The Sprinkles of Life: Red Capes and Big Bad Wolves

1 year of planning

2 months of teaching

2-4 hour nightly practices

6 performances

2000 people in the crowd

7 minutes on stage

The satisfaction of making Pigskin….PRICELESS

So I came to the realization that I have made several references to Sing, but never have fully explained it and figured it was about time I did. Baylor’s All University Sing is the largest off Broadway production in the world. The tradition began back in 1953 and has grown to encompass eighteen, seven minute acts performed by the various Greek organizations and other clubs on campus. The Sing chairs begin to create their acts in the spring, coming up with a unique theme, plot development, music, costume, and choreography. It is absolutely incredible because they receive very little outside help. The approval process is quite intense because theme and songs that have been used in the past cannot be reused for a number of years.

KKG SING Chairs

Come January, the sing chairs begin to teach the choreography to their organizations for their two weekends of performing in February where they are judged on creativity, vocals, entertainment value, and theme development. The top eight acts make Pigskin, a performance at homecoming in the fall. The difference between first and eighth place comes down to tenths of a point.

Multiple roommate getting ready in one bathroom sure makes a mess.

My roommate was a lion in her act and had to tease a mane every night.

This year my sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma’s theme was Little Red Riding Hood and our act was called “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” We had such fun music with songs like “Be OK” by Ingrid Michaelson, “Mercy” by Duffy, and “Trouble” by Pink. We had roughly 100 girls in our act…some little red riding hoods in blue and yellow dresses and others were wolves. At times practices became exhausting as the clocked ticked closer and closer to midnight, the room grew warmer and warmer as sweat poured down our foreheads and the thought of 2 midterms I still had not studied for was on my mind. However, even the toughest of practices were worth it and we all bonded while cutting red bows from sparkly fabric or carving and painting Styrofoam rocks to make a our cliff prop. The adrenaline rush we got the moment the curtain went up and even from the dance parties we had before we went on stage were definite highlights. I wouldn’t change a single minute of it and nothing was better than the sense of relief when they announced our name as the first act to go to Pigskin in fall 2011.