Shrek is the newest addition to the long line of musicals that the Fossil Ridge Theatre department has performed. Shrek the Musical has many of the cast and crew excited to create a magical experience for everyone to see.
Opening on Thursday, February 26 at 7:00 pm, the productions continue Friday at 7:00 and Saturday at 2:00 and 7:00. Tickets are available at frhs.booktix.com
Brook Nye, who has done theatre for three years, is getting ready for the musical as the co-lead of costumes. She is in charge of one of the most important costumes, helping design and make the costume for Shrek the mean green ogre, and also the main character played by returning lead Jonah Bryant.
Nye spoke about what all goes into creating and designing the costumes for a production like this.
“We have a few different things we can do when we design and make costumes. They break down into three main things, but typically combine the three,” she said.
The three techniques they use are modifying existing things, reusing old costumes with small changes, or making them from scratch.
“We can take what is in the cages under the stage and modify them. We can go thrifting to try and find something we would be able to use or modify to be what we need, or we can try and use what the adult leads have for us,” Nye said
Mikayla Assmus, the director of the production, gave more context about what the adult leads do to help out with the production and what they do to support the cast and crew.
“All of the leads, aside from the ones working at Fossil, are all working professionals in the fields they help out with,“ Assmus said. “Rebbeca [Spafford], helps out with theatre productions all over Fort Collins and gives them access to all the resources she has. She will be able to get things from other productions that she’s helped out with or access to other clothes and props she’s worked on.”
So it’s not that Spafford, the adult lead for makeup and costumes, is taking care of the whole job by herself. They just help give the crew a head start for the productions.
How much time does everyone spend doing theatre to create these costumes?
“ It depends on how close we are to the show right now, theatre meets 3 times a week for till seven or eight at night, so about 10 hours a week at school, but during tech week it can go till 10 at night every day, so it just depends on how close we are to the show”.
Knowing how much time and energy goes into this in addition to the fact that Fossil is different from other schools in that they do the full week before and the week of the production as tech week it really is a commitment to join the theatre troupe.
Charlotte Schimmel, a senior lights crew member who has been doing theatre for two years, gives her insight into joining the theatre department and how she feels about the times she’s spent doing it
“ It’s a very intimidating thing to start, and it’s a very big commitment, but I’d say it’s definitely one of the best things I did in high school, and I’ll definitely look back fondly.”