Shannon Anderson applies paint and prosthetics to transform Ryan Hoover into Shrek for the Fredericksburg Theater Company’s summer musical.
June 25, 2025–You know you’re not in Kansas anymore when you look into a box full of bags labeled “Fiona’s Noses.”
You would be in Shrek’s Swamp. And yes, I know I mixed metaphors, but the magic of Fredericksburg Theater Company’s production of Shrek rivals the Land of Oz for its color, scope, and ambitious costuming.
That magic starts with the makeup. I was in the green room three hours before curtain time with Shrek, played by Ryan Hoover, and the make-up master, Shannon Anderson. That’s how long it takes Shannon and her helper Katheryn “Kat” Harrison to turn actors into five ogres, a donkey, Pinocchio, the Fairy Godmother, and one fire-breathing dragon puppet for the show.
But no fear. Shannon has been training her whole life for this. She grew up helping out her dad run his magic shop for 22 years in the Galleria in Houston, then moved to Fredericksburg where she ran The Old Thyme Fun Shop for another 22 years. Adopting the persona of Sunshine the Clown, Shannon accompanied Patch Adams to Russia, and continues to work in clowning, face painting, body painting, and magic to this day. The opportunity to do the make-up for Shrek was a natural next step.
Because with all that experience, she had not done much work applying prosthetics like Fiona’s noses.
It’s a tedious, time-consuming process. Transforming the handsome Ryan Hoover into a lime green, heavily-jowled, pointy-eared, big-nosed ogre takes almost two hours of painstaking gluing, pressing, powdering, painting, and literally poking his face with a stick. She needs to ensure none of the edges will spring open during the singing, talking, and dancing of a two-hour show. More poking makes sure the nostrils and earholes are clear, and the eyes unfettered.
After the curtain call, Ryan faces another hour-and-a-half as he pries off the prosthetics with more prodding assisted by alcohol and cotton swabs. This brings up the question: Ryan, what were you thinking?
When the glue had dried sufficiently for him to move his mouth, he explained how he wasn’t that enamored of the original Shrek movie. He was hesitant to take on the role until he sat and watched the Broadway show and realized that version of Shrek was more poignant and more realistic.
His epiphany was that he had a lot in common with the character.
“I have kind of a rough exterior,” he confessed. “But like Shrek, I always wanted to be somebody who was kind and good.”
That said, he also knew the show had to convey that “realness” to the audience.
“I knew going in that this Shrek doesn’t work unless he’s real,” Ryan said. “This makeup definitely helps that, because he has to be something that you would believe exists. So his emotions are real, his reactions are real. All that came together for this show. I’m like my dad (FTC Founder Jeryl Hoover, who is also in the show, along Ryan’s wife, Caitlin, and their kids) in that if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right, and we’re going to do it well.”
A lot of that is due to Shannon’s skill and ample supply of lime-green paint.
“It’s my passion,” she said. “When I paint somebody to be something they want to be, and they turn into that, it’s an altered state. If they become that character, they’re going to be better actors. And that makes the people in the audience happy. It all comes together for a fantastic show.”
Details:
Shrek runs through June 29 at the Fredericksburg Theater Company.
www.fredericksburgtheater.org
Sunshine the Clown (Shannon Anderson) can be reached at 840-456-6162.
