Unit 27: Workshop - Initial Grease Workshop

During this workshop, we decided to look at the musical 'Grease'. This came about because many of us like this musical and enjoy both the script and the songs. Therefore, we began to look at the script in detail and the characters and decided the Grease would be a good choice for our musical extract because it features a small cast which we can utilise, only being a small company. There are also a variety of numbers within the musical, including large group numbers with interesting choreography and also solos and duets which can be used to showcase individual singing abilities within the company.

Grease is a larger-than-life, American book musical set in the 1950's. It explores teenage society in the 50's and what it was like to be a teenager in high school during this decade. It features many aspects of popular culture of America in the 1950's, for example, the jive.

After reading briefly through the script, we devised a storyboard, planning a narrative for our section of the musical. It was decided that we would focus mainly on the love story between Danny and Sandy. We decided to begin with Danny and Sandy telling their friends about the summer and their mysterious other halves, then move onto Danny rejecting Sandy and her being upset. They then make up and go to the dance together, where Danny leaves Sandy for another girls, once again leaving Sandy upset and bewildered. Sandy then decides she needs to change in order for Danny to be interested in her and become more like the 'Pink Ladies'. The Pink Ladies then reveal the 'new' Sandy to Danny.

After this discussion, we were given the script and our roles, as we would in the industry. Everyone was very professional and never complained about their character. The characters we were given were:

Danny - Ramy

Sandy - Ellie

Rizzo - Me

Frenchy - Rebecca

Marty - Betsy-Jo

During this workshop, we were also given a track list with songs we were to listen to and begin learning. We decided the best thing to do was to open with 'Summer Nights' and close with 'You're The One That I Want' as these mark the key points in Danny and Sandy's relationship, which is what we want to explore.