MARY WISNIEWSKI
Assistant A&E Editor
This week, students will not need to go all the way to Broadway to hear a good show. Beginning Tuesday and continuing through Saturday, students can take a short stroll to Smothers Theatre for the 33rd annual Songfest. This year’s theme is Songfest 2006: Across the Board. Every group will be performing a show based on a popular board game.
Associate producer and host choreographer Katie Ebeling said Songfest gives students incredible leadership opportunities to create a show from scratch.
“Students build lasting friendships and learn what it takes to put on a musical – something that many students would never get the chance to do,” Ebeling said in an e-mail interview. “The growth in relationships, teamwork and appreciation for the arts is something that makes Songfest truly unique.”
Ebeling said this year’s theme is based on the games people love to play and even the ones they do not like to play.
“It is about spinning the spinner, drawing a card and rolling the dice,” she said.
The event brings Greeks and non-Greeks together to perform a dance and skit routine with the aim of winning the Sweepstakes Award, an award given to the group who receives the highest scores in music, choreography, theme, set and costume and enthusiasm. The judges are generally professionals in the entertainment industry.
This year’s judges include the premiere float designer for the Rose Parade Raul Rodriquez, “Terminator” actress Linda Hamilton, singer Glenn Campbell, and actress Jasika Nicole.
The routines are all student produced. Each group picks its own music, designs its own set and costumes and writes its own script. The actual performances are performed to a live orchestra pit that consists of professional and student musicians. However, the groups are only able to practice with them a couple of times before opening night.
Seven groups will be participating in the routines: Front of House and Friends; Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Chi, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Friends; Kappa Alpha Theta, Gamma Phi Beta, and Alpha Tau Omega; The Underdawgz; Gamma Ghkkkkket Sigma; Psi Upsilson, Delta Gamma and Friends; and Sigma Phi Epsilon, Alpha Phi, Delta, Delta, Delta and Friends. Unlike previous years, there will be no faculty and alumni group. Every group only has about two and a half weeks to practice before the first show and a budget of $400 dollars. The planning begins much earlier however.
Between each of these groups’ performances, five hosts perform skits. Students auditioned to become hosts last October and have been planning the routine since.
Senior Amber Mercomes is one of the hosts this year, and has been in the past, but said it is still scary.
“There is no set script,” she said. “It’s all from brainstorming, and you need imagination to bring it to life.”
Mercomes said this year’s Songfest is pretty similar to years past, except this year has a capella too.
“This will be good to showcase,” she said. “It’s a lot more challenging music this year.”
The four-member Songfest Executive Committee picks the theme each fall, and then the directors and choreographers began to plan the routines.
Kayli Moran, one of the directors for Alpha Phi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and Delta Delta Delta, said she and her team have been planning the skit since September, and has had meetings every Sunday to work out the routine. Official practice for her group began the Thursday after Homecoming.
“We had more than 100 people show up at the first meeting,” said Moran. “We couldn’t all fit into the room.”
Since the first meeting, Moran said participation dropped to about 80 to 90 participants due to students’ demanding schedules.
“It’s a lot of fun to work with a huge group but hard too,” Moran said. “It’s an investment of time and energy into the script, but I like to see people laugh, sing, dance and meet new people. It’s hard work, but with the right mind set, it’s a lot of fun.”
Practices for all groups run mostly late to fit students’ demanding schedules, beginning around 10 p.m. and extending until midnight.
Christopher Samson is participating in Songfest for his first time as a member of Front of House.
“I need to leave a legacy at Pepperdine, and I figured ribbon dancing would be the way to do it,” he said.
Sampson said practice is a painless thing and actually enjoys it.
“My group always lets us out on time if not earlier,” he said. Sampson also said his group has amazing directors, and he said he thinks the show will be hilarious.
Member of Gamma Ghkkkkket Sigma Kaitlyn Warner said she loves practice as well.
“You get to meet new people and get to know people you sort of know better,” Warner said.
Warner decided to participate in Songfest because of her interest in singing and dancing as well as because Songfest allows her to be part of a production without spending too much time practicing.
“If we win that’s great,” Warner said. “But no one really cares about winning; it’s more about the fun.”
Songfest has been a Pepperdine tradition since 1973, when the campus moved from Los Angeles to Malibu. However, even at the Los Angeles campus, a similar tradition dubbed “Spring Sing” took place.
Besides being a tradition, Songfest also brings back alumni participation.
Ebeling said Songfest is one of the few traditions that lasted since Pepperdine relocated its campus. At the end of the show, all the competing groups, and any alumni who want to, get on stage and sing “Let There Be Peace On Earth.”
Prices for tickets are $10 for students and $15 for general admission.
03-16-2006
