March 18, 2025

St. Mary’s drama club packs the house for “Shrek the Musical”

REGIONAL
Story and photo by Carolee McGrath

WESTFIELD – St. Mary High School’s drama club presented “Shrek the Musical,” March 13-15, with four performances over the three days. More than 800 people attended the show, including students, families and alumni. “Shrek the Musical” is based on the 2001 DreamsWorks animation, “Shrek,” in which the main character, an outcast, green ogre, becomes the hero, and wins the heart of the princess.

“Drama club for a lot of kids is one of the highlights of high school. It’s one of the things they look forward to,” said Rob Lepage, the director. Lepage is the dean of student life and theology at St. Mary High School.

“One of the benefits of the drama club is you get to see the progression of the seniors from freshman all the way up to senior year. Some of our kids come in late to the process, but some of our kids do all four years. They develop over time and it’s great to see it for us and for our audience,” he said.

Senior Lucas Morganelli played Shrek.

“I just tried to get the most out of it because I knew it was my last run. I loved being up on stage with all of my friends,” said Morganelli, who also plays basketball. Morganelli has been in five productions while at St. Mary’s and was involved with the Diocesan Youth Leadership Team. He will be attending the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in the fall.

“St. Mary’s definitely means family. I see that a lot in drama. At St. Mary’s, you’re already close-knit. But in drama, you’re even closer because it’s roughly half the school and there’s a lot of shared interest in music,” he said.

Senior Katie Corriveau played the donkey, a lead role, alongside Morganelli. Corriveau, who runs cross country, will be attending Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio in the fall. She is also part of the Diocesan Youth Leadership Team.

“My co-star Lucas Morganelli is super devout and just a lovely human being as well. You just get to see that radiate through him on stage. I’ve also had cast mates pray with me before we even went on stage, so that was just an experience in itself,” said Corriveau, who has also been in four productions at the school.

In all, 10 seniors were part of the cast.

“With Lucas and Katie, you can always depend on them for good leadership. You can always depend on them to show the students how faith and life interact in a really positive way and they’re just really talented kids,” said Lepage.

At the end of Saturday night’s performance, Lepage said a few words about each senior and presented them with a gift.

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22 News.