Theater department prepares for performance ‘Grease’
October 21, 2017
Grease is the first musical theater production of the school year. The performance involves a variety of students, such as the male and female leads. The performance runs Oct. 13-15 and Oct. 26-29 in the high school auditorium.
Loading ...This musical demonstrates the romance between two teens involved in a previous summer romance. The couple tries to maintain their relationship during school with the pressure and conflict of their friends.
“We normally don’t do a musical first thing,” Sadow said. “but Grease is something I know interests a lot of young people.”
Multiple people were in charge of organizing Grease. The team includes the theater director Grif Sadow and the technical director Brian McTier. There are also two choreographers and a vocal director who are in charge as well.
Those involved in the making of this musical were “a production team,” choir teacher Katelyn Larson said, “which includes the director who oversees everything.”
The addition of freshmen is new this year, caused Grease to become the next production. Grease was chosen because young people were interested and this musical would help the theater department gain attention. The directors wanted to get more students involved in theater. Musicals tend to interest many young people as well.
“We thought this would be a great musical to get people more involved,” Larson added. “This is the largest cast in a musical we’ve ever had.”
This is different from previous musicals because this is the largest cast in a musical and over 70 students will be performing on stage. There will also be students helping with the technical aspect backstage during the performance.
The biggest difference from previous theater productions and musicals was “that we have two choreographers,” Sadow said.
There was a male and female choreographer that could help create movement specifically to both males and females. This production is also the “school version” to make it more family and student friendly. The cast members had to demonstrate many activities during auditions to decide their roles.
“We had two rounds of auditions,” Larson said, “and we called back students who we felt, sang and acted in a way that would be appropriate for their roles.”
We have students learn the music first, then add choreography and add the technical elements last.
— Grif Sadow
First, students were called back based on singing and acting that seemed accurate for their roles. The auditions consisted of singing, reading lines, and creating movement to see who was suited for each part. Students had to meet the vocal, movement and acting demands.
“The cast and tech group both have a lot of work but it’s just different kinds of work,” Larson said.
The tech group prepares the set and are at every single show to make sure things run smoothly. Tech is responsible for costume design, running lights and sound, along with painting and building sets for the performance. The cast learns their songs, acting and dancing during a short rehearsal time. The cast spends more time in rehearsals after school, but about a week prior to opening night, the tech group will spend more time preparing in rehearsals.
“We have students learn the music first, then add choreography and add the technical elements last,” Sadow added.
Mackenzie Motz • Nov 13, 2017 at 11:13 pm
This article was very well written and had a lot of really good and interesting information. The links however lacked some creativity and the article was a bit repetitive. Otherwise the article provided a unique view on the production and was entertaining to read.
Madison Weispfenning • Nov 13, 2017 at 4:51 pm
I really enjoyed reading this article. I did think that it was disorganized throughout the entire piece and information about one thing was not near where you would first mention it.This lead to repetition of information. There are also some grammatical errors that also made the article a tad bit difficult to read. Overall with just a little bit of editing this could be a 10/10 piece.
Rosalie Braun • Nov 12, 2017 at 10:18 pm
Overall a really great article. Well written and a nice balance of facts and quotes. However I would have liked to see some quotes from students actually performing in the play, for a different perspecitve.
Abby Banks • Nov 11, 2017 at 8:59 pm
I really liked this! As otherrs have said, this had great ways of getting a behind the scenes look, and the lack of an extended summary of the plot was really refreshing! That being said, I would avoid having your transitions say the exact same thing as the quotes.
James Stahl • Nov 10, 2017 at 9:11 am
This article did a good job with the facts and summarizing what the play was about which helped me out while reading. Really enjoyed how this wasn’t all about the play and how it was mostly about the behind the scenes aspect of the play. Good article overall
Isaac Gunderson • Nov 10, 2017 at 9:06 am
This article gave a lot of facts about the production and why Grease was chosen. It also explained very well some of the differences this year and how the audition process took place. Other than the pretty bland links this article was very well written and informative.
Gabrielle Danielson • Nov 4, 2017 at 1:11 am
This article provided a lot of helpful information. I liked that it had a brief summary of the play but also gave info on having the 9th graders and how it helped with having more students involved in the show this year. I enjoyed getting to know a little bit about the audition process because people don’t normally know what that process is like.
Hannah Boardman • Oct 28, 2017 at 11:49 pm
This is a very informative article, and I think that it was very well written. The links could have been more creative and it was a little repetitive. Besides that, the language was great and it provided a lot of information of the play, especially behind the scenes. Overall, great article.