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Show Arts & Entertainment 4 THE SIGNPOST Theater students host festival MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012 WSU choirs gear up for spring show Choir and dancers collaborate in Coil By Sherika Brown correspondent I The Signpost "The cast and crew of this show have just loved the experience," Christian said, "and when we were given the opportunity to remount the show, they were all thrilled to death." He said the cast did the show three times in one day last Thursday, and after the third time, many members of the cast were still willing to do another performance. There were about eight other imported shows, too, including The Elephant Man from Brigham Young University and This Wednesday, the Weber State University department of performing arts will present its annual Winter Choirfest in WSU's Austad Auditorium. Led by Mark Henderson, the concert will consist of the WSU concert choir and the WSU chamber choir. The concert choir puts on a total of four major concerts a year. It is made up of 90 students, while the chamber choir has just 30 students. "We have been working for weeks, learning, practicing and memorizing music," said Kimberly Graff, concert choir vice president. "So when we get out of our music and we're watching the conductor and listening to each other, we are much more expressive." In preparation for the Choirfest, the two groups have rehearsed through various genres of music, including gospel, jazz and classical pieces. In preparation for the upcoming show, Henderson, along with two of his assistant choir directors, have chosen pieces from a wide variety of music. "This has been challenging, with the semester starting Jan. 2," said Mina Romney, one of the assistant choir directors for the concert choir, who is working on a music education degree. "We've only had a month and a half-ish to learn all of this music. And See Theater page 8 See Choir page 8 PHOTO BY MICHELLE PAUL I THE SIGNPOST Participants in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival prepare for a workshop in the Browning Center. Weber State University has played host to the regional competition this week with the help of several volunteers. The festival will return to Los Angeles next year. WSU actors host cabaret, other social events for visiting students By Briana Drandakis a&e reporter I The Signpost Last week, Weber State University hosted the annual Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for the first time, which involved opening its facilities to approximately 1,000 theater students from across the region. "This is kind of like the Super Bowl of college theater," said Jim Christian, director of musical theater studies at WSU. "We have these beautiful facilities, and for several years, they've really been encouraging us to host one year, and this year we decided it's time to step up." KCACTF is an annual theater conference sponsored by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Each region hosts its own festival, featuring workshops and competitions that, if won, give students the chance to attend the national festival in D.C. WSU is placed in Region VIII, which means it hosted students from schools representing Utah, Southern California, New Mexico, Guam and many others. Christian was the director of Xanadu, which ran an encore performance as WSU's contribution to the festival's week-long lineup of shows. To thine own Murder mystery at Davis campus weird be true Student council Kory Wood • The Signpost a&e editor sets up speakeasy in Layton By Janet Tarango correspondent I The Signpost If you happened to be walking past the Browning Center this last week and were suddenly caught in the center of a tumultuous discussion between people who were yelling violently, possibly in British accents, while gesticulating emphatically and laughing with a strange and intense fervor, all while breaking in and out of musical numbers, you didn't need to worry. You were not alone. Because last week, Weber State University hosted the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, where hundreds of theater students and educators joined forces to compete and perform for each other. They were everywhere. It was like a Scarves Convention. And if you suddenly found yourself in a swarm of beret-wearing, rapid-speaking Bohemians, you needn't have worried. Those were just actors and not, as was so frequently reported to campus police, a new and surprisingly outgoing gang. Theater-versations can be alarming. Instead of simple conversations where one person begins by saying, "How are you?" and the other person says, "Oh, I'm doing fine," they tend to start things off using what I call the "Screaming Runand-Hug," which is, consequently, exactly what it sounds like. After a series of exuberant salutations, they begin chatting in a dense code of inside jokes and See Weird page 8 A group of more than 50 students gathered Friday night at the Weber State University Davis campus to find out who killed Chicago mob boss Don "Big Jim" Ravioli. Wearing their best 1920s costumes, the students took part in a murder mystery dinner theater hosted by Student Services. Karen Gonzalez, the nontraditional student assistant director, said the event was planned to cater to a variety of students. "We were thinking of different ideas that would hit both traditional and nontraditional students," Gonzalez said, "and this event was the one that was the most fun." The scene for the night was the opening of a speakeasy named Four Deuces set during Prohibition-era 1920s. With the help of Detective Nellie "The Nose" Nutella, students were given the job of figuring out who Big Jim's killer was. The characters were portrayed by members of the Davis campus student council, who took names like Rebecca Ravioli, the daughter of the slain Big Jim, and Don Wannabe, the owner of the speakeasy. "You grew up watching Scooby-Doo, and you want to help solve the mystery, and this is that opportunity," said Anna Adamson, a WSU student in attendance at the event. While students had a dinner catered PHOTO BY AMANDA LEWARK I THE SIGNPOST Student council members and other volunteers dress up in 1920s costumes for the Murder Mystery Dinner Theater Friday night at Weber State University's Davis campus. by NYPD Pizza, the characters walked around the room carrying on conversations, showing off evidence and at times having arguments with other cast members. Students were able to carry on con- versations with the characters, asking for information in hopes that a clue would slip through. Although the dinner was originally See Murder page 8 |