Watch the beloved fairytale characters come to life on Dunham Hall’s Stage

‘Let your freak flag fly’ has always been the subtle message behind the “Shrek” movie franchise — from an ogre becoming king, to a talking donkey with an inferiority complex. However, with a musical number of this title, this message in “Shrek the Musical” is shouted from the rooftops.

Former student Phil Leveling, who plays Lord Farquaad, said the live theater version delves deeper into the characters’ lives than the film.

“The entire cast is dealing with some sort of abandonment issue, whether it’s a fairytale character being kicked off the swamp or Shrek being abandoned when he was younger,” Leveling said. “When they get to the real stuff — [the musical is] fun, entertaining and silly — but when they get to the heart of what the show is about, that’s great.”

Page design by Caitlin Grove/Alestle

Page design by Caitlin Grove/Alestle

Director Peter Cocuzza said when this show was selected for the summer, he felt it was a fitting and timely choice.

“I think why it was [chosen] was to pick something families would enjoy,” Cocuzza said. “There’s been a series of Shrek movies, so it’s known. It’s funny because this year seems like a lot of people in the country are doing ‘Shrek the Musical.’ But it’s never been done in this area, so it [seemed] like the logical choice.”

Summer Showbiz is putting on this musical and according to Cocuzza, it is slightly different than the student productions Dunham Hall hosts during the school year.

“[The summer] involves members of the community, children and whoever is interested in getting involved, and I think that’s a huge difference in terms of what we do during the summer,” Cocuzza said. “Also, the summer shows tend to be picked for family kinds of entertainment — not that we aren’t trying to challenge our students who are involved during the summer, but during the school year we challenge them with certain kinds of genres and shows, and then in the summer they tend to be a little more traditional.”

Leveling said the last performance he did at SIUE was “Bye Bye Birdie” eight years ago, and when asked to audition for the part of Lord Farquaad, he was thrilled.

“Everybody loves the movie [Shrek] and the cast in it was just stellar,” Leveling said. “When they called and asked me to sing, I was like, ‘Of course,’ and the part was great. I’m 6’4” myself and Farquaad in the movie is 3 feet [tall], so I thought, ‘That’s interesting — how are they going to play that out,’ but it worked and it’s interesting. It’s just a great opportunity to come back to SIUE.”

As for the rest of the casting, Cocuzza said it was interesting becasue they were looking for a very specific style for many of the characters.

“Ideally, we were looking for [someone to play] an ogre and that ogre has to be somewhat massive. You don’t want a 5-foot ogre and we had no gentlemen audition who was the right type or the right sound,” Cocuzza said. “Our stage manager, who is an alum of our program, her fiancé happens to be 6’3”, 260 pounds and he came in and was wonderful  — now he just needs to be green. So we found him sort of by accident. The other characters we found rather quickly. But the first round of auditions weren’t clear, so we had to ask in a few other people and it turned out some of them are alums of the school.”

When picturing the characters from the film, it can become easy to visualize the literal aspects of the characters; however, Cocuzza said the costumes play more off of the idea of the characters personality, as opposed to their physical appearances from the movie.

“Don’t expect to see a four-legged donkey dressed in a donkey suit, but it’s a donkey that has a raggedy hat and raggedy sweater that’s sort of furry,” Cocuzza said. “They’re illusive in terms of trying to present the image of it. Now the Shrek character looks like the movie, the Fiona dress looks like the movie and the fairytale characters are all a mix, [but]  you can tell when someone is a fairytale character.”

Alumma Leah Milton said portraying Fiona has been a dream role for her since she first saw the live theater performance.

“I teach sixth grade music. So a few years ago when they first released Shrek [the musical] on DVD, my husband and I bought it and said, ‘Let’s watch it and see if this is something my sixth graders are going to like.’ As we’re watching it and I’m loving every minute of it and my husband goes, ‘You need to play Fiona,’” Milton said. “I just put her on my dream role list … and when I found out they were doing Shrek I was like, ‘I have to try this; I have to give this a go.’”

As for the villainous side of things, Leveling said the bad-guy roles are fun, but very unlike him in his everyday life.

“When you get to play someone who is completely opposite of you, you get to play anyone you want because it’s so different,” Leveling said. “He’s driven by revenge. He’s extremely ambitious; he’s got a few daddy issues to work out and he takes it out on other people, but there’s a lot [more] to him. He’s got Short Man Syndrome. I don’t really have that, but I know what it’s like to be underestimated or put aside.”

Milton said she enjoys every minute of playing Fiona.

“She’s not your typical princess, which I think is why I love her even more,” Milton said. “She tries to be dainty and delicate and like a little wilting flower, but she’s a feisty redhead. She tries to play it off, but eventually the walls come down and you see she’s this quirky, little spunky thing that just goes her own way and does her own thing and isn’t afraid of Shrek.”

Cocuzza said with the set, there are large pieces that get moved on and off, along with a lot of scene changes.

“A lot of it is up to your imagination and that’s what theater tends to do anyway,” Cocuzza said. “When you’re in the forest, there are these tree things that go by and when you are at the castle there are these castle units — they’re very colorful.”

Since the scene changes happen so quickly, Cocuzza said the biggest challenge in this process is deciding how everything will flow together.

“At the end of one song you’re at the forest and at the beginning of the next song you’re in the castle and it’s like, ‘Wow, how does all that happen?’” Cocuzza said. “So the scene designer had to create pieces that were able to be revealed or move into the scene [quickly]. A lot of it is making sure the story gets told and it gets told in a way that no one in the audience gets bored.”

Leveling said the most challenging part of this production is the choreography aspect.

“With any musical, when you say, ‘Put acting, singing and dancing all together and make it be perfect,’ [but] just doing a musical in general is difficult,” Leveling said. “With this one, the choreography, especially with the condition I’m in on stage, it’s pretty intensive. There’s a lot of abdominal work that goes into it. Everything’s so energetic, but the challenge is showing the audience you’re having a blast,  knowing that it’s really hard, but you’re making it look easy.”

Cocuzza said the musical aspects have a special childlike feel, since the production is a recreation of an animated movie.

“If you have seen any of the Shrek movies, there’s usually some kind of little song at the end — that’s the feeling of the music in this,” Cocuzza said. “In ‘I’m a Believer’ and some of the other songs that are in there … they create a certain feeling in you. A lot of the music in this play is like that — it’s light — it’s not really heavy.”

Cocuzza said anytime a production has storybook or fairytale characters, it is a fun and creative process.

“People will compare it to the movie and that’s alright because it follows the story of the first Shrek movie,” Cocuzza said. “It’s just cute— the songs are cute, the dancing is cute, it’s colorful and it’s a good [show] for a family who wanted to come out for something other than the normal weekend sports events, it would serve that purpose.”

“Shrek the Musical” will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 11, Friday July 17 and Saturday July 18; 2 p.m. Sunday July 12 and 19. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, children, non-SIUE students, SIUE faculty, staff, retirees and alumni. All SIUE students are free with valid I.D. Tickets can be purchased at the Dunham Hall box office.

Review: ‘Everything is 4’ will make you want to want ear plugs

Photo via IMDb

Photo via IMDb

After the early releases of “Want to Want Me,” “Get Ugly” and “Broke,” I had extremely high hopes for Jason Derulo’s latest album “Everything is 4.” However, after listening to only a few songs, I realized I would be grossly disappointed.

It seems these three singles are the only worthwhile songs on the entire album. Even then, “Want to Want Me” is the only great song of them all. With Derulo’s previous albums, there have always been three or four songs that I have not been particularly fond of — and sadly this time around, it was the exact opposite.

Songs like “X2CU,” “Trade Hearts” and “Cheyenne” are mere copies and regurgitations of overdone pop/hip-hop songs that have been done by not only Derulo, but by many others in this genre as well.

Also, five out of the 11 songs on the album feature other stars. Personally, it is OK to occasionally spotlight others in songs, but when it is done throughout the majority of the album, it feels uninspired and as if they are overcompensating.

Derulo’s previous albums, particularly his third titled “Talk Dirty,” had a multitude of chart-topping songs. However, this time around, I have no idea what the next song is that will be released from the album because options are rather slim.

After listening to “Everything is 4,” I can definitely say I am not as big of a fan of Derulo anymore. It seems that he is giving into the peer pressure of mainstream music and conforming to what is expected of the pop/hip-hop genre to produce.

Simultaneously travel back and leap forward in time with ‘Jurassic World’

Today’s society gets bored rather easily — everyone is always searching for the next adrenaline high.

Feeling its attractions were becoming as ordinary as a trip to the zoo, Jurassic World theme park developed an ingenious plan to stay relevant and provide a jaw-dropping sight that would leave audiences mesmerized and terrified.

Page design by Caitlin Grove/Alestle

Page design by Caitlin Grove/Alestle

Introducing Idominus Rex

It appears to be the lovechild of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Velociraptor.

Part rex, part raptor and the rest is ‘classified information’ — in translation, it was made up of many different animal parts to up the thrill factor.

Born and raised in isolation, Idominus Rex never interacted with another living thing and was unable to develop social skills.

It can sense locations of warm bodies, similar to snakes.

For some odd reason, the folks at Jurassic World felt it was a good idea to cook up this creature in their lab, mixing all sorts of traits from different animals that had unexpected results — for example, the camouflage ability of a cuttlefish, or the ability to go thermally undetected like a frog.

To the creators’ surprise, this demon of a dinosaur outsmarts everyone, escapes and runs rampant across the island, killing for sport along the way.

Since the backbone of the park is made up of high-end executives who have nothing but money on the brain, they don’t seem to be very worried once this dino escapes, thinking they can track it and everything can go back to normal. Once they realize this isn’t the case, they are still hesitant to evacuate everyone — over 20,000 people — because they know the park wouldn’t reopen.

The body of the plot involves two young, feuding brothers — the youngest of which is obsessed with dinosaurs — visiting their aunt Claire [Bryce Dallas Howard], one of the higher-ups at the park. While exploring, the boys think it is a good idea to go off-roading in one of the ride vehicles and what results is a, well — what you would expect from a movie with wild roaming dinosaurs.

When all hope is thought to be lost, the dinosaur-taming badass Owen [Chris Pratt] steps in to save the day, and looks damn good doing it.

The remainder of the film is spent similar to the previous films in the series — with a lot of running, hiding and raptor attacks, all culminating in an epic dinosaur versus dinosaur fight to the death.

The special effects in this film are outstanding. With the exception of a few times when there was so much going on it made it hard to focus, they were excellent — especially during dinosaur on dinosaur action.

One of the coolest parts of the movie was when the two boys Gray [Ty Simpkins] and Zach [Nick Robinson] were wandering through the island, looking for a means of transportation to escape, and they stumble upon the visitor center from the first “Jurassic Park” movie (1993). In the absence of the charming Jeff Goldblum, this scene provides a bit of nostalgia that lovers of the series were longing for.

As for casting — it was impeccable. Howard did very well in the emotional roller coaster of a role she played. She began very calm and in control; however, once things got sticky, she turned into a woman who would stop at nothing to protect everyone around her, especially her nephews.

As mentioned before, Pratt was spectacular in his role as the military veteran turned raptor-tamer. He made you feel that if you were stuck in this crisis situation, or really any situation, you would willingly entrust him with your safety. His ability to not only communicate with the animals, but also his overall kickass demeanor showed he was fully capable of saving the day.

Speaking of saving the day, fans of the show “New Girl” will adore Jake Johnson’s role in the film, as Lowery, the savvy tech guy who braved the storm and stayed to help when all the other technicians in mission control evacuated.

The two boys did surprisingly well for child actors in a role like this. They had very emotionally taxing roles to play, and these two embodied them just right. My only slight complaint was that it was a very overdone storyline when it came to these two characters. If you recall the Jumanji-style movie “Zathura,” where the older brother terrorizes the younger one over something he loves, they bicker until they are forced to go through crazy circumstances together and eventually become best friends. There is nothing wrong with this story and it worked well in this film — it was just something that has been done many times.

Another complaint I had was the attempt at villainous characters.­ There were two characters that felt as though they were trying to make them seem like the bad guys, but never actually followed through. Hoskins [Vincent D’Onofrio] wanted to use the raptors for war-like activities, and then decided to bypass everyone and release them on this new beast. There is also the scientist Dr. Henry Wu [BD Wong] who appears slightly evil at times; however, just like with Hoskins, it just felt incomplete and poorly attempted.

Despite these few flaws, “Jurassic World” does not disappoint this historic movie franchise. Would I attend a park of this sort? No. Would I see this movie again? Absolutely.

‘The Age of Adaline’ is a whirlwind of romance, nostalgia and undying love

“Adaline” — the single word uttered by William Jones (Harrison Ford) the moment he saw his long lost love step into the foyer, more than 40 years after their love affair. Only one peculiar part of this moment, aside from his current wife standing by him as he stared in awe, was the simple fact that the woman whose name had left his lips had not aged one day since their first meeting on a dusty England road.

As people grow older, most share a similar dream — eternal youth. Some wish to never grow old simply to stay beautiful forever, while others desire it so they can live life to the fullest for as long as time allows. In the newly released film, “The Age of Adaline,” themes of aging and immortality are explored in a beautifully moving way.

Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) once lived a quiet life, marrying a Golden Gate Bridge construction worker and raising her lively daughter, Flemming (Ellen Burstyn) in the quiet suburbs of San Francisco.

Photo via IMDb

Photo via IMDb

However, one stormy night she lost control of her vehicle and was hurled into frozen lake waters — stopping her breathing and slowing her heart rate immediately. Just as Adaline was close to death, a bolt of lightening struck her, jolting her near-lifeless body. Soon though, she would discover there was one catch to this reawakening — Adaline would never age another day as long as she lived.

The movie jumped between flashbacks of her past and the trials of her present as Adaline struggled with concealing her secret. She even relocated and changed her name every decade, in an effort to go undetected.

Over the years, Adaline built a rather large wall around her heart to not get attached to anyone. She made that mistake once, with William in England, and vowed to never let another man have her heart again.

Eventually, however, she is forced to face these fears when a bearded philanthropist named Ellis (Michiel Huisman, “Game of Thrones”) sweeps Adaline off her feet and urges her to free herself of whatever is holding her back. He offers her something she has always been afraid to feel again — love.

“Give me something I can hold on to and never let go,” Adaline implores.

To this, Ellis simply mutters,  “Let go.”

This becomes the plot of the movie that resonated with me. Adaline is a woman who has been through so much and has built her walls up so high; she never felt she would be able to let anyone in again. However, this movie shows that just by trusting one special person and letting go of all fears and qualms, one can be truly free.

“The Age of Adaline” teaches audiences that it is OK to stop running away from our fears — from truly embracing life and living it to the fullest, no matter the circumstances or how long you have left to live.

The cinematography of this movie was exquisite — the shots included brilliant fades, focuses and transitions that gave the feeling of being transported back in time to the 1960s. The film, even in a modern day setting, had a vintage feel to it that made the cinematic experience much more charming.

Casting for the film was phenomenally well-selected and dynamic. Lively has an everlasting quality to her — combining that with antiquated costuming and hair and makeup, her character makes the sense of timelessness believable.

Huisman entices audiences with his brooding, but gentle manner and undying passion once he set his sights on Adaline. At times, his character seemed  a tad on the stalker side, but Huisman’s manner remained gentlemanly — he simply wanted to push Adaline to break out of her walls.

Ford impresses, as usual, portraying the torn lover about to celebrate his anniversary with his wife when he is thrown into a whirlwind of events as his past comes back to haunt him. He embraces emotions in a way that draws the audience to feel what his character is feeling.

This film will tug at the heartstrings of its viewers and allow them to examine their thoughts of eternal beauty and what it really means to let go and let life happen. Also, by the end of the film, you will never be happier to see gray hair in your life.

Article by Caitlin Grove

Article via alestlelive.com