Shrek is back, and the lovable ogre is bringing friends. “Shrek The Musical,” the annual spring musical production of the Hoboken Junior Senior High School (HJSHS) Theater Company, will feature 120 children and teens from all three district elementary schools and the high school.
For this year’s show, which will be performed in the high school auditorium on May 15, 16, and 17, the district is pulling out all the stops. Hoboken’s version of “Shrek,” which follows the storyline of the 2001 smash hit movie, will feature a 20-foot tall dragon puppet operated by five students, full prosthetic makeup, fog machines, moving sets, and a 14-member band, many of whom are professional musicians who have performed on Broadway in the past.
“We’re always trying to up the ante,” said “Shrek” director Danielle Miller. “I’m not putting on a kid’s show. I’m putting on the highest quality professional show that I can with children in it.”
Building from within
According to Miller, Hoboken is the only public school district in the state that puts on musicals featuring students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Every child who auditioned for “Shrek” got a spot in the cast, and has the chance to perform in at least two musical numbers.
The district musicals act as a youth academy for the HJSHS Theater Company, getting children involved at an early age and identifying and cultivating talent over the years.
Eighth grader Angel Quinones, 13, who stars as Shrek, is a perfect exemplar of this farm system. After performing the district musical ensembles for years, Quinones began taking on supporting roles when he entered HJSHS in 2012.
“We’re always trying to up the ante.”—Danielle Miller
____________
Now Quinones will have his first star turn as Shrek, and Miller said he is so perfect for the role she could imagine him playing Shrek in a regional touring company as a professional.
Quinones has even worked with an accent coach to perfect Shrek’s inexplicable yet iconic Scottish brogue. He said it was hardest to learn the rolled R that Scots import into words like ‘burn’—which comes in handy when dealing with fire-breathing dragons.
Final show for Oliveras
Jason Oliveras, the only senior to fill one of the five lead roles in “Shrek,” will play Lord Farquaad, the diminutive despot of Duloc, who antagonizes Shrek by banishing the Fairytale Creatures to his swamp.
“We picked this show knowing that we had Jason Oliveras,” said Miller. “The last three musicals we did, there just weren’t really roles for him that allowed him to shine.”
“We knew that [Oliveras] would be the perfect Farquaad,” she continued. “There really wasn’t anyone else anyways that could have played him…we felt that he worked so hard for the last six years I’ve known him that he deserved to have this really amazing role to go out his senior year with.”
Oliveras has been involved in the theater in Hoboken since he was 4 years old, following in the footsteps of his older sister. “She’s been my inspiration,” he explained. “When I was younger, she would make me audition with her.”
Fourteen years later, Oliveras is one of the leading lights of the HJSHS Theater Company. He won an accomplished award for a dramatic monologue and first place for best supporting actor in the one-act play “Love, Loss, and What I Wore” at the most recent New Jersey Thespian Festival.
Though the role of Farquaad is more comic and quirky than the dramatic roles Oliveras tends towards, Miller said there is still some real pathos for Oliveras to work with
“Farquaad wants perfection,” she explained. “He’s a complex character. He wants a perfect kingdom because he’s not perfect and I think that bothers him.”
The woman behind the curtain
Sophomore Jeane Cummins, 16, was picked to play the dragon that guards Princess Fiona’s castle. Though she never appears on stage, Cummins gets to provide one of the biggest voices in the show and sing the lead in the song “Forever,” the dragon’s lonely lament about being stuck in the castle and rejected knight after knight.
“She’s really mad because everyone comes to rescue Fiona and not her,” said Cummins.
Cummins doesn’t have a background in theater, but she discovered “Shrek The Musical” two years ago and has wanted to sing “Forever” on stage ever after.
“My whole family grew up on music on both sides,” said Cummins. “Singing is in our blood.”
Cummins’ father is the pastor at Go Ye Therefore Ministries in Hoboken, and she initially dreamed of being a gospel singer, but now she wants to keep doing musicals with the theater company for the rest of her time at Hoboken Junior Senior High School.
“Everyone’s so nice and you don’t get negative things like you would get in school,” said Cummins. “They always cheer you on, even if you’re not in the right mood.”
“We become a family here,” said musical director Kristen Dziuba. “It really brings kids from all ages throughout the town and makes it feel like a big family.”
“Shrek The Musical” will be performed on Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m., Saturday, May 16 at 2 p.m., and Sunday, May 17 at 2 p.m. in the Hoboken Junior Senior High School Auditorium, located at 800 Clinton St.
Tickets are $7 for general admission, $5 for students, and $3 for senior citizens.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.