AFAA takes on Shrek the Musical Jr.

EAGLE RIVER — There’s community theater, and then there’s commune theater.

The latter is practically what the six kids, ages 10 to 13, participating in the Alaska Fine Arts Academy’s have been through in the last three weeks, meeting every day from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for theater camp.

The fruit of their efforts will be revealed Friday night with the debut of their two-night performance of Shrek the Musical Jr. at Eleanor Braendel Theater.

“It’s different to say the least. I’m not used to acting camp from 9 to 4,” said Ashton Trevelyan, who, as the only boy in the camp finds himself in the title role of the sympathetic, neurotic ogre. “It’s been fun. Hopefully I’ve made some new friends I’ve met and we have a great crew and cast.”

Director Addie Davis, a student at the University of Alaska Anchorage, is making her directorial debut at the AFAA with this show. She, along with theater veteran Ariel Eveland, stage manager for the Shrek production, said finding boys to participate is always tough, but when you do get them hooked, they tend to stay committed to the craft.

The musical, based on the Dreamworks ‘Shrek’ films, isn’t the easiest to perform with such a lean cast.

“One of the major challenges we have is only six kids and there are like 30 parts. Usually with this type of play you’d have a larger cast, but that’s the way things happen; we only had six kids and we made it work,” Davis said. “Quadruple casting and props have been an interesting obstacle. The kids have been so amazing with it. I’m so amazed they do every aspect of theater; they’re invested in the process.”

Haylee Nuñez stars as the Princess Fiona, a role that comes with quite a bit of flexibility in interpretation for a role with its roots in animation.

“I think she’s really wanting to be more like the other princesses,” said Nuñez, whose only other performance with AFAA was as a wicked stepsister in Cinderella. “She wants everything to go the way all the stories go, but that doesn’t really happen.”

The comic relief every romantic comedy needs is provided by Donkey, played by Molly Twohy. It’s one of just three speaking roles Twohy finds herself playing.

“I’m just trying to be as funny as possible, loud and excited all the time,” Twohy said. “It’s hard, especially since we have really fast costume changes with only six of us and there’s a huge difference getting into each individual character.”

The youngest of the 6, 10-year-old Isabella Dahl finds herself playing the role of Lord Farquaad, the villainous character trying to win the favor of Fiona only to fast track his own path to the throne.

That’s just one of a handful of characters she plays; Sophia Baranoski plays the role of Gingy and Zoe Beiergrohslein is the storyteller.

Davis said doing a musical with a small cast is especially challenging.

“We made a majority of the props and getting the music down is a huge issue with so many songs and just six actors,” Davis said. “Usually when you have a larger cast, you can have people who are not as strong, musically, but here, all six have gotta be on it.”

Nuñez said the time spent with cast has made the camp a more rewarding experience in ways she might not have realized beforehand.

“You definitely get to know each other and how their character should be played if anything happens to their character or they can’t show up,” she said. “If they can’t show up, we can do their character how they would do it.”

Friday night’s show is at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee at 3 p.m. on Saturday and a closing show at 7:30 that night, all at the Eleanor Brandael Theater at 12340 Old Glenn Highway, up the stairs above the hardware store down below.

Then, starting Monday, the AFAA will bring in another group of campers preparing daily for a straight play this time, ‘The Fantastic Mr. Fox’ in late July.

“Last year we had quite a few sold out shows,” Eveland said. “We try to make it a well rounded season so everyone feels welcome. The funny thing is, a lot of people find out we’re above the hardware store and they say, ‘oh, that’s what’s up there?’ We’re kind of a hidden gem, but when people find us, they keep coming back.”