'Like homecoming week': 'Shrek' brings back Barnstable High theater extravaganzas

It may be a quiet Sunday around much of Hyannis, but inside the Barnstable High School Performing Arts Center, things are humming.

Lights are lit, the piano’s revving up and there are kids everywhere, rehearsing for the school Drama Club’s big spring production of “Shrek The Musical.”

The 2008 stage musical, which grew out of the earlier animated Universal film and its franchise successors, enjoyed a successful year-long Broadway run, telling a story of friendship, loyalty and, of course, a quest to rescue a princess.

It’s the Drama Club’s first theater production since 2019’s “Pippin,” after which COVID-19 brought stage activities to a halt.

At this rehearsal, noise and activity are everywhere, and enthusiasm is running high among the kids and adults gathered at the front of the auditorium. “Everyone’s happy to be doing theater again,” says Mary Barth, a 2000 BHS alum and director of the Drama Club since last fall. She stands on the stage waving her arms, guiding a group of skeletons and other small dancers wearing bright yellow bows in a dance number.

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About her choice of “Shrek,” Barth says, “I wanted to do a family-friendly show that even the younger children in the community could watch and enjoy.”

“Shrek” has another advantage for Barth. The sheer numbers in its cast allow her to involve a lot of students and faculty for this first production in three years. There are 75 in the cast, plus 35 in the backstage crew. All the lead parts are double-cast, and several characters appear at three different ages — so, for example, there are six Fionas.

The dragon is “a four-person job,” she says, with the actor in the dragon’s head doing the singing.

“And all 75 are on stage for the finale,” she adds.

A huge group effort

Cast members represent a range of grades, and students are included from Barnstable/West Barnstable, Barnstable United and Centerville Elementary schools, as well as Barnstable Intermediate and Barnstable High schools. “A ton of kids came out for auditions,” Barth says.

Many students from the younger grades have never been in a show, but Barth says the older kids with more stage experience are acting as willing role models, mentoring the younger ones.

Also performing on stage in “Shrek” are several faculty members, including acting coach and BHS English and drama teacher Keith Caldwell; BHS music teacher Ian Maguire; and longtime Barnstable English teacher Michael Mulgrew, who’s performed in more than a dozen BHS productions. Treading the boards for the first time will be new BHS principal Elizabeth Freedman, making her stage debut as the Bishop.

One of Barth’s biggest challenges as the new director was “coming in blind. ... I didn’t know the kids” or their individual talents, she explains. She decided the best thing this year would be to mount just “one big spring show” and get to know the kids that way.

It’s “go big or go home,” she quips.

Another kind of challenge in mounting such a big production has been costumes, with the sheer number of kids to be outfitted. At work pinning up a shiny white costume, longtime BHS theater volunteer Lorraine Dunnett (incidentally, Barth’s mother) pointed out a row of older, donated BHS band uniforms that will appear in the production. She also noted that “seven or eight volunteers are sewing at home” to complete the costumes on time.

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“The dragon’s head is done,” Barth said, while other volunteers are “working on the heads and ears for the ogre parts.” Ogre noses had to be quickly added to the workload when the mask mandate was recently dropped from COVID-19 protocols. “There are five different Shrek costumes and lots of green paint,” she adds.

Carrying on a tradition

As an enthusiastic BHS Drama Club alum, Barth says she was “part of many John Sullivan productions over the years,” referring to the retired longtime theater director there. One of the highlights of ramping up for this show has been the support she’s getting from other BHS grads who have stepped up to participate in various facets of the production, including former Drama Club enthusiasts who she says “have amazing memories of working with Sullivan.”

Along with a host of other participating faculty and BHS grads, Drama Club alums joining Barth’s central creative team are Matthew Kohler as the show’s technical director, Julie Lariviere as producer and “costume maker extraordinaire,” and music director Kris Lariviere Hill.

It seems as if the “whole crew is returning,” Barth says. “All the old friends are back. It was like homecoming week.”

Barth’s favorite part of her new job? “Getting to know the kids” and seeing the production “through a director’s lens” after years of participating on the acting front.

As for the spectator role, there’s no feeling quite like watching a bunch of budding thespians up on stage, enacting a scenario that humans have engaged in for thousands of years: Reaching out to entertain others and having a wonderful time.

How to see 'Shrek the Musical'

What: Barnstable High School Drama Club’s “Shrek the Musical”

When: 7 p.m. March 24-25, and 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. March 26

Where: Barnstable High School Performing Arts Center, 744 West Main St., Hyannis

Tickets: $15; $10 for students/seniors; $1 for age 4 and under

Reservations: https://our.show/barnstableshrek

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'Shrek' revives Barnstable High drama extravaganzas, with alumni help