Both my Freshmen and Sophomore years I tried out, but didn't have an important role. I was in the pit crew my Freshmen year and just a chorus member my Sophomore year. I was bummed that after two years I still wasn't good enough that I didn't even bother trying out for the the musical my Junior year, plus I wasn't a fan of the musical they picked. My senior year my Choir teacher told me that I really needed to try out so I did and I ended up being cast as Sandy in the musical Grease. I was completely surprised, but was excited for the chance to play such an important role.
Rehearsals were fun and hard all at the same time. It was really an all hands on deck type of set up. To lower the costs of the musical we all came up with our own costumes and we all contributed to the set. We only rented things that we couldn't bring ourselves or had donated. It was different than the others and I dare say more fun. It really brought us closer together as a cast.
Working on the lines, the songs, and the dance routines were tough, but totally worth it in the end. The hardest part was the kiss that Danny and Sandy have in the last scene. The Drama teacher pulled us aside after rehearsals one day and sat us down and told us what exactly he needed us to do. He called it the "stage kiss". We didn't actually have kiss, which we were both happy about, but it would look like it from an audience seat. It put both of our hearts at ease. It had been bad enough having everyone making fun of us at the mere fact that there was a kiss in one of the scenes.
When all was said and done and rehearsals were over, we were all exited to put on a show. It was so much fun too. Everyone did a great job in their roles and we put on a great show. The auditorium was at least 3/4 of the way full at all of our performances. A lot better than I thought it would.
The only bad part during our performances was the car. Grease of course is all about this awesome race with an amazing car that the boys had fixed up. We of course couldn't find one the same make and model as in the musical, but we had one borrowed to us that would work just fine. I was the only one given permission to be inside the car as it was being pushed on and off stage. In our second performance we were moving the car onto the stage all of a sudden the horn goes off and it didn't stop. I didn't touch anything and I had no idea why it was going off. I tried everything I could think of. Then I got out of the car and out of the way so the boys could try and figure it out. The next thing I see is Mr. Aaron running down the hallway. He's a big man and when he comes running you know you were in trouble. He finally yelled at the boys to disconnect the battery and the horn finally stopped. After the performance we reconnected the battery and the horn went off again. The parents of the student who allowed us to use their car came and found out that there was a small piece of rubber in between two wires that when you push the horn are moved and the two wires touch and the horn sounds. The rubber piece had apparently fallen and needed to be replaced. Something so small caused a good 5 to 10 minutes of chaos while trying to perform. I was just glad that it was nothing I did.
Other than that it went off without a hitch and everyone seemed to enjoy the show.
