The Abington High School Drama Club once again put on a wonderful performance! Grease was a fantastic hit with many adults and students in attendance. The play was shown two nights, Thursday, March 14 and Friday, March 15  (a sold-out show of 750 audience members), and during the day on Saturday, March 16.

The musical had great actors with amazing singing voices. Sophomore Kathryn Genest really brought emotion to the role of Betty Rizzo, one of the Pink Ladies.

The dancing was also very good and the audience enjoyed it. Freshman Makayla Knapshield said she liked, “How they did the choreography,” while Isabelle Macleod said her favorite part was “when Andrew Vasquez [a sophomore] did a flip.”

The Pit Band were also great. They were off the stage to the left of the audience. One of the musicians, freshman Molly McLaughlin, said a lot of practice went into the songs. When asked how long she had been practicing, McLaughlin said, “I have been practicing since the first Wednesday back from the holiday vacation.” She said that “we would review our music” and that “we independently practiced our own parts. Later we got together in the auditorium to practice when everyone on stage was involved.”

McLaughlin said she “initially practiced once a week on Wednesdays, with a scheduled Grease Pit Band practice after school.” She added that as the show got closer, “I practiced much more often to ensure I was all set with everything.” Before the performance, McLaughlin said, “I felt excited, as it was my first time playing in a drama pit band for a show.”

A lot of practice went into the show. Will Charbonnier, who played Doody, said, “We had practice Monday after school and Tuesday nights, Wednesday after school and Friday after school.” The practice was all worth it because in the end the turnout was a wonderful performance.

In addition to the great music, dancing, and acting, the set was well done. It moved to show the different scenes and included steps to an upper section allowing changes to many different locations. The musical opened at Rydel High School with English teacher Miss Lynch (senior Abby Maynard), Patty Simcox (sophomore Carly Mentis), and Eugene Florczyk (junior DJ Collins) addressing the students below.

Related Stories

Why "The Laramie Project" is More Important Than Ever

Grease is the Word

A New Home for Abington High School Drama

The stage moved to feature other scenes like Sandy (sophomore Lyla Blanchard) Dumbrowski’s bedroom, the school gym where disc jockey Vince Fontaine (senior Josiah Rosa) judges a dance contest, and places outside of school like the the Burger Diner where Danny Zuko (senior Dylan Magararu) and  his friends hang out, to name a few.

A favorite prop in the play had to be the red car Greased Lightning. It looked so great and I liked how people could actually sit in it. When asked about practicing for this scene, Charbonnier said, “I enjoyed it when we did dance rehearsal, especially Greased Lightning.” As for voice rehearsals, he said, “I knew most of the songs already.”

One of the crew members, junior Ailey Riddick said, “I was excited for the audience to see what came of our hard work over the past few days. Many of the crew and I spent many days after school painting the set to perfection.” She added that she thought “the crew got the scene switches efficiently.”

Riddick also said that, “I think the play went great! Despite having a couple sick cast members and a few mistakes, I think it added to the authenticity and humor of the overall show.” Charbonnier also said the performance “went really well.” He said that before the show he was “exited, yet nervous, because my cold might have gotten in the way.” But it didn’t. The cast was able to perform a fantastic show!

Congratulations to Mr. Shannon, the drama department, and the many people involved in the play!