What's recently happened?
From Friday, April 22 to Sunday, April 24, the Griffith Theatre Company debuted their first Spring musical in three years, “Grease." Starring Senior Daniel Sheffield as Danny Zuko and Junior Bella Andriessen as Sandy Dumbrowski, the show welcomed 1,525 patrons during the 3-day run. This was a historical moment for the cast, crew, and directors as it happened to be the largest attendance for a Griffith Theatre Company production on record.
On opening night, people were lined up from the auditorium doors to the sidewalk waiting to be let in for the show. With such a big production coming up, the Griffith Theatre Company members consistently advertised the show. They hung fliers up at businesses and even went as far as to consult with a local coffee shop to create a “Grease” inspired beverage. The Grindhouse Cafe, located on North Broad Street, created a drink called “Grease Lightnin’” where 15% of the proceeds went directly back to the Griffith Theatre Company. The drink consisted of a latte with mocha and smoked black cherry in it.
The weekend was an overall success for the Griffith Theatre Company which worked hard for the past few months learning choreography and songs, as well as creating sets and costumes for the cast members to fit the intended era. With record-breaking attendance, they raked in a surplus of money that will be used to buy the rights for more shows in the future.
“It was an unforgettable experience and the perfect way for us to end the season, as well as my senior year of high school. I wouldn’t have wanted to be casted in any other show for my final production as a part of the Griffith Theatre Company,” said Sheffield.
What’s coming up?
Starting on Friday, May 20, high school students at Griffith will start the process of completing their final tests and projects for the year.
The end of the second semester brings excitement for summer break, but it also brings finals that include the curriculum from the entire semester. They can be stressful since students have constantly studied and prepared for them up until this point. Finals are worth 20% of the semester grade, so students sometimes need to pass their final to help them pass the class. In all reality, they can truly make or break grades that will be present on students’ high school transcripts for years to come.
Finals start on Friday, May 20, and officially end on the last day of school, which happens to be Thursday, May 26 this year.
“It’s a culmination of everything we’ve learned over the semester,” said senior Kiley Kinley. “It’s very stressful, and I feel that doing it over one week can be quite overwhelming.”
Teachers have been handing out study guides and holding reviews in class to prepare their students for the past two weeks. Periods 1 and 5 will be taking them on Friday, periods 2 and 6 will be taking them on Monday, periods 3 and 7 will be taking them on Wednesday, and any student who still has to finish up their finals will be doing so on Thursday.
“I take all of my study guides and spend a lot more time on them than I should, which is why I go to bed way later than everyone else,” said senior Payton Kinder. “I also drink lots of caffeine. Since I have other activities like softball, it requires me to put in extra work to get the results I want. Sometimes I don’t start homework until 8 at night because of practice, so it takes commitment.”
Some tips for students to get through finals week are to ask questions, attend review sessions, create study groups, and study questions and work that are not included on the study guides. The overall best thing for them to do is to keep their stress levels low, eat healthy, sleep well, and have confidence.
Staff spotlight
Music department head, Virginia Hernandez, has been the band and choir teacher at Griffith for three years now. As she stepped into her role as the music department head during her first year teaching at Griffith, she also became the head of the Marching Band and the Pep Band, both of which are extracurricular activities that perform at various sporting events throughout the school year.
Hernandez currently teaches 6-12 grade band and choir classes. Her ensembles are: Beginning Band, Middle School Band, Symphonic Band, Middle School Choir, and Concert Choir.
“I love giving students an outlet to make music together. The social aspect is really important because band and choir are social activities. They connect us and make us more human,” Hernandez said.
This year, Hernandez was able to have 30 of her students from her various classes perform for the Indiana State Musical Association (ISSMA). There, they were allowed to compete with other students from schools in Indiana at the Solo and Ensemble Festival for a chance to impress the judges by earning silver and gold ratings on their performances. At ISSMA this year, Griffith broke a few records for the music department when they brought home a total of 26 district gold medals, 4 district silver medals, 9 state gold medals, and 2 state silver medals.
For the group competitions, everyone participates. For solo and ensembles, students need to sign up in the fall and make the self-commitment to work on their pieces. While Hernandez does give class time in January to work on them, the students performing the most challenging pieces and getting the highest ratings also work a lot outside of class.
“We took the Middle School Band, Middle School Choir, Symphonic Band (high school), and Concert Choir (high school). Our bands both were rated a silver rating and our choirs' gold ratings. These are all excellent scores!” said Hernandez.
This past weekend, the high school band and choir also went to the Music in the Parks Festival at Six Flags for a chance to perform in front of even more judges. Each group was ranked first place in their division.
Aside from her band and choir classes, Hernandez also takes pride in the Marching and Pep bands at Griffith. The Marching Band meets during the summer and at the beginning of the school year to prepare for their performance in the halftime shows for the fall football games, while the Pep band meets in the middle of the school year to work on pep tunes to play during basketball games in the winter. Hernandez loves to see her students have fun with these activities because they become more relaxed when they perform. This is especially true when the audience gets into their performances because it creates a great experience for them.
“Music classes and after-school activities in high school are important because they create a sense of community not only within the school, but also within the community,” said Hernandez.
“We perform at town events, such as the Veteran's Day ceremony in the fall, and we are opening up the Central Market this year. We perform on the 4th of July and at the homecoming parade. We also invite the community to music events. Without strong music classes we couldn't put on great productions such as the spring musical, “Grease”, she continued.
“We also go caroling in the community around Christmas time. Due to the pandemic we couldn't go in to nursing homes, but we visited the YMCA, downtown Griffith, and Strack and Van Til's to perform Christmas carols for the community.”
Student spotlight
Senior, first baseman, and lifelong Griffith resident, Breeana Graham, has been dedicated to her schoolwork and her career as a softball player ever since she could remember.
This school year alone, Graham has been juggling her part-time job and her position on the Varsity Girls softball team as the starting first baseman while also maintaining close to a 4.0 GPA in her classes. She has become quite familiar with the idea of multi-tasking successfully, as she currently works a good amount of hours during the week, goes to school 7 hours a day, and manages to practice almost everyday and play in games on the days her team doesn’t practice.
“I try to focus my time on school and keeping my grades up, so when I’m not on the field, I’m usually doing school work or catching up with my social life,” Graham said.
Her love for softball began at a young age. It’s been her passion since her mom introduced it to her when she was a little girl. Ever since then, it’s been a place she can go to when she needs a mental break because she knows that she has to focus on the game to give it her all. Besides this, her favorite aspect of the sport has been the friendships she has made because of it. Some of the friends she made in her 8-years-old and under league are still her best friends today.
“The bonds you make on and off the field are some of the best friendships you’ll have in your entire life. For years I have been putting so much hard work into playing the sport between playing town ball, too many different travel teams, to then playing softball on varsity all four years of my high school career,” said Graham.
When not working on the field, Graham enjoys taking personal days for herself so she can have a mental reset. On those days, she loves to catch up with her friends and her boyfriend to see what’s been going on with their lives. Graham and her friends took advantage of their senior year when they became involved with a lot of Senior activities, such as the girls powderpuff football game, the senior prank, senior sunrise, and the prom.
“On the occasion I don’t have softball or work, my friends and I like planning days where we can just go out and have fun because we know our childhood won’t last forever,” she said.
Graham is planning to attend South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois to continue her career in softball while also continuing her education, as well. She wants to major in communications because it’s such a broad degree, and she knows she’ ’ll be able to have a multitude of career opportunities for her after she graduates. Her dream is to be involved at Wrigley Field and travel with the major league sports teams due to her love for all sports, including basketball, baseball, soccer, and hockey.
“Despite being told I should play basketball or volleyball because I’m quite tall, I never found interest in playing any other sport like I did softball. I just knew softball would be the one sport that I love because of the techniques and skills the sport requires. There aren’t enough words to put together for my love and passion for the sport of softball, which is why I’m extremely excited to be able to grow my passion and ultimately become a better player at South Suburban,” Graham said.