By Benny Mojela
As part of their 150-year birthday celebrations, Graeme College showcased Grease the Musical from 2 to 4 August 2023. The fully booked production took place at Templeton Hall, where learners from different grades worked backstage and played different roles.
The school principal Gavin Watson said, “It’s fantastic to be able to put on something; the last time Graeme put together anything like this was 25 years ago. It’s amazing that in our 150, we can put together a musical where our learners could get the opportunity to perform on stage and sing on stage and the courage one must have to do that. I only got praise for those boys and girls that participated today, and really thank you to all the staff because this wouldn’t have happened without the staff.”
He added that a lot of time and effort went into preparations for the show, and it was great seeing all the hard work pay off. “To see the fruit of their work tonight was amazing. I hope the audience enjoyed it, and I know the boys enjoyed it. I enjoyed it, but I think the growth out of this will be amazing. These boys will remember this for the rest of their lives. It will change their lives,” he said.
Grease depicts the romance between race car gangster Danny Zuko and charming newcomer Sandy Dumbrowski who have a summer romance during the summer of 1958. The two then discover they both attend Rydell High School. While the two enjoyed a secret relationship over the summer, their different cliques and peer pressure make their relationship a little more challenging.
The musical pays homage to the idealistic spirit of the 1950s and high schoolers’ desires to be rebellious, provocative, and defiant. Danny is in the “too-cool-for-school” T-Birds gang who rob hubcaps and act tough with their gum-chewing. Sandy, on the other hand, is part of the chain-smoking “Pink Ladies” who pride themselves in their attractive looks dressed in bobby socks and pedal pushers.
Production director Chelsea Coetzee said, “When I was in High School, I was in Grease myself, matric. That was ten years ago to the year exactly, so it’s my 10-year reunion of being in Grease. For my first musical production, I thought, let me do something I am familiar with and something that’s fun for the kids, and I thought, why not do Grease? I know it well, and I felt comfortable with it, and I know how fun it is.”
Coetzee says the one thing she enjoyed the most was working with the kids. She said ten years ago, when she did it, she didn’t understand it herself, but now redoing it, she is just coming to understand it herself. It is well written. When you read through that script, it’s so well done.
Choreographer Lana Pretorius said she was only supposed to come in and do the choreography but ended up helping Coetzee. She says it was nine months of hard work; her most significant challenge was teaching boys to dance, and they all rose to the challenge. “I think it brings out very subtly a lot of controversial things that some of the young kids are dealing with, and it shows that with friends around, they can deal with it,” Pretorius said.
Grease highlights the trials and tribulations of high school students, and the crew at Graeme College appropriately adapted it to modern times.
