Stevens Dramatic Society (SDS) presented their Spring 2026 musical, Grease, with performances held at DeBaun Auditorium from April 9 to 11. From opening night, the audience holistically reviews the ability of the performers to act, the skill of the band or orchestra, and even the use of light and sound effects. One feature that is often overlooked when it lacks flashy movements or a giant turntable is the scenery of the show.
Set in the towering halls of Rydell High School, Stevens Dramatic Society (SDS)’s rendition of Grease featured plenty of scenic depth to complement the story. This musical saw lead actors Christian Fodor, a 2/4 Visual Arts & Technology major, and Isabella Gallo, a 1/4 Biomedical Engineering major, alongside numerous others, return to their high school experience in a series of flashbacks and high school reunion speeches. Composed of Vincent Olivieri, Ana Viterbo, Anja Lubbe, Athena Efthymiou, and Kosta Georgiadis, the set team for Grease aimed to create a grungy rundown high school full of details the students would love to forget.
Initial planning of the set started with the layout and placement of set elements. With Grease being a musical, the pit orchestra is a crucial element that needs to take up a large portion of the set. On top of this, the actors would need entrance and exit locations on both sides of the stage and in the center. In the previous SDS production of Into the Woods, this was accomplished by building the set (mostly made up of trees) directly around the pit, essentially seating them “in the woods”. With Grease, however, the inclusion of a giant building made this plan unusable. Instead, Olivieri referenced another previous SDS production—The Prom, put on in Spring 2023—and borrowed the idea for a raised two-floor platform. With the pit placed on the second floor and the underside of the platform being used for storage, the rest of the stage was free to be filled up with other familiar high school elements: traditional high school lockers, cafeteria tables, sports bleachers, and most notably a DIY 1948 Ford Convertible “Greased Lightning.”
Once the list of set elements was decided on, set designer Viterbo began concept drawings and layout sketches to gain a feel for the size of the set and see how it could be interacted with. Anyone who has stepped onto the stage in DeBaun auditorium can immediately tell one thing: the stage is incredibly tiny. This firstly causes a challenge to fit any kind of bulky set, but becomes even more difficult when working in space for the 17-member ensemble choreography. To combat this, Viterbo worked closely with Lubbe, as well as the director and choreographer, and squeezed the set building to the minimum size possible while keeping the pit at a comfortable size. The final design covered the upper half of the stage with the massive school building, and the lower half open for smaller set elements, props, and, importantly, plenty of room to dance and move around. The naked set design was basic, but the finished product differed in its rebellious nature, with the set covered from head to toe in posters, graffiti, and chewing gum. Once the initial sketches of the set design were approved by the director, Olivieri began drafting design drawings of the aforementioned elements. Following weeks of set revision and design finalization, Load-In day finally arrived, providing the dramatic society (DS) with exclusive access to DeBaun Auditorium and freedom to begin construction.
The final challenge of Grease’s construction was the aforementioned Greased Lightning. A flashy red convertible seems impossible to build when looking at a pile of 2×4 and foam board, yet those who saw the show would claim this to be far from the truth. After building a rectangular wooden frame riding on 12 caster wheels, the car was covered in an assortment of angled and curved foam, giving it the sleek, fast, aerodynamic feel it deserves. Lastly, the finishing touches on Greased Lightning that took it from an ugly prop car to a true piece of the set were the working high-beam headlights that illuminated the dark drive-in scene, and the fresh coat of hot rod red paint.
The finished Rydell High accomplished its goal of showcasing the rebellious nature of the Greasers and Pink Ladies who ran the school at the time, at least in their eyes. The towering and boring nature of the school—often feeling as if it was closing around the actors at all times—contrasted well with the actions of the characters and their choices to defy and live how they wanted. Through technical and artistic detail, the DS scenic team leveraged the depth of world-building to convey these emotions in a way that aided the musical while providing an immersive visual set at the same time.
