Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
the singing, the dancing, the summer lovin’, still the word!
Swain County High School will present Grease: School Version at Swain Arts Center the next two weekends. Friday and Saturdays will be at 7 p.m. and Sundays 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for students.
Pearl Moore, Swain High’s new drama and vocal ensemble teacher, will direct the show. Moore comes to Swain from outside Mount Airy, NC with a strong background in performance with an MFA in Playwriting from Southern Illinois University.
She calls staging a musical “a lot of overwhelming good,” and was happily surprised at the facility and resources at the local high school.
“For kids to know how to run a fly system so early and to learn about stage show lighting is amazing,” she said. “I think the scheduling is a real challenge. I think we’ve made it work because I feel like we’re in good shape for Friday."
She praised the support of school faculty and staff, including Joe Holt, Ben Cutler and Derek Oetting, Kim Holt and Jessica Bumgarner who help bring shows like this to life. Tim Sale, Swain Middle School band director, has also helped bring the story to life through music.
Oetting has led the construction of two 1950s stage cars, which Moore called amazing and said they are really hoping to surprise the audience with the cars and get a huge cheer on them.
Most Americans are familiar with the high school story of 1950s working-class Greasers and Pink Ladies at Rydell High navigating peer pressure and love through this rock and roll musical.
Grease was first staged in 1971 in Chicago and went on to become a Broadway production and then a 1978 feature film starring John Travolta as bad boy Danny Zuko and Olivia Newton-John as new girl Sandy who meet unexpectedly at the high school after a summer fling at the beach. This school version is an abridged and adapted version designed for younger actors and audiences.
One audience surprise?
“We have a lot of girls playing some Greasers… and they’re killing it,” Moore said.
Students Emma Demonet and Abby Jordan have stepped up in leading choreography, which Moore said is incredible.
“I’m really hoping people who come get that sense of nostalgia from Grease; I think we’ve all experienced Grease at some point…” Moore said.
“Our students have been working so, so hard,” she said, pulling out costumes from the costume shop and reorganizing things and putting in the extra hours before the show opens Friday. For example, last week practices ran from 3:30-8 p.m. nightly and from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday.
Cast leads will include: Luca Crawford as Danny Zuko, Abigail Cutler as Sandy, Jaiden Bygrave as Frenchy, Lola Collins as The Teen Angel, Memphis Taylor as Roger, Hunter Smith as Kenickie, Utana Harada as Marty and Kylee Nations as Jen.
On how youth today can connect with this 1950s story, Moore brought up the timelessness of a good love story.
“I think there is such an awesome love story in Grease, but there’s still that awkwardness of a love stories, and also for teens to play actual teens,” she said.
It has punch with teens playing teens, too.
“When you think about the movie, it’s a bunch of 30-year-olds playing teenagers, and for us to now have teens playing teens, I think that showcase is really nice,” Moore said.
She anticipates Swain County audiences will find the joy in the musical.
“I think some might consider it outdated, but there’s so much joy and life in this story, nonetheless. I think about my own Mom, when she saw this for the first time, she went and got her ears pierced because of Sandy’s iconic outfit. I think it’s things like that people can find the joy in.”