Silver Creek High School
BY KAREY ROBINSON
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Thespians Glide To Greatness With Grease
A talented cast of performers, a rocking live band, great costumes, fantastic directing and choreography, tons of teenage energy and a whole lot of hair grease hit the stage in 50s style in this year’s outstanding performance of the musical “Grease.”
Les Dweir hit his stride as a director as he and student director Margaret Heffernan pulled off yet another triumph on the Silver Creek stage. The Thursday evening performance created enough of a buzz that Friday and Saturday nights’ performances were near sell-outs.
Aaron Lathrop-Melting as Danny Zuko and Elizabeth Ruiz as Sandy Dumbrowski were sweetly matched and entirely believable in their on-again off-again romance. Lathrop-Melting succeeded in portraying the conflicted Danny Zuko, the leader of the Burger Shop Boys, who is torn between impressing his gang and impressing Sandy, the beautiful and innocent new student at Rydell High School.
Ruiz, who has dreamed of being Sandy ever since she saw “Grease” in fifth grade, was perfect in the part of Sandy, sweetly crooning “Hopelessly Devoted to You” and just as easily transforming into the racy vixen of Danny’s dreams at the end of the play.
Another standout in a large cast of talented performers was Rachel Cooper as Jan. The audience was drawn to her character, an awkward, bubbly, compulsive eater who is a member of the girls’ gang, the Pink Ladies. Cooper embraced her role with her own unique and show-stealing style of talented humor.
Lilia Mast also stood out as the tough, snide Rizzo, the leader of the Pink Ladies. Her performance of “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” which she sang with powerful emotion, brought many audience members to tears.
Members of the cast provided their characters with their own unique and entertaining personalities, including Guy Connolly as Danny’s right-hand man Kenickie, Zach Edgerton as the “mooning” Roger, Kyra Czerwinski as the spacy Frenchie,
Alysa Gray as the worldly Marty, Ryan Wood as wise guy Sonny and Daniel McLean as the gullible Doody.
Director Les Dweir gave special recognition to Margaret Heffernan, the play’s student director, who helped him with productions for three years. “I have never had a student take on as much responsibility as Margaret. She leaves this drama department a better place because of her involvement,” he said. “I personally give her a standing ovation for all she has meant to the theatre company and to me.”
Dweir was impressed with this year’s cast and crew. “The entire cast, especially the seniors, deserve rave notices,” he said. “They functioned as a tight knit ensemble, among the best in my more than 30 years in theater. With a group like this anything is possible!”
Prom And After-Prom Events
This year’s “A Touch of Class” prom was held at the Gatehouse in Lafayette. Trace Gray and Ana Gurau were crowned prom king and queen. Junior royalty were Anthony Emberley and Valarie Allman.
The After Prom party had a Hollywood theme. The event, organized and implemented by parent volunteers, is a free event designed as a safe alternative for students to attend after the dance. Students played casino style games as well as “Minute to Win It,” where students won points towards prizes in a wide variety of dollar amounts.
Three of the larger prizes were set aside for students to win in a raffle format, which were a flatscreen TV, an iPad and a $100 bill. An anonymous donor donated a pair of $1,000 earrings. Nineteen pairs of cubic zirconia earrings were placed into 20 decorated boxes, and the student who received the empty box, Valarie Allman, won the real earrings.
Best Buy again provided employees and games for students to play on a big screen. Principal Erick Finnestead and Assistant Principal Eric Ottem were both found playing games on the big screen in the early hours of the morning.
Annie Simboski, who has organized the After Prom event for five years, was recently awarded the St. Vrain Valley School District’s Volunteer Organizer of the year. Simboski serves as the president of the Raptor Athletic Booster Club and has committed countless hours to the school.
