Smoky Hill High School’s Drama Club performs two shows within a school year. The first one in the fall, ‘Radium Girls’, was produced November 10-11. The second recently announced show is ‘Grease’ to be performed in the springtime.

How are these actors cast? Drama teacher and Drama Club sponsor Tim Brown, and Drama Club president senior Nora Assougdam, explain the process leading up to the show.

Mr. Brown leads with auditions.

“Auditions for every show are open to everybody that’s a Smoky student, including students homeschooled and at CCIC as long as Smoky is your home school,” Brown said.

Brown follows up with what auditions are ranked based on,

“There are usually four adjudicators, who give ranking based on the international rubric used. There are six areas of performance. They are professionalism, acting skill, movement, tone, expression and overall production value,” Brown said.

After talking about auditions themselves, Assougdam talked about the tech support needed for each show.

“Tech signups normally open after the cast list comes out to give opportunities to people who auditioned for the show. There are over 10 crews we have for tech and everything is student-led,” Assougdam said. 

Drama Club secretary senior Lexi Murphy is starring in ‘Grease’. Murphy talked about rehearsals.

“Monday was dance rehearsal. Tuesday was read through. Wednesday and Thursday were just learning songs for the musical Friday was another dance rehearsal,” Murphy said.

Costumes are important for making up the characters and bringing the show to life.

“Usually costume fitting is done early on in rehearsals, so costume ordering is finished. Ensuring time to evaluate in case of casualties,” Murphy said.

With all the work done behind the scenes, from cast and crew to rehearsals and tech, the musical has high hopes of being a hit for audiences.

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