The 1950s were a time of poodle skirts, slicked back hair and, for some teens, rebellion.
The classic production of Grease has always focused on the ultra-cool aspects of its characters and told the story of a group of high school students trying to survive their senior year.
ETSU’s theatre division is taking a different approach to the performance and focusing more on the audience’s understanding of the characters, says director and ETSU faculty member Derek Davidson.
There have been two basic methods of approaching this play, Davidson says – the ironic and the splashy. The ironic style was typified, Davidson says, in the original production, the film and the 1990’s revival.
This method often uses adults portraying the roles of teenagers, and in a sense, he says, offers an adult’s perspective of the naiveté of youth. This approach “offers an ironic portrait of this time,” Davidson says.
The second style is what Davidson calls the “Six Flags” approach – more of a ’50’s revue with the focus on singing and dancing, he says. “The characters aren’t really that important, so it’s mainly the splash and the spectacle that you would see at a Six Flags theme park.”
“Both of those avenues, I feel, lessen the play’s potential,” Davidson says, “so I have tried to avoid them.”
Although there are parts where the actors are striving for a slickness, or even humor, Davidson has tried to focus on making the characters – or helping the cast make the characters – as full and rich as possible.
“We want to ground their actions in the reality of the situation, and in the depth and full potential of human feeling,” Davidson says. “I think that’s what makes it universal. It’s not just about the ’50s. It’s about young people who feel a lot.”
Sarah Shanks, Little Shop’s Bag Lady, is looking forward to the audience’s reaction to the production.
“I love being on stage because of the automatic feedback you get from a live audience,” says Shanks, who portrays grumpy English teacher Mrs. Lynch and Billi Michaels, a character new to the script. “They are the reason we do what we do. However, don’t come expecting John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.”
There’s method in this message or message in this method – and the music and message are timeless. It’s not all sports, sodas and sock hops.
“Grease is a capsule that tells the story of a group of students struggling with the everyday challenges in life,” says Bleu Copas, who plays Roger, a Greaser. “It’s a story any student generation can relate to.”
Though Davidson is concentrating more on why the characters do what they do, the play just wouldn’t be Grease without that its special brand of “cool.”
While actors hone their characters, ETSU theatre professor and set designer Dr. Delbert Hall, an ETSU theater professor, is helping translate that ’50’s coolness to the stage.
The set itself will be a giant Wurlitzer jukebox, with lighted columns of square steel tubing down each side, Hall says.
The multi-level set features a set of curved stairs on each side of the set, leading up to a catwalk-like platform, where the orchestra will be set up. The Grease stage extends over Memorial theatre’s traditional orchestra pit.
The stage extension allows the stage floor to be decorated like an old 45 rpm album, Hall says, adding that extra coolness factor. “The concept of the show was to try to create a set that was not realistic, but more presentational,” Hall says.
As a bonus to this already trendy production, Hall has also offered his stage rigging expertise to lift up one of the characters in the play. Matthew Paessler can’t wait to make his grand entrance from the “Malt Shop in the Sky,” as Teen Angel, a figment of beauty school dropout Frenchy’s imagination.
Although Grease is his third ETSU production and second this spring alone, Paessler, like many of the characters in the show, is still striving for that ultimate level of coolness. “Unlike roles I have played before this role is the complete opposite of me,” Paessler said. “Teen Angel is very confident and cool and I don’t feel nearly as cool as Teen Angel is.”
A unique combination of fanfare and feelings, of slick and thick, this production of Grease should make Six Flags look dull.
Not only will it remind the audience of the “happy days” of the 1950s, but it also will take it a step further by focusing on the depth of the characters and the reasons for their actions, Davidson says.
“This is a version of Grease you have never seen before,” says Jennifer Leigh White, who brings experience in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Annie, Bye-Bye Birdie and Oklahoma to the role of Sandy.
“We have worked hard to dig deep into the show and I hope the audience will love the results.”
Grease opens Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 p.m. in the VA Memorial Theatre and continues April 11, 12, 17, 18, 19 at 7:30 p.m. and April 20 at 2 p.m.
Tickets, which are $7 for students (with ID) and $15 for non-students, can be reserved online, by calling 439-6511 and purchased at the door.

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