Grease Lightning: We Are The Difference, Inc's Iberville Community Theatre presents “Grease”

PLAQUEMINE – We Are The Difference, Inc's Iberville Community Theatre presented the musical "Grease" nightly May 22-23 at the Carl F. Grant Civic Center.

"I could not be more proud of the cast you will see tonight," director Rhonda Harrell said. "Welcome to Grease."

Harrell said the theatre's first musical included its biggest cast and longest rehearsal and featured its own sound equipment for the first time.

"This has been five months in the making," Harrell said. "The actors have given so much of their time and never stopped learning. We truly have amazing talent in our area."

The production also included set designer Leigh Ann Marionneaux who brought the musical to life.

"This is my first musical, which has been fun," Marionneaux said. "It opens another door for me. I really enjoyed it and got to know a lot of people."

Marionneaux previously designed a backdrop for Relay for Life but this production required nearly a dozen scenes.

"That was kind of a surprise," Marionneaux said. "We worked on it just about everyday for four weeks. We had a couple of work nights and that was the best part of it. You get to know each other."

Sets were designed for scenes at Rydell High School, the cafeteria, lockers, Marty's bedroom, park, gym, inside and outside Burger Palace and the drive-in movie.

"I saw the movie and I loved it but I never thought I would be doing a set for it but now, I can really see myself doing this more," Marionneaux said. "It is a natural talent that I would like to develop. It brought back memories of my mom who was very talented. That is kind of cool because I got that from her and she would have loved this kind of thing."

Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as greasers. Set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School, it follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love, while the score attempts to recreate the sounds of early rock and roll.

In 1978, Paramount Pictures production of the musical into a film starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and remains the No. 1 highest-grossing musical to date in the United States.

Iberville Community Theatre's production included Felipe Martinez and Susan Landry in the lead roles of Danny Zuko and Sandy.

Robert Brown played Kenickie, Layne Brown was Frenchy, Susan Devillier played Marty and Nancy Marshall was Jan. The rest of the cast included Vernon Clark, Stephen Orcino, Natalie Orcino, Paige Alleman, Marleen Pendergraft, Rosemary Brocksmith, Georffrey Hyams, Christian Clause, Jo Ann Palermo, Gary Burs, Michelle Ball, Monica K. Murphy and Cheramie Clause.