In March our school held its musical, songs from Grease.  I wrote down some of my thoughts about it here.  Today, I’m in class and what’s next is a bit of a free for all with my TY class, where I’m asking for their memories of the show.  Just for the hell of it, I’m attaching their stage names to their answers!

What is your strongest memory of doing the musical?

‘Eugene’ getting to do my speech – loved doing it!

‘Sandy’ I loved working out Scene 5, and Scene 2.  They were good fun to do, some great songs.

‘Rizzo’ – my song.  Working together, having a laugh.  Roger’s ‘Mooning’ song with Jan.  My wig was very hot.  I was sweating under it.

One of the male cast ‘Sonny’ was shorter than the others, & was flung into the air a few times.

‘Frenchie’ – all the rehearsals. My wig made me  look like somthing out of ‘LazyTown’.

Building friendships with the directors. Jim & Co. from CADA

The Friday show was a surprise & one of the teachers had to fill in the role of ‘Frenchie’ at the last minute.

‘Kenickie’ – Jim (The Assistant Director)  was a top man.  Gave you confidence and got you into it.  He treated everyone nice.#

‘Doody’ –  The opening night stands out. We were all giddy backstage, but once the call came for 5 minutes we got all serious & everyone did their part.  I really remember the end of the show and we all started congratulating each other afterwards.

How much hard work went into it?

Everyone – lots & lots.

Learning the script was very hard.

Fast costume changes were difficult

You had to work during the mid-term break and over St. Patrick’s weekend.  How did you feel about that?

‘Rizzo’ didn’t like it, but it was worth it in the end.

‘Sandy’ it was grand. Just took it was worth it at the end.

Coming in during the breaks when your friends were off was hard.

What was the scariest part for you?

Doing the show in front of the school on the Friday.

The auditions were scary! (a lot of people said this)

‘Kenickie’ – my first time singing on stage was scary.

Tell me about the feeling of going on stage.

Nervous for some

‘Eugene’ says he wasn’t nervous!

‘Sandy’  I loved going on stage, nerve wrecking, but I loved it.

‘Doody’ – it was my first time on stage, nervous, afraid to mess up – and I never sang in front of people before.

It’s now nearly one month later.  What has the show meant for you?

We should have got a reward for all our hard work.

It built up my confidence in front of people.

We all get along better.  It has made us closer.

Surprised – I didn’t think I’d be able to get up on stage & speak.

The main director is scary!

I think there should be a musical every year.

‘Kenickie’ ‘Sandy’ & ‘Doody’ – it was the best thing in fourth year, made the year and it brought me much closer to a lot of the cast.  NO REGRETS

 Has it surprised you how much work has to go into gettting something on stage?

YES (from everyone).  The rehearsals went on for about 8 weeks. Especially in the little amout of time we had.  8 weeks really flew.

You managed to combine script, songs and dance in some scenes.

‘Rizzo’ I preferred doing the dancing & singing.  I didn’t really like the acting part.

‘Kenickie’ – it made the scenes, but it was much more difficult to do.  The acting was my favourite part.

‘Sandy’ I loved the singing and dancing.  Script was ok, but definitely preferred the singing and dancing.

And, from the backstage crew…

It was really, really dark!

Trying to move stuff backstage without making noise was difficult.

It was hard work.

Fin

And there you have it.  A little experiment during class with a group of tech-savvy fourth year students.  They loved doing the show, and I think really got the reward out of doing something so different to ‘normal’ class work.

And now, they can go home for 2 weeks of Easter Holidays.  Well done guys.