As Laira Bhurji glances at the photo of a poster from the ‘70s, she picks up her pencil and sketches it out onto another blank poster on the lawn of senior Nathon Chin’s backyard. Surrounded by various streamers and figurines, Bhurji is just one of the many seniors trying to make the decorations that will soon fill part of the quad during Homecoming week.
This year, the seniors’ theme is “Grease,” the hit musical from the ‘70s. In light of this, the class of 2018 is working hard to incorporate retro themes and music like “Summer Nights” to reflect the hit musical.
“‘Grease’ has such iconic outfits, so I want to make sure we all have unique and good costumes,” said Kate Bossi, one of the Homecoming commissioners.
Seniors Colina Guan, Elicia Ye and Connor Reyes are in charge of 2018’s skit script.
“We put a lot of focus onto making the skit be concise but still memorable,” Reyes said. “Because of the additional dances, we are having this year there is less time for skit.”
Senior Riley Carter will play Sandy Olsson, Reyes will play Danny Zuko and senior Hannah Julie Yoon will play Rizzo in the skit.
Along with preparations for their dances and skit, the seniors are working hard to ensure that their decorations are top-notch. Traditionally, the senior class places an imposing arch to place above the quad steps, and the class of 2018 is determined to make it impressive again this year as they have been working meticulously on their “Grease”-inspired arch. Class president Robert Scott hinted that their arch is innovative in design and will stand out from previous years.
“We took the initiative to build a reusable arch design; it will have modular metal framework that can be broken down and used over several years,” Scott said.
Along with the arch, the senior class is creating several structures including features from the diner scene to scatter throughout the hallways.
In order to organize all the different elements that go into Quad Day, the seniors have assigned Homecoming heads.
They delegated Bhurji, Harshini Ramaswamy and Chin to be section heads for every section of their hallway to help coordinate organization.
In addition to managing decorations, Kim decided to take on the role as a choreographer for the co-ed dance alongside Bossi, Riley Carter, Jessica Goldman, Jacqueline Schwartz and Chloe McGhee. Other dances include an all-girls’ dance, all-boys’ dance, hip hop, K-pop, Bollywood and the finale.
Both the all-girls’ dance and the all-boys’ dance have around 40-50 seniors, and the partners dance has around 75.
“I think this year is special since it is obviously our last year and that fact has made our whole class more dedicated and more closer,” Kim said. “In general, people in our grade have been becoming better friends with all different types of groups and people, which I think will translate in every aspect of Homecoming.”
