (Shrek) and Drew Fillinger (Donkey) round out the main cast, and each brings tremendous vitality and depth to roles that, because of their familiarity, could easily stale before a popular audience.

CHS Choral Director Sarah Jane Skinner said there’s little chance of that.

“For Rutland, this is the first production where he has really played a major, lead role — and he has just blown us away,” she said. “He has so much natural talent, and just a genuine spirit about him that you can’t really teach.

“And Drew — he has so much range. I have gotten to see him, now, in three totally different roles — in three very different productions — and he has stepped up to each one.”

“Honestly, we could have cast Drew in any part for this show, and he would have been amazing,” added Cook. “That’s how versatile and gifted he is, both as an actor and a vocalist.”

As for Helms?

“She’s what people in this business call a ‘triple threat’ — she can dance, she can sing, and she can act,” said Cook.

“She’s been a tremendous asset for our department to have, both last year as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and again this year as Fiona. She’s definitely helped raise the bar in our theatre department, and she ‘gets’ it: she understands the professionalism of doing what it takes to get the job done. She has really grown, just from last year’s show to this year’s.”

Beyond the singing and acting, though, the scale of Shrek — the Musical demands a massive and integrated effort from everyone involved. And there are a lot of people involved.

There’s the technical side of staging an elaborate musical: sound, lighting, direction and set management. A lot of forethought and ongoing commitment goes into selecting and refining the rented costumes; to devising set pieces, and to bringing it all together in a thematically consistent way.

Then there’s the set itself, which, of course, has to be built.

The students do it all, said Cook.

“They all give major time — including us, the teachers,” he said. “Everyone gives a lot of their time to be a part of this show, but these kids — they love it. They’ve got what I call ‘the bug.’

“We do have a lot of kids who are involved in a lot of other things, and we try to work with all of them the best we can. And still, they manage to make time for this. I let them know at the beginning that it’s going to be a commitment: I tell them, ‘I may not “own” you all year long, but for a couple of months, I’m definitely gonna “own” you.’

“And guess what? They step up. Their attitude has just been great, and I think you see that reflected in how this show has come together.”

Shrek — the Musical opens Thursday and runs through Saturday at the Cullman High School Auditorium. General admission tickets — $10 for adults; $5 for students — are available at the door. Employees of Cullman City Schools are admitted free of charge.

Showtimes are 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

 

Benjamin Bullard can be reached by phone at 256-734-2131 ext. 145.