WARREN — The Millennial Theatre Company finally has a big, bright, beautiful theater in which to create the “Big, Bright, Beautiful World” of “Shrek the Musical.”

The Broadway hit based on the popular animated feature will be the first of five musicals MTC will stage in 2020 at the Robins Theatre in downtown Warren. Since it was started in 2016, the theater company has used a variety of venues in northeast Ohio.

“Knowing who our audience base is and knowing what they want from you is really the last piece of the puzzle we’ve been missing since we’ve been traveling,” MTC cofounder and “Shrek” director Joe Asente said. “It’s nice to have our feet planted.”

However, MTC is not the only plant in the garden. Blue Oyster Cult was on the Robins stage Sunday night, so Asente and the crew built most of the set off-site and loaded it in starting at 6:30 a.m. Monday. The first rehearsal on the Robins stage was Monday evening. Before this week, the cast has been rehearsing at Girard First United Methodist Church and McDonald’s Inspire Dance Center.

Asente and some of the cast were back even earlier Tuesday for a television morning show appearance, and Asente was working on lighting cues during the day Tuesday before another full rehearsal that night.

“I have to conceptualize what everything is going to look like in my garage and then ship it here and hope it looks like what I imagined,” Asente said.

The director isn’t complaining. He seemed more giddy than exhausted thinking about opening night, and MTC isn’t easing into its new home.

“‘Shrek’ is definitely the biggest show of the season and pushes the space to its limits,” Asente said. “It’s been a learning process just to get acquainted with the new venue. It’s a little tight backstage since it started as a movie house, but we’ve made it work. It’s still a huge show packed into this tiny space.”

The show has a special significance to Asente. The Girard native played the title character in productions in Athens and at Kent State University at Trumbull, but this is his first opportunity to direct it. He’s drawing from those past experiences for this staging.

“There were a lot of little things that got cut from one of the productions for one reason or another,” he said. “In Athens the venue was similar to this but didn’t have the budget. I’m taking all of those pieces from the previous two iterations, taking those ideas and building off of what my past directors have done. Adding those little flourishes has been fun.”

The production also will include many new actors working with Asente, music director Savannah Florkowski and Makenna Liller.

“Our usual talent base did not turn out for auditions, but we had a large pool of people we hadn’t heard of before who were equally as talented or moreso than we usually have,” Asente said. “Natalina Valley (who plays Fiona) is a great example of that. She hasn’t done theater locally for quite some time. She’s from Poland originally and lived in Akron for many years. She came back fresh out of college with a music degree, and this is her first foray back into theater. Then you have people like Joshua Fleming (who plays Shrek) walk in and sing ‘Big, Bright, Beautiful World,’ and I’m immediately sold on the voice. You can’t get much better than that. It wasn’t the usual people, but I was still blown away by the talent.”

In addition to Fleming and Valley, the cast includes Ryan Lamb, Ben Doss, Ty Hanes, Khloe Stanton, Emily Dezort, Mark Williams, Lindsay Lodge, Annie Leslie, Daniel Chiaberta, Rachel Franek, Lauren Jones, Maya Kresic, Shane Russo, Madsyn McVay, Bella Yanniello, Paul Stanton, Drew Peterson, Heleena Thomas, Rebecca Williams, Halina Bakeris, Natalie Toro, Angela Toro, Caitlyn Murphy, Aubrie Morrison and Asente, Florkowski and Liller.

Like the movie, the musical tells the story of an ogre named Shrek who is content in his solitary life in a swamp. When his turf is invaded by fairy tale characters banished from the kingdom of Duloc, Shrek goes in search of Lord Farquaad to get possession of his land back. Farquaad convinces Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona in exchange for the deed to his swamp, but Fiona is no traditional princess and Shrek is no traditional Prince Charming coming to her rescue.

Written by Jeanine Tesori and David Lindsay-Abaire, “Shrek the Musical” ran for just over a year on Broadway and earned eight Tony Award nominations, winning for best costume design of a musical.

“I think the message is really important — what’s different about us is what makes us special, the idea that beautiful isn’t always pretty,” Asente said. “That it twists that traditional fairy tale narrative on its head and challenges those Disney norms is something I think is really important about ‘Shrek.'”

Sunrise Entertainment President Ken Haidaris, who is responsible for booking entertainment at the Robins, previously worked with the Millennial Theatre Company on productions in Youngstown and is happy to have them in downtown Warren.

“It’s brought a different kind of entertainment here,” Haidaris said. “A lot of our shows have been classic rock, and this will skew to a younger audience. A lot of people are bringing their kids to ‘Shrek.’ It brings down the age a little bit.”

In addition to “Shrek,” MTC’s inaugural season at the Robins includes the musicals “Heathers,” “Be More Chill,” “The Rocky Horror Show” and “Hairspray.” Because of space limitations, “Shrek” will feature prerecorded music instead of a live band, but “Heathers,” “Chill” and “Rocky Horror” will feature live music.

Asente said the season was designed with a variety to see what works with audiences there.

“We’re figuring out what that sweet spot is for us, cult classics like ‘Heathers’ or ‘Be More Chill’ or ‘Rocky’ or focusing on larger, family friendly musicals like ‘Hairspray’ and ‘Shrek,'” he said. “We’re figuring out what our audience needs from us.”