NETCONG — The famous big green ogre and his friends are coming to the local stage in Shrek the Musical. Local actors will bring to life characters during the performance — based on the Oscar winning DreamWorks Motion Animation Picture and book by William Steig — at The Growing Stage in Netcong, from Sept. 27 through Oct. 27.
Cari Jones Sanchez will be playing the Sugar Plum Fairy, Duloc, Dragonette and one of the mice in the musical. Born and raised in the Cranberry Lake section of Byram, her mother was the head of the dance department at County College of Morris for 32 years and she was in her first show at CCM when she was five.
"Musical theater was only a part time hobby for me, as I was a professional figure skater for 10 years," she said.
In high school, Sanchez played Ariel in "Footloose," Maria in the "Sound of Music," and Laurey in "Oklahoma." She was also accepted into the All-state and All-Eastern Choirs around the country performing at NJPAC in Newark, Boston's Symphony Hall and the Borgata in Atlantic City. She has performed in regional productions such as "Chicago," "Tommy," "Bye Bye Birdie," "Peter Pan," "Pippin and A Little Night Music." Sanchez graduated Montclair State University in 2009 with a Bachelors Degree in Theatre and performed in the main stage productions such as "Cabaret," "Crazy For You" and "Parade." She was also part of an original Off Broadway production of "Soldier's Song" in 2012 in New York City.
Auditioning in New York City, she booked a production company called Gary Musick Productions and they landed her a gig with Norwegian Cruise Lines as one of their principal singers.
"I have been a singer/dancer with NCL since 2010, touring the world on the Gem, Sky and Jewel," she said.
She was recently chosen to take out the company's newest ship being built in Germany where she will be playing the role of Margot in Legally Blonde on the Norwegian Getaway starting this fall, touring the Caribbean.
As for Shrek, Sanchez said she saw the audition in Backstage which is an actors guide to all the auditions around the NYC/LA areas.
"Since I am on vacation from the cruise lines, I went down the road and auditioned. This is my first production at the Growing Stage and I'm thrilled to be in this fun cast of Shrek."
Sanchez said the biggest challenge in this show is playing four roles.
"I go from my main role of Sugar Plum Fairy, to a Duloc, to a Dragonette, and finally to a mouse," said Sanchez. "It's hard to count how many times I have to change costumes/wigs during the duration on this show, but I love being challenged, busy and productive, so this works for me. Also, the characters of Shrek are all so fun and silly, it's hard to keep a straight face on."
Pete Smith will be playing the Captain of the Guards and Shrek's father in the production. Born in East Orange, Smith grew up in Bloomfield and has lived in Stanhope for the past 23 years. He was a career firefighter in West Orange for 25 years and is now retired and focusing on acting, singing and entertaining.
"I got into acting when I took a part-time job with the Yates Musical Theatre company in East Orange as a helper/assistant stage manager," he said, "As I watched the show from behind the curtain I realized I wanted to be out there on stage. I was still a full-time firefighter, but started taking acting classes at HB Studio in New York."
Smith is responsible for creating a "Fire Safety For Kids" musical story CD and Coloring Book.
This is Smith's first show at the Growing Stage.
"It's a real joy to be performing locally, so close to my home in the beautiful Sussex County area. Since I retired from the fire department I've been traveling back and forth to New York on acting jobs and auditions, and it gets tiresome," he said. "In Shrek, there's a few high notes I have to sing as Shrek's father which are a little challenging, but all-in-all it's great fun. I love the comedic role of Captain of The Guards."
Ann-Marie Sepe grew up in Stillwater and will be playing Dragon-ette and a blind mouse in the show. She got involved with acting at about age nine when she signed up for Centenary Young Performers Workshop under the direction of Michael Blevins out of Hackettstown.
"That's where it all started for me and my first show ever was 'Singing in the Rain' at age nine," she said.
She's done many shows both nationally and internationally including being a principle dancer for Princess Cruise Line where she traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tahiti and the entire South Pacific. She did "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at Northshore Music Theater, "Crazy For You" at Theater By The Sea, "Grease" at Blatts Dinner Theater and toured nationally in On Broadway with Matt Davenport Productions. Sepe was also a dancer at Hershey Park, was in "Count To Ten" at the New York Musical Theater Festival, and most recently performed in the new off Broadway hit "Totally Tubular Time Machine" impersonating Lady Gaga.
"I always knew about The Growing Stage growing up but never did anything there," she said.
Now a resident of Queens, N.Y., she saw they were doing an Equity production and thought "how perfect and awesome it would be to not only work at The Growing Stage, my hometown theater, but to do Shrek."
She said the roles she is playing are extremely fun and "probably the most challenging part is being the tail of the Dragon because dancing and singing and maneuvering the tail at the same time takes some skill and coordination."
Hiroko Yonekura of Stanhope, is playing the Fairy Godmother and Duloc. Originally from Fukuoka, Japan, Yonekura said when she was in high school, she and a friend went to see the musical "Cats."
"I hadn't had any interest in acting, but that musical grabbed my heart, and I decided to become an actress," Yonekura said.
Fukuoka is a big city, but to make her dream comes true, she had to go to Tokyo. It took a little time to convince her father, she said, but when she was 20, she moved to Tokyo and started taking acting classes. She was in the Japanese production of "The Lion King" and here in the U.S. she's been in "Kiss Me," "Kate," "Crazy For You" and "The Passion Play The Musical."
Yonekura also saw the casting notice for Shrek in Backstage and said her biggest challenge with this performance is the same one she has with all U.S. productions: English is her second language.
"I am so happy to be a part of this production, and I hope many people come and enjoy our performance," she added.
Jake Forester of Netcong, will be playing Papa Bear and a townsperson in Shrek. His parents have been performing his whole life and his first show was "Babes in Toyland" at The Growing Stage when he was 10. He went on to be the Tin Man, in "The Wiz," also at The Growing Stage then was in Kismet at County College of Morris and then in "Seussical" and "Lord of the Flies" at Lenape Valley High School.
"My parents have known Steve and Lori Fredericks since before they owned The Palace Theater, so I've basically grown up in the theater," he said.
Forester said auditioning for Shrek was a spur-of-the-moment decision as he only found out about the auditions the day they were to be held.
The challenges are "trying to really understand the character from the perspective of the show, which is more of a behind the scenes look at a bunch of different children's stories, so they don't act like we imagined them acting," said Forester.
"It's one of the most inspirational locations in my life," he said of The Growing Stage. "I've been in and out of the theater my whole life, and every time I step through those doors, it's like walking into my second house and spending time with my family again, whether it's the same people that were there the last time I was, or even if they're new people. We're always a crazy, dysfunctional, loving family, and there's no other way I'd take it."
Shrek will be shown on Friday evenings at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays at 4 p.m. The Growing Stage - The Children's Theatre of New Jersey is located at 7 Ledgewood Avenue in Netcong. For information and tickets call 973-347-4946 or visit www.growingstage.com.