When Brooke Blankenship returned to Chesapeake High School in Pasadena this summer to participate in an alumni production of the musical “Mamma Mia!”, she felt as if she had been transported back ten years to when she was a student there, living a different life.

Today, she is a mother to a 2-month-old daughter and works in marketing for the fast-food chain Five Guys.

However, she couldn’t resist the opportunity to return to the stage where she always had fun.

“I recently had the chance to perform with another theater company, but when Kristen told me she was organizing an alumni production, I thought it would be even better to return to my roots, the stage I spent many years on,” she said, referring to Kristen Bishoff Lijewski, the director of Chesapeake Theater Company and Chesapeake High School’s theater director.

On Saturday at 7 p.

m.

and Sunday at 2 p.

m.

, Chesapeake High School students who graduated between 1984 and 2023 will once again put on a show.

This largely alumni cast of actors, stage crew, and production team members totals nearly 40 people, all brought together thanks to an idea from Bishoff Lijewski.

Bishoff Lijewski, an alumna of the school, has been the theater director and a special education teacher for five years.

She found the idea for an alumni production on Facebook and brought it to the school.

Bishoff Lijewski said that once they picked a show and spread the word, things came together fairly quickly.

A show planned for last year fell through.

This time, she gave everyone a year’s notice, but even so, the show was a little “touch and go.

”“This is very different from a usual show, where you’re rehearsing for months,” she said.

“This has been pretty much learn as much as you can, and once we link up a couple of weeks before the show, we will see if we can put it together.

” Several cast members are missing work for the show.

“We make sacrifices, but it’s worth it for the short time to be able to do this,” said Love.

“The CHS theater department had such an impact on the alumni,” said Bishoff Lijewski.

“It is a joy to see everyone from different decades learning from each other, especially during such different phases of life, and to bond over their shared experiences.

”“Mamma Mia,” a jukebox musical of upbeat ’70s pop written by Catherine Johnson, debuted in 1999 and has grossed $4 billion worldwide, according to Judy Craymer, one of the producers.

The production follows a woman preparing for her daughter’s wedding while the bride invites three men who may be her father to the event.

“When I did school shows, I always hoped I’d be able to do it even after I didn’t have access to school productions, and I have been fortunate to do a couple,” said Blankenship.

“But this is something different.

There were so many memories here, it’s a different type of nostalgia and it reignites my passion for theater.

”