Go Grease Lightning! The hunks and gorgeous gals of Woodland Regional High School will soon be transforming themselves into the T-birds and Pink Ladies of Rydell High.
The roles have been cast for the production of Grease and the Woodland Drama Club is working hard to put together this musical. Karlee Vogel, playing innocent Sandy Dumbrowski, and Robert Weiner, playing heartthrob Danny Zuko have been casted as the lead roles. Other actors include Catherine Pelky, playing leader of the Pink Ladies, Betty Rizzo. The quirky “beauty school drop out”, Frenchy, will be played by Katie Steinbacher and sophisticated Marty is being played by Erika Pellegrino. The cast includes several more of the spunky Pink Ladies, tough Greasers, great faculty and fervent students that make up Rydell High.
While Grease has a lot of famous musical numbers, some of which are not exactly high school audience friendly.
“There’s a number of places in the different songs where the lyrics are changed because in the original movie, some of the topics and lyrics are a little risqué,” said Music Director and Chamber Choir teacher, Sean Lewis.
The Drama Club got the rights to put on the high school version, which cleans up the inappropriate and questionable aspects of the story.
“Even though it’s the high school version, the story is still there and all the same songs are there,” said Lewis.
The Director of the Drama Club, Susan Cinoman, promises the audience all of their favorite classic Grease moments.
As if live singing on stage isn’t cool enough, the Drama Club has another trick up their sleeve. A live band will perform on stage at the final shows. Lewis has been rehearsing with individuals of the band to learn the songs and become performance ready.
Another interesting aspect of this production is that the dances are going to be choreographed by Carol Schweid, a famous choreographer who worked on Broadway for several years. This is a huge advantage for our Drama Department because no one else has access to a choreographer of her notoriety.
The shows are set to take place Friday, May 2nd and Saturday, May 3rd. The actors and actresses have been rehearsing around the clock to make their production flawless. The actors practice almost every day after school and even prepare at night and on the weekends. The commitment of the actors during rehearsals is what sets the Drama Club at WRHS to a high standard of excellence. Their dedication and passion for their productions drives the support of students and community members.
There are less than two months until the set performance date for Grease; however, the Drama Club has never fallen short of merit in their creative abilities to throw a show together. They have put on several successful productions including The Miracle Worker, Little Shops of Horrors, and Once on This Island. They are well known for being enthusiastic and exemplary in the final productions. Students are encouraged to go and see their very own Hawks turn into T-birds and Pink Ladies on either May 2nd or 3rd.
