By Thursday the Grease rehearsals had fallen into a routine, with the cast and ensemble players acclimating themselves to the songs they must sing, as well as co-director Pierrette Jensen's living room.

How relaxed? So relaxed director Staci Johnson's toddler felt sufficiently comfortable to drop her diapers in front of the whole crowd to the non-plussed amusement of one and all. Now that's stage presence.

After recapitulating the songs learned the day before, Johnson took them into new territory playing "Rock 'n' roll Will Never Die" -- a song which was in the movie but not the musical. Johnson has added to The Acting Company production to walk the audience back in from the intermission and settle them down.

She also got them all into "Summer Nights" a group counterpoint piece between Danny and the Burger Boys and Sandy and the Pink Ladies;; with the ensemble singers contributing "oo-oo-oos" and "uh-huhs, uh-huhs" for background and bass line.

When they got to "You're the One I Want" Colleen Sullivan (Sandy) rose to her feet to sing her solo with backup song singers. This number brings up the issue of just which graduating class of Rydell High are we really talking about here?

Many believe it to be the Class of '55. The doo-wop sound of many of the songs support that. But certain factual anachronisms in the script and songs would rule 1955 out.

For one thing, one of the Burger Boys talks about an Impala, a Chevrolet model which didn't come out until 1958. Until then, the top of the line Chevy sedan was the Bel Air, the '57 model of which has for many come to represent the vehicular apotheosis of the hard core rock 'n' roll age.

Moreover, certain songs in "Grease! are clearly derived from songs, styles and sounds that didn't come along until the 60s. "Greased Lightning" is a clearly a paean to the Beach Boys-Jan & Deansurfer sound. Think "Little Deuce Coupe," "'Til Daddy Takes Her T-Bird Away."

"You are the one I want" sounds and moves very much like a 60s song to which go-go girls in high-top white plastic boots would have exuberantly done "The Swim," one of those manufactured -- albeit popular -- dance crazes that followed "The Twist."

The Grease book, music and lyrics, were written by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. Barry Gibbs, of the BeeGees, apparently added a title tune to the movie production. Several the 20 songs that have been associated with various productions of Grease were the work of other rock 'n' roll artists and writers.

The songs we most associate with rock 'n' roll are the ones we heard in high school.

Casey "was born in Yonkers, NY, and was an art major at Syracuse Univ. After teaching in upstate NY, he moved to Chicago in 1962, where he held a variety of jobs but soon gravitated towards acting and writing songs. He acted with the Chicago Stage Guild, the Old Town Players and the Kingston Mines. The Kingston Mines, the first company to suspect anyone might listen to his songs without a can of beer in his hand, staged the original production of Grease. With Jim Jacobs, he wrote Island of the Lost Coeds, a musical satire of the B-movies of the 1950s. He died in 1988," according to an Internet biography.

While this piece -- the only one I could find, none came up for Jacobs -- doesn't give Casey's high school graduation year, but the fact that he'd already been teaching and was moving to Chicago in 1962 suggests he probably graduated high school '58, or '59.

The early 60s sounds were probably the product of when Jacobs and Casey were actually writing the play.

So based on all those inferences and circumstantial allusions, I'm going to place the play's Rydell High time frame from the fall of 1957 when all the kids go back to school and graduation day June, 1958.

Because Casey grew up in New York, I'm going with an East Coast venue for Rydell High, despite the California Locale the movie gave it. Besides, California never had the same kind of hotrod "Greasers" the play focuses on. Not like Jersey and Brooklyn, anyway.

Furthermore, I'm assuming Rydell High is named after Bobbie Rydell, a classic rocker from one of the mid-Atlantic states, I believe.

All this is arbitrary, I know, but, hey, it works.

[Editor's note: see this for a list of all the songs that have been connected with stage and screen productions of Grease.]

The Marysville Charter Academy for the Arts production, "Sentimental Journey," was a pleasant pastiche of performances that glanced around America's last three good decades, the 40s, 50s and 60s.

Directed by Lauren Myers, with Jacque Dake and Allison Unpingco handling the enormous choreography load, the show last night was, start to finish, a very good revue of some very talented students in some very stylish acts, including old burlesque skits and cabaret sets.

The skimpy program notes make it impossible to always give full credit to those who deserve it, but…

Ayla Clark performed the title piece, a 40s ballad done by many but most associated with an up-and-coming teenager of that period: Doris Day.

Elegant in black, Clark used her excellent voice to hit all the right notes at the proper times. She put in some of Julie London close-to-the-mike breathiness, which she may have matured a bit in skill and range from her role last as "Blousy Brown" role The Acting Company's kiddie comedy, "Bugsy Malone."

The revue remained in the 40s with two young ladies dressed like Damon Runyon characters doing their rendition of Bud Abbot and Lou Costello doing "Who's on First," a classic vaudeville routine transplanted to radio and into the memories of an entire war-time generation.

It must be assumed that Kamryn Wisner was Abbott and Ashleigh Reed Costello, based on the order they were listed in the sparse progam.

Breakneck speed and flawless timing are the sine qua non for the comic execution "Who's on first" and the two girls did it well, even capturing some of the Mutt and Jeff chemistry of the A&C comedy team -- though they may have gotten their proportions reversed. Bud was the tall skinny one; Lou was the short, fat one.

The Westside Story/"America" ensemble number was colorful and well laid out with a lot of talent displayed on stage. But the display of talent was undermined by the over-miked, unbalanced and way-too sound design.

The hay barn dimension and Carslbad Caverns acoustics of the Marysville Auditorium can be a problem, but some people seem to think that the only way to fix it is to add another deck of speakers and crank up the volume. No, no, no.

Case in point: many of the same singers were assembled on the same stage two acts down the program as the MCAA Choir performing "Unchained Melody" and "Please, Mr. Postman" -- two late 50s early 60s rock hits.

Under the director of the estimable Xenobia Brown, the choir filled the room with their own splendid voices, minimally jacked up by technology.

By the way, very notable in the act was soloist Rebecca Hilton, who came back later for "If I Loved You." Now there is a talent that is likely to go places. She has an aura of command that harbinged a career in a cabaret in some future open much bigger than Marysville.

Five female vocalist, Clark, Hilton, Shannon King, Ashley Torres and Dahni Trujillo took a crack at being a chanteuse.

Torres deserves an extra helping of credit for risking the challenge of performing Edith Piaf's signature tune, "La Vie en Rose." A very tough act to follow. Foreign language, lot of hard notes to hit and a song that demands character acting as well as vocal skill.

Torres did a good job with it, for sure, but I would like her to have deployed her available assets somewhat differently. For one thing, she had the luxury of a live accompanist, and not some mechanical karaoke machine playing.

And with an accomplished pianist like Tommy Parker sitting right there at her beck and call, she could had modulated the notes, lowered the key and changed the dramatic pace to enhance her significant gifts.

Speaking a Parker, who is unquestionably well-trained in piano, I'd like to know his future plans. He appeared to be most comfortable in doing "Prelude in G Minor." So are we looking at a Van Cliburn in his early years here?

But back to the club singers.

King chose a good song, an old Everly Brothers rock era ballad. "Dream, Dream, Dream" -- country charts cross-over tune penned by their songwriter Dad, as I recall. King looked very good with her hair done up in a swell gesture to the curls popular in the late 40s-50s. She demonstrated a good facility with the song, though she sometimes fell into the trap that comes with mimicking TV performers lipping the mike's foam pad. And she had to struggle to overcome the over-amped sound set-up. Still, she did very well, thank you.

And this brings us to the always surprising Dahni Trujillo.

It is always dangerous to name a best in a show like this because when there is a lot of great talent milling about a huge stage it's easy to miss something.

Dahni Trujillo's voice showed the greatest depth and range of the many ood singers last night. She was also the most fluent in the language and styles of the performing.

Trujillo has, already at the age of 15 (I think), gained enormous stage power and presence. She has what it takes to draw an audience into that secret world she creates with her voice as she interprets a song. Last night she did it with Joni Mitchell's "Circle Game," which she did accompanying herself on a guitar I'm told she'd only recently picked up.

"Circle Game" is a nostalgic song with its heart is laden with the rue of lost times and disappointed loves. These are mature sentiments that usually come only after years and miles and blows to a vulnerable soul.

Occasionally, such sensibilities are born innate in a person, arriving with them like strawberry birthmarks and left-handedness. People with those qualities are artists. With luck, focus and few right choices, they sometimes become stars.

Personally, I would like to have heard Dahni do a less folky, coffeehouse song than "Circle." I'd like to have heard her do "I'm Just a Woman" or "Wee Small Hours" or "Where or When" or "Just in Time" or even "I'll See You in C-U-B-A" with a Dooley Wilson or some Tommy Parker

That’s just my taste, I know, but America has gone too long without a Billie Holliday or Helen Forrest or a young Peggy Lee, and, with her wise-beyond-her-years sense of romantic loss and vain hope, Dahni Trujillo could give us one again.

Last, and certainly not least, Jacque Dake and the MCAA dancers, who put the most energy and work into the biggest numbers of the night deserve special mention.

I'd name each one if I had a list to work from. Some I recognized, like Kenni Fayette, who did yeoman's work in the front line of several acts. Then there was "Kristin" (whose whole name I can recall) from "Bugsy." She wore the red cheongsam-style outfit in the "Cirque de Soleil". These are too skilled dancers just coming into their own.

Amanda Blanchard, who, besides being assistant director, was a powerhouse dancer in her own high octane solo, "Like Being in Love" as well as in the big show-stopper numbers: "Swing", "Jailhouse Rock" and, with Dake and Lindsey Tabler, "Burning Love."

Blanchard is so dramatic, you sometimes can't keep your eyes from following her, even when the stage was crammed with moving bodies.

She also did a finetacting turn as Lucy in the "I'm gonna be queen someday" scene with Linus (Chris McCarty) taken from "Charlie Brown."

Dake danced in for and ill Austin Dixon. She not only showed the audience why she's the teacher, but she also made a lot of women very envious and wish they hadn't hung up their ballet slippers quite so soon.

The aww-gee act of the night? The motley band playing "The Wiliam Tell Overture" with the Lne Ranger and Tonto on trumpet (and Melanie Gonzales, directing). Harts went out to the clarinet player who delightfully hit a squeaky wrong note, bringing many a happy memory back for audience members.'

Acting kudos to the cast of "The Operating Room" skit -- Liz Brookes, athan Harling, Chris McCarty, Ronnie Stage and Alex Skeffington. Double kudos to whichever played the jsurgeon's ealous wife.

Also notable for her acting skills was Veronica Stage (who may be the one and the same as Ronnie Stage in the above mentioned "Operating Room") , playing opposite David Gillespie in a scene from "our Town."