“The Outsiders” Opens Tonight, November 7, at Palisades High School

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A child is rescued from a fire in the play, The Outsiders, at PaliHi.

Palisades High Schools has an amazing amount of talented actors and it is on display in a play The Outsiders, which opened tonight, Thursday, November 7. The full-length play was adapted by Christopher Serge in the 1976 book by S.E. Hinton.

This is an impressive show, under the direction of Cherie and Monique Smith.

Many of PaliHi’s shows are girl “heavy” just because there are so many fine actresses, but this play gives the males the chance to shine and they do. Ponyboy (Sam Jacobson), Johnny (Jaz Bennassar), Darry (Charlie Rosen), Sodapop (McCoy Rudy), Dallas (Jude Waxman Lee), Two-Bit (Blake Altournian), Steve (Jackson Luul), Billy (Brooks Franco), Bob (Ivan Munn) and Randy (Callum Gantz) are authentic, genuine and audience members feel their pain as they work their way through the unfairness of social labeling/grouping.

Members of the cast of “The Outsiders.”

The book is often assigned in English classes in local schools, and now, is also the winner of 4 Tony Awards on Broadway. (The cast will perform this year in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.) Hinton’s message of realizing who you are and finding one’s group, resonates with all ages.

The Outsiders is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and centers around a group of teenage boys who are divided into two social and competing groups the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers are known for fighting, their greasy hair and shoplifting – and are the poor kids who live on the East side of town.

The Socs, short for Socials, is a rival gang of rich, spoiled kids from good families who live on the Westside of Tulsa. They lack discipline and are bullies.

Hinton, who was 16 when she wrote the book wrote, “The characters—Dallas, who wasn’t tough enough; Sodapop, the happy-go-lucky dropout; Bob, the rich kid whose arrogance cost him his life; Ponyboy, the sensitive, green-eyed Greaser who didn’t want to be a hood—they’re all real to me.

“Many of my friends are Greasers, but I’m not. I have friends who are rich, too, but nobody will ever call me a Soc—I’ve seen what money and too much idle time and parental approval can do to people. Cool people mean nothing to me—they’re living behind masks and I’m always wondering ‘Is there a real person underneath?’”

The stage adaptation deals with real people, seen through the eyes of Ponyboy, a Greaser on the wrong side of life, caught up in territorial battles between the have-it-made rich kids—the Socs—and his tough, underprivileged “greaser” family and friends.

While hiding out with his friend Johnny, he recites:

Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief,
so dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

“Robert Frost wrote it,” Ponyboy tells Johnny. “I always remembered it because I never quite got what he meant by it.”

After saving children from an inferno, Johnny tells Ponyboy “… I’ve been thinking about the poem that guy wrote. He meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you’re a kid everything’s new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That’s gold. Keep it that way. It’s a good way to be.”

There are a few surprises in this production. When children needed to be rescued from a fire, several Palisades Elementary siblings make their stage debut.

This reviewer is always amazed at the set and the adjustments made on a stage that was never designed for plays/musicals. Residents will not be disappointed, and are encouraged to attend just to marvel at the creativity. To see a promo, click here.

The Outsiders will be presented at 7 p.m. on November 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16 in Mercer Hall, 15777 Bowdoin Street. Tickets can be purchased on GoFan.com

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