Soliloquies in the Swamp: Keystone English Production Shrek the Musical
This week, the Keystone Performing Arts Center (PAC) turned into the playground for a loveable green ogre and his group of misfit friends. This year’s English Production, Shrek the Musical, opened on Wednesday night, turning the PAC’s stage into a swamp of fun and laughter. Although this amazing performance certainly one to remember for the cast and audience, its impact extended well beyond the English Production Keystone Activities Program (KAP), involving a collaborative curricular and extracurricular effort connecting students and teachers all over the school.
While the sight of ogres and donkeys tromping across the stage may seem silly at first, the classic tale of friendship and teamwork between unlikely pals was a hit with the audience and performers. “Shrek the Musical is something everyone enjoys. It’s a good show for all ages,” says Keystone Grade 5 classroom teacher and Teacher Director for Shrek the Musical, Mr. Brad Kishel, explaining how the group chose this particular production. Once the drama was selected, the teachers and students began the long and arduous process of preparing for the performance. Auditions and rehearsals started in special pre-KAP sessions as early as August, before the official KAP schedule began. Then, once KAPs were running, 42 student performers were hard at work memorizing their lines and rehearsing their act.
Although the audience Wednesday got to appreciate the hard work of the cast on stage, there was a much larger crew working on Shrek the Musical behind the scenes. Students led almost every part of the production. Most of the additional costume, makeup, and set work was all done by students during their Grade 9 tech theatre unit. In fact, many of these students enjoyed the work so much they also joined the production team’s backstage crew, blending their curricular and extracurricular learning. “That’s why I teach the Grade 9 tech theatre unit, so students can find their path in theatre. That path is not always being on stage,” explains Keystone drama teacher and Artistic Director for Shrek the Musical, Ms. Karen Bailey-Summers, who’s own passion for theatre started with backstage lighting. The experiential learning of doing hands-on production work is a rewarding way for students to kickstart their theatre journeys.
The impact of a production as large as this one extended well beyond theatre class. While students in the English Production KAP were hard at work designing the stage and perfecting their performance, students and teachers from several other areas also joined in to collaborate on the project. Music was an integral part of this week’s show, and the Keystone Orchestra also spent a great deal of time and effort to ensure the production had an amazing musical accompaniment. Other cross-curricular collaboration occurred with the character groups that joined the performance, which included fairytale characters, the Keystone Wushu team, and the dragon dancers. This teamwork between departments all throughout the school made this week’s Shrek the Musical a show made by and for the whole Keystone community.
Every aspect of Shrek had a special Keystone touch added to it. In addition to the excellent collaboration displayed the numerous student and teacher groups, the production itself included some slight changes agreed upon by the cast and crew. To make the story of Shrek even more accessible and inclusive, and to add a bit of Keystone flair, students and teachers went through the script for Shrek the Musical, making slight changes to localize it for a Chinese audience. For example, at one point during the play, a parfait was replaced with a jianbing, helping the story come a little closer to home for everyone involved. Although the production was acted in English, simultaneous Chinese subtitles were made using the translation board backstage. These special Keystone additions created a global performance of the story of an ogre from a small swamp, demonstrating the unique World School environment at Keystone.
Although the shows on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spectacularly magical, things didn’t always go smoothly during the tedious process of preparation. In fact, the biggest challenge for the performers and crew came in mid-December in the form of the blizzard that wrapped Beijing in a coat of frosty white snow. Originally scheduled to open December 14, the production had to be delayed due to campus closure. In addition to the delay, further rehearsals became difficult, as several of the students involved were unable to get to campus. However, the students and teachers were able to overcome this unexpected adversity and put on a wonderful show for the Keystone community.
In addition to all the excitement it brought this week, Shrek the Musical will leave a lasting impact on those involved with the production. For the audience, the story of Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Lord Farquaad, and the others will leave lasting laughs to enjoy. For the cast, there is nothing that can quite replicate the experience of succeeding on stage in front of a packed audience. For everyone working behind the scenes, Shrek may be the start of a fulfilling career in stage design, makeup, lighting, or audio. And for Keystone, this performance will serve as a reminder of the amazing collaborative projects this community is capable of making and sharing with the world.
