Rutgers Prep Students Bring Fairy Tale to Life with “Shrek the Musical”

Once upon a time, Rutgers Prep brought "Shrek the Musical" to Villagers Theater, where students from the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools delivered incredible performances in three sold-out shows. A well-deserved round of applause for the cast, crew, orchestra, and production team whose hard work and dedication brought this fairy tale to life. Keep scrolling to see photos from some of the most memorable moments of the show.

Synopsis:
Set in a mythical “once upon a time” sort of land, Shrek the Musical is the story of a hulking green ogre who, after being mocked and feared his entire life by anything that crosses his path, retreats to an ugly green swamp to exist in happy isolation. Suddenly, a gang of homeless fairy-tale characters (Pinocchio, Dorothy, the Three Pigs, you name it) raid his sanctuary, saying they’ve been evicted by the vertically challenged Lord Farquaad. So Shrek strikes a deal: I’ll get your homes back, if you give me my home back! But when Shrek and Farquaad meet, the Lord strikes a deal of his own: He’ll give the fairy-tale characters their homes back, if Shrek rescues Princess Fiona. Shrek obliges, yet finds something appealing–something strange and different–about this pretty princess. He likes her. A lot. But why does she always run off when the sun sets?

Cast: 
Genesis Banini, Niara Beckwith, Shaunak Bose, Mackenzie Brown, Stella Buyanovsky, Amari Campolongo, Phoenix Custer, Alefiyah Danish, Juliana Deyhle, Laela Domanski, Kaarthika Donepudi, Ling Yau Ge, Siddharth Ghosh, Brad Gu, Clement Lacroix, Nathaniel Lawton, Emma Loscalzo, Cordelia Lucid, Buyu Lyu, Julia Manolache, Sarina Mehta, Zara Nagabhushana, Sashi Shukla, Sophia Soares, Sunny Sriram, Micah Stowe

Stage managed by Zach Evans and Victoria Gu
Assistant stage managed by Neil Mistry

Stage Crew:
(includes Backstage, Set, Makeup/Costumes, Lobby), Ellen Albert, Yuna Augatis, Zakariya Baig, Jeremy Brown, Felicity Cai, Jurnee Cladwell, Nicole Cheteyan-Kane, Rachel Cohen, Tanmayi Donepudi, Sasha Gordon, Ben Gu, Hasan Husain, Sophia Lensborn, Jianning Liu, Maelee Liu, Katherine McNichol, Leela Menon, Maddy Ngo, Quinton Ngo, Webber Wang

Pit Orchestra: 
Kelli Chang, Ian Chang, Keran Chen, Maddox Chu, Andrew Li, Andrew Tian, Stanley Figaro

Production Staff: 
Directed and Produced by Anna Espinoza, Music Directed by Jeron Stephens, Choreographed by Johsian Martinez, Costumed by Anna Espinoza, Maria Printon, Graphic Design by Maria Printon, Makeup Artistry by Emma O’Mara, Front of House Management by Ashleigh Morrow-Simpson, Lighting by Christian Confalone, Set Design by Ben Menahem, Sound Design by Chris Mallari

Photos from the Show