图片源于：https://www.kut.org/education/2024-07-16/austin-isd-students-bring-the-swamp-to-the-stage-with-shrek-the-musical
Days before the opening night of Shrek the Musical, the Austin ISD Performing Arts Center is bustling. In the hallway leading to the dance studio, students are putting the finishing touches on costumes and props — including a row of hand-painted skulls as well as Shrek’s rustic, cropped vest.
Inside the studio, students are running through the production’s opening number where Shrek learns about the trials and tribulations an ogre faces outside the comfort of his rancid swamp.
“Keep your big bright beautiful world, I’m happy where I am,” Finn Alexander belts out. “I’ve got all I need, so read the stinking sign.”
Alexander, 18, is playing the lovable ogre. He’s one of 250 Austin ISD students from 43 campuses who have spent their summer building sets, learning lines, and in his case, perfecting a Scottish accent, as part of Austin ISD’s Summer Theatre Series. This is Alexander’s seventh and final summer participating in the program.
“It’s touching, for sure, to know that I’m leaving with Shrek, such a grandiose personality who really makes it a part of himself to leave it all out on the floor,” he told KUT.
Michael Minasi / KUT News Finn Alexander, in partial costume for Shrek, rehearses for an upcoming performance of Shrek the Musical. This is his seventh summer participating in the summer program.
Shrek the Musical, which premieres Thursday, is one of two productions students in the Summer Theatre Series put on. The other was The Twelve Huntsmen.
“We are very lucky to be able to provide this program free to the students in our district,” Summer Theatre Series Program Coordinator Christina Pozzi said. “This allows us to give Austin ISD students a year-round arts education experience.”
Students can start participating in the program the summer before they start sixth grade and can remain involved through the summer after their senior year. Alexander, for example, graduated from Bowie High School in May.
Michael Minasi / KUT News AISD’s Summer Theatre Series is free for the students who participate and includes meals and transportation.
Brad Distelhorst, the Performing Arts Center coordinator, said the goal of the program is to give students a professional-level experience with theater.
“We want to make sure they are getting real-world skills in our industry that will get them a job right away,” he said.
Distelhorst said students are responsible for the success of the show both on stage and off.
“The first note that you hear or the first light that you see, kids take over, we back off and it’s completely their show,” he said. “So, any problems that come up, they have to think critically during the show [about] how do we fix it.”
While the program gives students valuable experiences they can put to use at school or work, it also gives them a chance to develop friendships and find community.
KUT spoke with Alexander and three other Austin ISD students about how being a part of theater and arts programs has affected them. It turns out, just like ogres and onions, theater kids have layers, too.
Finding community and yourself
Chloe Verastegui has been participating in the Summer Theatre Series for the last three years. Now, as a rising junior, she is the lead of hair and makeup. She said the role is significant because it means people see her as a leader.
“That really motivated me to do a lot more this year and work a lot harder to try and prove that I do deserve that title,” she said.
Verastegui has come a long way from her first summer with the program when she was nervous about making friends.
“But now that I have friends, this community is really, really nice and they’ve really helped me,” she said.
The sense of community is also one of the reasons Alexander has stuck with theater as long as he has.
“I love that kind of feeling of acceptance that you get from your cast, that you get from your crew and that feeling of everybody working together towards a common goal,” he said.
Alexander said he’s not sure where he would be without theater.
“I don’t think I would be anywhere near the same human being I am now if I wasn’t in theater, if we didn’t have those programs, those places I could go and express myself,” he said.
Finnegan Griffith, 18, said he’s also not sure who he would be without theater. He signed up for theater class in sixth grade at Lamar Middle School and was instantly hooked.
“Theater has basically developed my entire personality,” he said. “They say you can tell a theater kid just right as you meet them, and I think you can.”
Michael Minasi / KUT News Finnegan Griffith is one of two students playing Lord Farquaad. He says he was hooked on theater from the moment he took a class in sixth grade.
Griffith, who graduated from McCallum High School this year, is one of two students playing Lord Farquaad. The other student playing Shrek’s preening nemesis is Jacob Baird, a 16-year-old who’s going into his junior year at Austin High.
Like Alexander and Griffith, Baird first got involved in theater at a young age.
“I’ve been involved in theater since about second or third grade,” he said. “That’s because my mom was my music teacher in elementary school.”
Baird said elementary school was the perfect time to be exposed to musical theater because there’s “no social pressure to be something you’re not.” Making a fool of yourself on a stage just isn’t that big of a deal when you’re a little kid but that changes as you get older.
“I feel like if I joined theater right now, I would be gone,” he said. “I wouldn’t like it because of how much pressure there is to fit in.”
But Baird said he loves theater because he can lose himself in the music, the lines and the friendships he’s made. He added that this art form has taught him another valuable skill: how to deal with criticism.
“Theater’s just always been a place where I’ve learned how to take criticism and how to become a better person through just truly being myself,” he said.
Getting into character
Alexander said Shrek’s accent is one of the harder ones he’s had to figure out, especially because the voice is so recognizable from the movies and Broadway productions.
“With Shrek, you’ve got a lot more things to think about, I think, because it’s not really all the way Scottish,” he said. “It’s kind of this weird blend of Scottish, Irish and Welsh.”
Alexander said Shrek also challenged him because he’s a little different from the characters he normally plays.
“So, that’s been kind of an interesting exercise — going through and finding those moments that are so different for me,” he said.
Griffith said he’s been loving the role of Lord Farquaad because he’s a villain but also the butt of the joke in every scene he’s in.
“So, he’s just been really comedic and I also just love comedy roles,” he said. “I did a lot of those at McCallum and just roles where you lose your mind on stage and I think it’s kind of fun.”
Baird said he’s also enjoying playing Lord Farquaad, even though he originally wanted to be Donkey.
“I’m actually so glad they put me in Farquaad. Donkey has the obvious funny, but Farquaad has the backhanded, you have to think about it for a second for it to be funny,” he said.
While Verastegui won’t be on stage, she will be responsible for one of the most pivotal changes the audience will see: transforming Princess Fiona into an ogre — something she’ll do in less than two minutes.
“I’m really excited to do Fiona’s quick-change makeup,” she said. “I’m really looking forward to that.”
A reason to go to school
While theater takes center stage during the summer, it has also played an important role in keeping Baird, Griffith and Alexander engaged during the school year.
Baird said, for his part, he basically had “senioritis” when he started high school. But theater and other arts courses make him more excited to go to class.
“Without fine arts in AISD, I feel like I would be a much unhappier person,” he said.
Michael Minasi / KUT News Jacob Baird is one of two students playing Lord Farquaad in Shrek the Musical at the Austin ISD Performing Arts Center this summer.
Griffith shared a similar sentiment. He said toward the end of his senior year, theater class was one of the only things getting him through the school doors each day.
“You have all your other stresses in life, you have all the classes that take a lot of your mental health space and theater for me is 100% a place where I can recharge and go into class and relax, and I know I have that community there,” he said. “And no homework from it most of the time or none of the boring kind.”
A 2023 report from the Texas Cultural Trust, an organization that increases awareness and support for the arts, backs up Griffith’s experience. The group found students who take arts courses are more likely to attend school than their peers who don’t take those types of classes.
For Alexander, the demands of theater sometimes made it harder to get other homework done because it was so time-consuming. But, he thinks ultimately the commitment paid off.
“I’m so much more driven to participate in things around campus. I meet more people. I get introduced to more things because of the connections I’ve made participating in theater,” he said.
Alexander is going to stick with the performing arts in college. He is going to Rider University in New Jersey to study musical theater. He said it hasn’t really hit him yet that this is his last year with the Summer Theatre Series.
“While I’m here, I’m going to be here and I’m going to be present,” Alexander said. “And, we’re going to put on a really good show.”
There will be four performances of Shrek the Musical from Thursday, July 18 through Saturday, July 20. Tickets, which are currently on sale, are $10 for students and staff. They’re $15 for everybody else.
