It didn’t take long for a post-show Shari’s stop to become a tradition for the Heritage High School drama department.
It began during the 2005-2006 school year, when cast and crew members met friends and family to unwind at the Shari’s restaurant in Orchards after the department’s production of “Oklahoma.”
That first outing drew about 40 people. “We’d be all across the restaurant,” said Chrissy Lewis, who was a freshman at the time. “There would be people all around the entire circle of the restaurant, and people would have to walk around the restaurant to talk to each other.”
Lewis, 20, knew it would be the first of many gatherings. “It was so fun, and we were like, ‘We have to do this next week,’” she said. “It became this unspoken tradition. We always went to Shari’s afterward.”