Back stage with cast of Grease

By Agnieszka Chrzanowska

Jasmine Garcia, Div. 252, was crammed in a 10 x 10 foot room with six or seven other girls. She disregarded the beads of sweat forming on her forehead and continued to apply stage makeup.

Minutes later, Amy Clinard, Div. 275, squeezed into the same room. Within seconds she was undressed and putting on her first costume of the night. She cocked her head in my direction.

“Don’t mind me. I do this all the time,” Clinard said.

Roughly 65 other students roamed the narrow dressing room corridors hours before the Lane Tech production of Grease. Each dressing room door held a different set of characters – literally.

These characters were not necessarily John Travolta or Olivia Newton-John, but they were Lane students with strong personalities.

I was drawn to the vibe in the dressing rooms and decided to take a walk through them before the final performance of Grease.

To my left were a group of random students singing. As inviting as this was, I continued to make my way past several dressing room doors until I stopped in front of one in particular: the boys’ dressing room.

I eased my way inside; trying to go unnoticed. The boys were putting on their black leather jackets and looked tough – hair gel and all. They threw in a few eyebrow raises that would have made all the girls swoon and fall to the floor. Thankfully, I made it out of the room just in time.

I continued to make my way down the hall while actors rushed around the basement. With only about an hour left until showtime, things became chaotic. Performers ran around with clothing unfastened and hair and makeup only half way done.

I was lucky enough to safely dodge my way down the hall to the Pink Ladies dressing room. This room was full of all the saucy Pink Ladies, the smoking talkative girls of Rydell High. A character with more than six hectic costume changes called this room home.

I exited the room and walked the rest of the way to the end of the dim hallway. As I inched closer, I could hear music getting louder; though this was not a radio.

“We sing any random songs that come to us, not only songs from Grease,” said Charles Bania, Div. 253. As he made this comment, students began to belt out lyrics.

In any given room there was makeup being put on, and a lot of it.

“No one really knows how to do makeup, there are maybe two makeup artists,” said Anna Gianni, Div. 456.

The amount of time allotted to get ready is not nearly enough for only two makeup artists to fix everyone up. Therefore, most people do their own makeup, taking pointers from people every now and then.

Students helped each other get ready in groups, or in “cliques” as some students referred to it.

“When we chose our dressings rooms we all just ran down to the basement anad called dibs on a room with our friends,” Garcia said. “It’s a first come first serve system.”

Megan Irving, Div. 278, admits to there being drama between groups of friends when choosing dressing rooms.

“The cliques remind me of Rydell High,” said Jill Cutro, Div. 385. “Everyone [gets tired of] each other in [the drama production]. We are together every day after school and get cranky. We ignore the drama so that the chemistry is good on stage,” she said.

Anthony Quezada, Div. 452, added that he is a, “no drama llama,” and that boys usually keep the drama to themselves.

“How are we supposed to have unity with each other if there is turmoil within the cast. I try to avoid it as much as I can,” he said. “Girls have a more personal take on words while boys find the reason behind the drama first.”

Victor Flores, Div. 451, thinks differently.

“I love [the drama],” he said. “We all work professionally and don’t let drama get in the way. Things do get resolved.”

Ana Lovric, Div. 267, agrees.

“Drama goes on with any show, but we are still a family,” she said.

As show time grew closer, I exited the backstage chaos and took a seat in the auditorium.

Before the show, performers walked around the aisles flirting with theater-goers and pulling them onto the stage for hula hoop contests and bubble blowing contests.

The entire auditorium was packed and loud, to say the least. Obviously the cast put on only their best and brightest side when they were on stage, contrary to the havoc backstage.

The cast maintained a careful balance between on-and-off-stage drama. The result was an entertaining throwback to the Rydell High class of 1959.