Arts & Leisure
"Grease" will be the word at York High School this weekend
By Melissa Wood
YORK - Many people know the songs and scenes from the movie "Grease," but how many people are familiar with the musical that started it all?This week, don't miss the chance to experience the original "Grease" when the York High School Drama Department presents the musical from Thursday through Saturday, March 15 through 17.
The show also gives the actors an opportunity to play teenagers in high school while still actually being teenagers in high school, a fact that is especially poignant for the seniors performing in their final high school production.
Even though the musical takes place during the 1950s and roles include working-class "greasers," the popular "Pink Ladies" and a beauty school dropout, among others, students in the show said they could still relate to its characters.
"Kids haven't changed that much," said senior Kari Buckley, 17, who is starring as Rizzo, leader of the Pink Ladies, during rehearsal last Thursday. "I always wanted to do 'Grease,' ever since I was a freshman. … I'm glad this was the last show we get to do."
Blythe Armitage, 18, plays the lead role of Sandy - a character she became familiar with by watching the movies many times when she was younger.
"I am so excited," she said. "I've been watching her since I was three years old."
Armitage said acting as the good, preppy Sandy at the beginning of the musical was a hard role to play, but said the ending was fun when the character becomes a bad-girl greaser.
"Most of us have been together since freshman year," said Armitage. "It's fun to go out with a bang with this one."
At the dress rehearsal, cast members were transformed into teenagers from the 1950s, with the guys donning leather jackets and the girls dressed in colorful poodle skirts.
Junior Kara Smith, 16, said she loved the costumes, and the chance to combine acting, singing and dancing in the production.
"It's such a fun cast and one of the better plays to do," she said.
Choreographer Lisa Stathoplos said although there is a lot of dancing, there is also a range of roles to fit kids who haven't danced in anything at all and those who have been dancing for years.
"You try to get enough to make it interesting but not impossible," she said.
Stathoplos said the experience has been a crash course in "Grease" for her, as Director George Perkins asked her a week before rehearsals started to join the production.
Since then, she has been able to put in three days of three-hour rehearsals to teach the cast the musical's four big dance numbers. Stathoplos said it has helped that the musical's dances are contemporary - meaning they're familiar to the students and pretty easy to teach - compared to a production of "Fiddler on the Roof," for example, where they'd have to learn Russian traditional dance.
"I think it's great for them because they're playing their age," she said, "and they know the movie."
Stathoplos also directs some of the students in an improvisation group and said the cast has been very supportive of each other.
"They're a great group of kids," she said.
Chet Tetreault, 17, a senior who is also starring as lead greaser Danny in his last high school performance, said that Grease is his 14th production since performing for the first time seven years ago at Seacoast Repertory Theatre in Portsmouth, N.H.
"Last year, we did "Godspell," which was very emotional," he said, "but this is a lot more fun."
He said he hopes his younger sister, who is five years old, will follow in his footsteps, and have a chance to perform in a new auditorium if the high school has one by the time she reaches it. Although he will probably major in business, Tetreault said he plans to continue performing while he attends college, most likely in the Portland area.
"I love acting," he said.
"Grease" runs Thursday through Saturday with a show time of 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students and seniors and can be purchased before performances or in advance at the front office of the high school.
