Shrek the Musical: Our Biggest Show Yet

Shrek the Musical: Our Biggest Show Yet

We might be a specialist science school, but we also offer all our students as wide a range of opportunities and experiences as possible across all disciplines.  And so, after months of rehearsals on evenings, weekends and at lunchtimes, the musicians, cast and crew of Shrek The Musical took to the stage on 21 March in front of an invited audience of local primary school students.  This special preview performance was followed by 4 nights of sold-out performances in the School’s Drama Studio.

Altogether over 100 students and staff are involved in making the show a reality, that’s 10% of Malton School’s community.  And it really is a community event – anyone who wishes to take part is given a role in the show; from curtain opener, to technical crew, to singers and dancers, student production lead, costume design, make-up, stage set and lighting.

As in previous years, and like any theatre production, the school band provided live accompaniment for the lead singers, backing vocals and dancers.  Playing the professional score to Shrek The Musical meant the band had to learn over 50 different pieces of music, all at Grade 5 equivalent (or higher).  No mean feat, especially when many of the band members aren’t even 15.

The amazing set included Princess Fiona’s guarded castle keep, a collapsing shack in Shrek’s swamp, a giant pink dragon puppet, which required 4 back-stage crew to operate it, a merry-go-round pony for Lord Farquaad and an exploding bird in a nest for one of Princess Fiona’s songs.

The leading roles of Donkey and Princess Fiona were shared by Fliss and Lily (Donkey) and Emily and Eve (Princess Fiona), with Sam as Shrek, Ellie as the Dragon and Martha as the vertically challenged Lord Farquaad.  And there were appearances by a younger Shrek as well as a tweenage and teenage Princess Fiona.  All supported by magical woodland creatures, with starring roles for Pinocchio (complete with growing nose!) and Gingy.

A huge amount of thought had gone into the costumes and make-up to ensure they were in keeping with the film which first captured audience’s imaginations.  Kay Coulbeck, a professional make-up artist provided advice and support to the team in creating the perfect stage make-up not only for Shrek but Donkey and Pinocchio too.

It would be impossible to choose a stand-out moment from the show which had audiences riveted for the full 2 hours.  But special mention must go to Martha who as Lord Farquaad spent much of that time on her knees, with a pair of false legs and boots attached.

We would like to thank everyone who made the performances possible whether that was providing a taxi service to rehearsals, sponsoring the show, watching the show, buying drinks and raffle tickets on the night or supporting it in some other way.  Without the involvement of everyone it simply wouldn’t be possible to bring such a huge West End musical to the provincial stage.

Speaking of the band after the show, Pete Woodrow, Music Teacher, was delighted at the way the students had risen to the challenge of playing such a demanding score, “We have some very talented and very hard-working students in School who did an amazing job bringing the score to life.  I can’t wait to see what they go on and produce in future years.”

Jon Lee, Acting Assistant Head of Faculty for Performance & Creative and who has overseen the whole production, was overwhelmed by both audience feedback and the professionalism shown by students, “The students have worked so hard and given their all.  Shrek the Musical was the firm student choice for this year, but it is a demanding show to stage, and I couldn’t be more proud of the way students have worked together to make the dream a reality.  They have shown resilience, creativity and great-team work in a show that was worthy of the national stage!”

Share this post


We use cookies to analyse our traffic and improve navigation of the site. View more
Cookies settings
Accept
Decline
Privacy & Cookie policy
Privacy & Cookies policy
Cookie nameActive

COOKIE POLICY

A cookie, also known as a browser cookie or web cookie, is usually a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user’s web browser.


HOW WE USE THEM

Our website uses Google Analytics, a service that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website.

To gather statistical information, Google Analytics use ‘performance cookies’. These cookies collect anonymous information about how visitors use websites, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, whether they have been to the site before and how long they remain on each page.

These cookies do not collect personal data. The information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous and only used to improve how a website works.


Cookies in Use on Our Website

Optional:

_ga: This is a Google Analytics cookie used for tracking user interactions on the website.
_ga_DN9YBTJYBB: This is another Google Analytics cookie also used for tracking user interactions on the website.
_gid: Another Google Analytics cookie. This one is used for distinguishing users.
cookie_notice_accepted: This cookie is used to remember whether a user has accepted the website's cookie notice.
wfwaf-authcookie-8aaf297299e2c65a51de8ed05d6b9f6e: This cookie is used by the Wordfence firewall which is used to maintain authentication and protect the website.
boxzilla_box_6182: This allows us to show popup messages informing you about important events e.g., Open Evenings and Open Days.

Necessary:

wordpress_logged_in_dca8a5f5d121979351db7a27a05abfdb: This is a WordPress cookie used for keeping users logged into the site.
wordpress_test_cookie: This is a session cookie used to check if the user's browser supports cookies while a user is browsing a website. They are used by us to help our users navigate the website and perform certain functions within the web pages. Due to their core role of enhancing or enabling usability or site processes, disabling cookies may prevent users from using certain parts of this website.

DISABLING COOKIES

Most browsers allow you to reject all cookies, whilst some browsers allow you to reject just third-party cookies. Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites, including this one.

While a user is browsing a website. They are used by us to help our users navigate the website and perform certain functions within the web pages. Due to their core role of enhancing or enabling usability or site processes, disabling cookies may prevent users from using certain parts of this website.

You can click on the Cookies Setting button which appears at the bottom of every web page to change your preferences at any point.


LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may occasionally offer links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this statement. You should exercise caution and look at the statement applicable to the website in question.

You can read our full Cookie Policy here.

Save settings
Cookies settings