Your date with SHREK, FIONA and DONKEY!

Ludhiana, March 20, 2014: The Music and Theatre workshop, Christian Medical College and Hospital Ludhiana, will continue its legacy by presenting an adaption of ‘SHREK-The Musical’ this year on March 22, 23 and 24 at Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan. This is the 19th production helmed entirely by a talented group of under-graduate students from all the five colleges of CMC Ludhiana.

The faculty in-charge Dr. Nitin Batra, said that SHREK-The Musical is a clever mix of drama, an amusing story line, catchy music and humour. “Most of the people are aware of the animated films and the Broadway musical about this Ogre, the beautiful princes Fiona, the talking Donkey and the wicked Lord of Duloc. Along with that you get a generous sprinkling of various fairy tale characters like Pinocchio, The big bad wolf, Peter Pan and Ugly Duckling from your childhood story books!”

Manu Kurien a 4th year MBBS student, who plays the role of Shrek stated that all the actors and musicians involved in this production were greatly inspired by the show that was staged from 2008 to 2010 on Broadway. Sajeev who plays one of the main characters is very excited about his songs and scenes. “I have worked really hard to get under the skin of the character that I play,” he laughs. However, Sajeev gets interrupted by Karan Pramod, who feels that he has the most difficult role to play.

Jasmine Baluja, an Intern in CDC, plays the role of the beautiful princess Fiona who has to live in an isolated tower and hide a deep dark secret. Jasmine said that she loves singing and this role has given her the opportunity to sing some very challenging songs. “But you have to see the musical to know what secret princess Fiona hides!” she states.

Eric Williams, also from the MBBS batch of 2011 is in-charge of conducting the music for this program. “I have a really talented team with me that includes Jennifer, Anurag, Alex and Prakash,” he said. We have been practicing hard over several sessions every evening.

SHREK-The Musical features some interestingly choreographed songs by Neha Joseph and Shilpa Phillip. “We have to live up to the standards set by our seniors who were involved in the earlier musicals staged in Ludhiana city,” the two students said. The production team heads, Sajin Matthew, Cliford and John Prabhujot added that this musical required a lot of hard work on the back drops, props, costumes and make up. “However the effort put in by our class mates, Benita, Shikha, Christna, Dona, Joel Masih and Nishant Nanda has been amazing!”

“As the entire cast and crew gets ready for the shows, the heads of the lights and sounds department, Angelo and Thejus are over worked coordinating with all the others,” said Dr. Gagandeep Kaur, Vice–Principal, CMCL . “The students have really put in a lot of hard work and have been constantly using all their free time in rehearsals.”