We always have to be in sync and if you’re not, then it’ll really stand out.”

Julia Pierce, cast member

PORTSMOUTH — Shawna Gleason has worked in every school in Portsmouth, but she has never taken on the challenge of directing a musical.

Until just recently that is, when she took on the reigns of “Grease,” the popular musical set in 1959 that was staged over the weekend at Portsmouth High School. The 37-year-old chorus teacher at PHS previously worked at Melville Elementary School.

“I would like to say that the maturity (in the students) is a little different. It’s not really,” she joked.

Ms. Gleason did a little bit of theater while growing up by either standing in as the musical director or co-­director at the middle school. However, she’s been teaching music for 13 years. For the first four years she taught choir at the middle school, then moved on to work with the third grade chorus.

“Voice is my instrument, so of course it’s my specialty,” said Ms. Gleason.

The high school hadn’t had a musical in a few years and Ms. Gleason wanted to stage a familiar production that would attract both actors for the audition and audience members. It worked, as “Grease” brought in kids from outside the typical drama circle to try out for parts. Out of 50 kids who auditioned for the classic musical, 33 made the cut.

One of them was Abby Moore. “Since I started doing theater, I always thought it would be fun to be Sandy (Dumbrowski) in ‘Grease.’ When I found out I got Sandy, I was so excited because that was the part I was going for,” said Abby.

Ms. Gleason also incorporated some of the school staff in the show during the opening number. When she announced at the faculty meeting that she was staging “Grease,” staff members begged to be in the show, she said.

Among the staff members in the show were Principal Robert Littlefield, administrative assistant Diana White and School Resource Officer Scott Sullivan, who all made surprise appearances.

Ms. Gleason said despite directing an iconic show with kids who knew the music, she showed them “there’s more to the music than they thought.”

Said cast member Julia Pierce, “The biggest challenge is choreography, because there’s so many people in the ensemble. We always have to be in sync and if you’re not then it’ll really stand out.”

Surprisingly, the biggest challenge for Ms. Gleason wasn’t the music or the choreography, but just getting the whole cast together. 

“The first time we had every single person here, including tech for rehearsal, was opening night,” she said, noting that the great variety of clubs cast members were involved in make it difficult for the entire cast to be present for rehearsals. Once she “kicked into teacher mode,” she said the show started to come together.

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The week before “Grease” opened, cast members wore their “T­-Bird” and “Pink Ladies” jackets around school to bring some attention to the show.

Liam Bixby, who played the character of Danny Zuko, came up with the idea for a flash mob during lunch. The boys in the cast performed the “Grease Lighting” number on April 6, before opening night.

“I love it and I’m having an absolute blast,” said Ms. Gleason. “I was scared coming into it; it’s a lot to take on. I choreographed, I was the musical director, the tech director and the director. I thought I was crazy when I first started.”

She hopes to be able to take on another high school production and says cast members are already asking what the next show will be.

Tatyana Frost is a student at the East Bay Met School who’s interning at The Portsmouth Times.