Hayden school stages Shrek musical, senior transforms into ogre

Green makeup, a bulky prosthetic nose and oversized ears turn Brandon Goold into Shrek after a transformation that takes about two hours, a reminder that Christian Center School’s musical is far more than a casual school performance.

Goold, a senior, is taking a lead role for the first time as the Hayden school stages Shrek the Musical on its stage at 3639 W Prairie Ave. The show opens at 10:30 a.m. and is set for four performances, giving families in Hayden, Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls multiple chances to see a production built on memorization, vocal work, stage presence and teamwork long before the curtain rises.

Christian Center School says theater is part of a wider arts program that also includes an elementary drama club, worship band and choir. The school describes its mission as one to “cultivate, equip, and empower” students, and that message fits a production that asks teenagers to spend hours in rehearsal and in makeup chairs before they ever step in front of an audience.

The musical itself leans into familiar characters and fast-moving humor: Shrek, Donkey, a princess, a bad guy, a cookie with an attitude and a cast of fairy-tale misfits. Christian Center School is promoting the show as a ticketed school event, and the appeal is clear for local viewers who know the film franchise and want to see what North Idaho students can do with a full-scale stage production.

The production also arrives as the school pursues major campus growth. Christian Center School, founded in 1979, says it now serves about 239 students with a roughly 7-to-1 student-teacher ratio. Its Legacy Project page says Phase 1 core construction is 83% funded, with $7,509,580 raised toward a $9.1 million goal for a first-phase multi-court gymnasium. The school says the next phase includes buying 5 adjacent acres and building a sustainability fund.

That fundraising push has already drawn strong support. The school said its March 6 annual auction raised $120,000 for the Legacy Project, and a March news release said Christian Center School has had only four principals in its 47-year history. That kind of continuity helps explain why a school musical can feel bigger than one night’s entertainment: in a small campus community, the same families who cheer for a student on stage are often the ones helping underwrite the next phase of the school’s future.