Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Tassel and mortarboard season is upon us.
You’ll be able to see them in almost any direction you look for the next month.
Clovis Community College and Eastern New Mexico University both conferred degrees recently, and our area high schools are celebrating seniors in ceremonies all month long.
There’s one more place you can see mortarboards next weekend that you might not be expecting: on nine “dropouts” – “Beauty School Dropouts,” to be exact – in the Portales High School production of the popular musical “Grease.”
I doubt there are many in my generation who didn’t see the 1978 film version of “Grease” with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, or who can’t still sing along to at least some of the catchy tunes.
The PHS students – along with drama teacher Dorothy van der Sterre and choir teacher Maggie Mendoza – are hard at work preparing four performances to bring the adventures of the fictional Rydell High School to the stage of the PHS Performing Arts Center.
You can catch the show at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, or in 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets are available at the door, but must be paid for with cash only. General admission is $8. Children ages 5-18, students and teachers with ID, military with ID, and seniors can get in for $6. Children under 5 attend for free.
Van der Sterre double-cast the two main characters (Danny Zuko and Sandy Dumbrowski) to allow four students to share the spotlight.
“The Danny and Sandy for Friday night and Saturday afternoon will be Eli Monteblanco and Olivia Fowler,” she said. “The Danny and Sandy for Saturday night and Sunday afternoon will be Sam Roberts and Trinity Flores.”
I sat in on the raucous chaos that is a high school music theater rehearsal last week. (For the uninitiated, there is no chaos quite like it.)
There were 30 or so students in the room. Van der Sterre was guiding rehearsal, feeding lines, and making acting suggestions even as she ironed some of the dozens of costumes required for this 1950s-era production (think poodle skirts and letter jackets … polka dots and pink satin).
Mendoza was wrestling with a laptop computer that had just been loaded with the musical backing tracks they’ll use in the performances — they had only arrived that day — while also helping direct the memorable numbers that dot this production.
It was also a first rehearsal for the cast to be “off book,” so scripts were supposed to be closed, although van der Sterre reminded students during every break in the action, “This is an excellent time to be studying your lines if you’re feeling unsure.”
Van der Sterre said choosing “Grease” for a spring musical came about in part because this particular group of theater kids “includes some of my best singers. I couldn’t let this opportunity get away.”
Seven seniors (five on stage and the two stage managers) are also participating in their final PHS production, which is bittersweet for van der Sterre.
“I just want the kids to have a good time,” she said. “This is their last chance to make these memories and have these experiences with their friends.”
Break out those crinolines and bobby socks, and dust off your saddle shoes. Tassels and mortarboards are optional. I’ll see you at the “hop.”
Betty Williamson “had her a blast” at the PHS rehearsal. Reach her at:
