The Davis Academy's Shrek Jr. Spring 2026: INFORMATION FOR TECH REHEARSALS, CALL FOR ADDITIONAL ROOM MONITORS, SQUISHMALLOW, SHOES, GIFT CHAIR AND MORE!

Greetings, Dulocians, Ogres, and all Fairytale Characters! 🧅

We are officially entering Tech Week! From now through the close of the show, there will be daily blog posts sharing important updates, schedules, reminders, and helpful information for the week ahead.

Please take a moment to read each post carefully and in full. We know it’s a lot of information, but these updates are the best way to keep everyone informed and help our Shrek village stay organized as we bring the show to life!

Tech Week & Dress Rehearsal Information

We are so excited to be entering Tech Week as we head into the final stretch before our Shrek performances! This is the moment when all the magic comes together—lights, sound, microphones, scenery, props, costumes, hair, and makeup—as we begin running the full show from start to finish.

To help everyone have a clear understanding of how this week works, please keep the following in mind:

Mandatory Tech & Dress Rehearsals
As shared in the registration materials, tech and dress rehearsals are mandatory. We only have four rehearsals to run the full 90-minute show from beginning to end while rotating all four casts through the production, and every cast and crew member must be present for the entire rehearsal. With 155 students and a large adult production team, there are hundreds of moving pieces that must be practiced together to ensure the safety and success of the show. Because of this, we cannot accommodate early departures or late arrivals during these final rehearsals.
Dismissal Times (“Ish”)
You will notice that some dismissal times—especially for grades 6–8—are listed as “ish.” Theatre timing is dynamic. We may be in the middle of a scene, a lighting cue, a sound effect, or troubleshooting a technical moment when the scheduled time arrives. Like a sports game that cannot stop mid-play, rehearsals sometimes run a few minutes beyond the listed time. We will always aim to stay close to dismissal and will never exceed 10–15 minutes past.
Microphones, Costumes & Notes
Our middle school performers wear microphones, and each actor must be individually mic’d, sound-checked, and carefully de-mic’d at the end of rehearsal. During dress rehearsals, students must also change into costumes, wigs, and makeup, and properly reset everything afterward. These processes take time and must be handled carefully for both safety and equipment care.
After Dismissal
Sometimes students are dismissed right on time but take a few minutes to gather belongings or make their way out of the building. We encourage students to exit promptly and help shepherd them out so they can head home and rest for the next rehearsal.
Our Production Team
Our production team is working around the clock during tech week—often into the early hours of the morning and returning early the next day—to build, program, prepare, and reset the show for each rehearsal. Because of this intensive schedule, we kindly ask that any questions regarding tech or dress rehearsals be directed to Drew Frank so our team can remain focused on safely running rehearsals and preparing the production.

Thank you for your patience, understanding, and partnership as we bring this Broadway-style production to life for our students. Your support ensures the success of every child who shares the stage and backstage with one another.

With Gratitude,

Ms. Kendrick and the Shrek Production Team

Dress Rehearsal and Show Schedules will be re-posted tomorrow!

Room Monitor Volunteers Needed 🎭

🧅 It takes a village to bring an ogre-sized production to life—and we’re so grateful for our incredible Davis village.

🧅 Calling All Volunteers

We are just six days away from bringing Shrek to life on stage, and the excitement is building! This production truly takes a village, and we are so grateful for the incredible support from our community.

A huge thank you to the many families who have already signed up to volunteer—your help makes all the difference in creating this experience for our students.

We still have a few volunteer spots remaining during tech week rehearsals and performances, and a couple of additional openings have opened up as some volunteers had to step away from their shifts due to scheduling conflicts. This has created a few rooms that now need coverage, and we would be so grateful for anyone who can jump in.

📋 Open Volunteer Spots

Please take a moment to review the remaining openings at the link below:

Volunteer Link

In the document, you will see orange boxes with numbers—each number represents a shift that still needs coverage.

Spots are filled as responses come in, so we encourage families to reach out soon if you see a shift that works for you.

✉️ How to Claim a Spot

If you are able to help, please email Amy Robinson at amyrobinson82@gmail.comand include the number of the shift(s) you would like to take.

Amy will confirm assignments as responses are received and will reach out if a shift has already been covered.

🎬 Volunteer Zoom Briefing

We will also hold a brief Zoom meeting on Wednesday at 11:00 AM for all registered volunteers. During that time, we’ll share helpful tips, expectations, and details about each role so everyone feels prepared for the exciting week ahead.

A Zoom link will be sent to those who have signed up on Wednesday morning.

Thank you again for helping make this such a special experience for our students. It truly takes a village to run a production of this size smoothly and safely, and we are deeply grateful for the care and support that helps make this experience possible for our students, staff, and volunteers.

✨ We can’t wait to see our students shine on stage!

🧅 Gratefully from our Far Far Away village to yours…

CLICK HERE FOR VOLUNTEER SPREADSHEET!!!

Thank You for Sunday’s Shoe Costume Parade!

Thank you to everyone who brought or wore their shoes for this Sunday’s costume parade. The students looked absolutely darling and spectacular, showing off their Shrek-worthy footwear!

We know that some of our cast members were under the weather, absent on Sunday, or may still be waiting for their shoes to arrive. If we did not see your child’s shoes on Sunday, please have them bring or wear their shoes to rehearsal on Tuesday so we can check them off our list and confirm they meet the costume requirements for each grade level.

Below is the list of students whose shoes we were not able to see on Sunday. We’re hoping to see all of these sparkling twinkle toes on Tuesday so we can complete our Shoe Parade checklist.

Students Whose Shoes We Still Need to See

Mechina

Hayden Davidson
Ethan Hagen
Maier Kandel
Olivia Moreland
Reef Schwarz
Simon Spatt
Morgan Steckel
Remi Vaknin

First Grade

Shylee Yair

Second Grade

Avery Block
Dagny Steele
Brad Wasserman
Liv Schwarz

Third Grade

Isla Schoenberg
Madison Freilich
Blake Freinkel

Fourth Grade

Ethan Davis
Yam Gita
Lily Hengen
Daniel Weinstein
Alexina Levit
Ava McCollum
Hannah Post

Fifth Grade

Ollie Godman
Allie Price
Zoey Sachs
Avital Wikoff

Thank you so much for your help and support with this. We’re excited to see everyone’s sparkling twinkle toes on Tuesday! ✨

SQUISHMALLOW AUDIENCE FOR TECH WEEK!

For tech week (Tuesday through Friday), we invite all of our Mechina through 8th-grade participants to bring in a Squishmallow or favorite stuffed animal to serve as an audience member in our theatre seats.

This is optional and will provide extra fun during our long week of rehearsals!

Each cast or crew member may bring in ONE plush animal.

PLEASE PUT YOUR CHILD'S NAME (or your name) on the tag of the stuffed animal/squishmallow your child brings in during tech or dress rehearsal.

PLEASE do not send in an animal without a name on the tag!

Thank you!

EVERYONE- Middle School and Lower School Shrek CAST AND CREW members may wear their Shrek show T-shirt in place of their uniform top through Tuesday, March 24.

TECH & DRESS DINING SCHEDULE

Please send your child with extra snacks and drinks if needed.

Reminder on Thursday, all students eat SAGE lunch in the dining hall!

LETTER FROM GIFT CHAIR

Dear SHREK JR. Families,

I am writing to ask you for your support in recognizing our Director, Kendrick Phillips, and several others who have gone above and beyond to make our show the huge success it will be.

Each year, Ms. Kendrick, our director, works tirelessly long before the school day, long after rehearsals, on holidays, and each weekend to ensure our school production resembles something you may have seen on Broadway- choreographing and staging the show, creating the set, prop, and costume design of the costumes, teaching music, creating an infinite amount of production spreadsheets, blog posts, and communications, and shopping and meeting with vendors for the musical to help our cast and crew shine.

In addition, several dedicated staff and volunteers give countless hours to ensure the high quality of our production. Those new to this experience will be amazed to see nearly 160 children, ages 5-14, come together for unforgettable, magical performances.

Please help honor and show your support and appreciation for Kendrick and the production staff by donating an amount of your choosing per child participating in the play to help purchase a Director’s gift and flowers/thank you's for all who make our kids smile and shine when they are on stage.

Please Venmo @tmand or email me at tamaramand@gmail.com if you prefer to give a different way.

We would love to collect all donations by the final dress rehearsal on March 20th.

Thank you in advance for your participation. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Tamara Mand

CAST HELPFUL RESOURCE LINKS!