Drama club presents 'The Outsiders'

It doesn't matter which side of the tracks we may come from.

Because at the end of the day, we're all the same, regardless of our social stature.

That's the rationale behind the Palmerton Area School District's junior and senior high school drama club's play "The Outsiders".

The play was held Thursday and Friday in the high school auditorium, and continues tonight at 7 p.m. Admission is $5 at the door.

Based on the stage version of S.E. Hinton's classic novel, the play deals primarily with the struggles between social classes during the 1950s, and is essentially a story about a group of kids labeled as "Greasers" because of where they live and how they look.

The "greasers" are routinely jumped or mugged if they walk the streets alone by the "Soc's", or the rich kids, which creates a conflict as to why the struggles take place and whether or not they hold any true meaning.

The play deals with real people, seen through the eyes of "Ponyboy", a young "Greaser" caught up in territorial battles between the have-it-made rich kids - the "Socs" - and the tough, underprivileged "Greaser" family and friends.

Throughout the play, the two main characters, Ponyboy and Johnny Cake, bring the audience to the realization that no matter which side of town you come from, we are all the same.

In the midst of urban warfare, Ponyboy can't forget a Robert Frost poem which speaks of their fragile young lives, saying "Nothing gold can stay."

Essentially, "The Outsiders" is about young people who are not yet hopeless, about latent decency in the midst of struggle, and about not losing touch with the residual slivers of gold within us all.

The cast consists of high school students Frank "Jay" Hall (Ponyboy); Nick Bock (Johnny); Allyson Arndt (Bob); David Silverstein (Dallas); Kevin Seemiller (Sodapop); Jill Renninger (Sandy); Jenn Villa (Cherry); Alex Szoke (Marcia);Amy Hudock (Mrs. O'Briant); Erika Hudock (Doctor); Monica Handwerk (Mrs. Syme); Lydia Anthony (Paul); as well as junior high students Austin Rabenold (Randy); Stephen Lewis (Two-Bit); Domenica Stenger (Jerry); Carolanne Green (Nurse);

Extras include Elizabeth Hahn, Kyna Gibson, Erin Williamson, Kylee Tirado, Eliza Good, Alexandra Mammarello, and Shannon Bonser who comprise the Greasers, Soc's, Hospital Workers, Movie Theater Attendees, Diners, and Children.