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'Grease' is the word

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Being in the musical “Grease,” I have learned that exuberance and happiness can be found in a time when the environment you live in, day-to-day, isn’t so happy.
Right now, America is facing an historic economic depression. People are frantic about losing their jobs and homes. And because of that, joy can be hard to find.
That’s where “Grease” comes in. Coming into this project, I constantly heard my parents complaining about bills and lousy work pay. Also, a lot of my teachers at school could be getting pink slips soon because they aren’t affordable. The general aura of my real-life surroundings was bleak and down.
But from the moment I walked into our choir room at East Bakersfield High School for the first day of auditions for “Grease,” I knew this project would be an uplifting one.
Being surrounded by 100-plus students, who expressed excitement to simply try out for the school musical, was refreshing.
Going to rehearsal three times a week was an escape from the normal world. As a cast, we learned to sing, hand-jive, grease our hair — and above all, entertain.
Though this was all hard work — and, at times, proved as stressful as the outside world  — we did it all with a smile on our face; a smile that wasn’t forced, but was a natural one.
We came together as a cast, a creative team and through the hard work that brought us away from the hectic outside world, we became a family.
Rehearsals became a refuge that brought us to an environment where happiness and creativity flourished through everybody involved.
The utmost goal we had with “Grease” was to share this collected happiness with everyone who walked through the auditorium doors to see what were able to muster in four months.
We had the time of our lives, having fun during the show’s creation — and that was certainly seen on stage. We hope our audiences were able to connect to that.
Our aim was to have people enjoy the play, have a little fun and derive from our performance what we as a cast derived from the creation of this show.
In tough times like these, we all need to remember that happiness and joy is still available — and doesn’t have to cost much, if anything.
You just need to find it, and embrace it.
— Zachary Gonzalez played the role of Eugene Florczyk in the East Bakersfield High School 2009 production of “Grease.” The 16-year-old junior is the news editor for the EBHS Kernal.