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Greased Lightning

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Greased Lightning

Professor Gary Sullivan recalls how he got a car on the Main Stage

Dark green image showing a hand-drawn aerial map of Wagner campus with Main Hall, the Sutter Oval, and the gym visible.
The Sutter Oval
History Makers: Thelma Biele Corey ’37
The 1982 production of Grease included Richie Byrne ’85, top left, and Matt Lenz ’86, lounging on the car's hood. In 2018, Byrne was named a Wagner Alumni Fellow in Theatre, and Lenz received a Wagner Presidential Medal. Photo provided by Charlie Siedenburg ’95.

At Wagner College Theatre's Golden Jubilee Gala, Professor Gary Sullivan was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his many contributions to the theater program since 1975. Prompted by that occasion, he shared this story:

The car was a little Honda 600, so it conveniently rolled down the theatre aisle. I had built a ramp for getting the car onto the stage. I started its engine and was driving it up the ramp, while a tech crew was coaxing it from behind. Halfway up the ramp, the car couldn’t muster enough traction and began slipping backward. I thought, “Well, that could be very bad.” So I mashed the gas. The tires spun, sending off billowing clouds of smoke, in true drag strip fashion. In a moment, the car literally leaped onto the stage. The large adoring crowd that had assembled cheered. As I braked and shut the car down, I thought, “Well, that was a scream.” It could have gone badly, but didn’t. Maybe we planned it out fine. Maybe we could have done differently. But from that day forward, the entire campus knew we were doing a production of Grease.

A small car is between the theater aisles, surrounded by people
Gary Sullivan, on the car’s hood, guides the Honda 600 down the aisle of the Main Hall theater. Photo provided by Lisa Holland, Wagner College archivist.

Summer 2018

  • Wagner History
  • theater
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