Stephen Valeri, a final year Parade College student of 2007,

recently returned to Melbourne after getting the call-up for the role of

Roger in a series

of Sydney shows in the touring production of Grease - The Arena

Experience.

Despite the short notice, Valeri well and truly met the brief

in shows staged at Qudos Bank Arena at Sydney Olympic Park through

January.

“As the show has toured for a little while, myself and another

guy were the only two new cast members, so it was a little stressful,”

Stephen said.

“We pretty much learned the show in a week, but it was great

fun.

“I don’t know the exact numbers, but I know that on the last

night we performed to about five and a half thousand people at Homebush,

which was pretty

cool. That’s the biggest audience I’ve performed in front of

before. It’s probably the biggest thing I’ve done and I guess it’s

another rung on

the ladder.”

As the production company is Brisbane-based, Stephen originally

caught a flight to Brisbane for the audition. As he said: “I got

through a couple of

rounds and didn’t land the role the first time around, but a few

months later in Melbourne they were holding dance auditions for

ensemble members”.

“I ended up going and they pushed me through. I participated in

a pretty tough dance audition, but I don’t think landing the role had

anything to do

with the way that I danced.”