LeGrand Lawrence, a former student of BYU–Hawaii who has starred in several school plays such as “Pippi Longstalking” and “The Princess Bride,” will play the lead role of Shrek in “Shrek the Musical,” which will be playing at the Diamond Head Theatre in Honolulu.
Lawrence said he has participated in seven shows for the theater and has been acting there for a year.
“I first learned that the theater was going to do ‘Shrek’ while I was doing ‘Spamalot’,” he said. “‘Shrek’ is one of my favorite animated movies and I had a lot of people encourage me.”
The support he received was what helped him prepare to try out for the role. He said he began preparing for the role in December last year by taking voice lessons with two of his fellow actors. “We had auditions last month. I made it to call backs, was freaking out, went to call backs, and they told me about 10 minutes after I left that I got the part.”
Lawrence continues to be excited about the show, which will run from July 17 to Aug. 8.
“Shrek is very… crass,” Lawrence shared about his character. “He doesn’t really fear anything and he sees himself as the scariest thing in the forest.”
Lawrence said what he likes about Shrek’s character is his resolve to never give up. “There’s that part where he thinks that he’s totally failed, where he thinks that the princess thinks he’s ugly and everything. It doesn’t stop him from going after the princess in the end.”
Lawrence’s favorite part of the play is a song that Shrek sings about being someone other than the ogre he is. “It’s a little sad because Shrek is finally opening up.”
As far as his acting career goes, Lawrence said one of the biggest challenges is typecasting. “At an audition, [directors] are looking for someone who physically fits the role,” he said, a casting style that probably helped Lawrence land this role of Shrek.
Regardless of struggles, he shared that acting is fun for him. “Not to say that I’m boring,” he said, “but I enjoy trying to be someone else. I get to be a Navy person. I get to be Shrek. I get to be someone else. And it’s just exciting to try and get in that person’s shoes and try to think like them and perform the way that you believe that they would perform.”
While in school, Lawrence shared that trying to maintain stability between schoolwork, a job, and his acting career was sometimes difficult. “Definitely a lot of balancing going on, maybe a little bit of unbalancing at times,” he said. “It’s kind of a juggling act. I think there should be balance in some things and in other things you should be focusing more on what’s more important to you, but it just depends on the situation.”
Lawrence said while he was acting, he would try to keep his mind focused on the rehearsal. “Sometimes it might be hard because I might be stressed out with something else like school or whatever. But for the most part I try to leave everything at the door. The last thing I want to do is be on stage and be thinking about, ‘Did I get that question wrong or right?’ and screw up the play for everybody.”
Planning and setting goals for his school and other work were very important for him to be able to remain focused on his roles.
“I think if someone is in acting or that’s something that they want to do,” Lawrence said, “they should just keep pursuing it.” He shared his own experiences of hard work, taking singing lessons, jazz and tap-dancing lessons, and doing other things to improve his own acting abilities.
“And it goes true for everything, you can only fail if you give up,” he said. “If you want to be an actor and you never go out and audition and never go out and rehearse your craft, you’re not going to become the actor that you want to be.”
“Shrek the Musical” will be playing at the Diamond Head Theatre in Honolulu starting on July 17. The show will run until August 6 and ticket prices range from $15 to $35.