Students practice for Campus Lights at the Old Fine Arts Building, where last week a power outage forced them to practice elsewhere.
For 77 years Murray State has hosted the longest-standing tradition in the South an annual musical production called Campus Lights.
Each year in the spring, the Campus Lights organization elects a board of producers and a production staff who get together to select the show. The musical choice of 2014 was “Anything Goes” with music and lyrics by Cole Porter.
“‘Anything Goes’ is a fun, upbeat Broadway classic that just came off its Broadway revival in July 2012,” said Ryan Knight, chairman for Campus Lights and senior from Benton, Ill.
The story centers around young travelers falling in love at first sight, supported by disguised characters, blackmail and tap-dancing sailors, aboard the S.S. American bound from New York to London.
While Campus Lights is a musical production it is also a student-only organization made up of the brothers and sisters of the two music fraternities on the Murray State campus.
The board of producers and the production staff meet periodically over a span of three months to discuss potential show options.
After picking three favorites, the Campus Lights members vote for their top pick.
The department of music then approves their decision.
Rehearsals for the show started in early January before school started, and they only have about two and a half weeks to transform the idea into a full-fledged production. They lasted for about 12 hours a day and four hours a day once classes began. The rehearsal process begins with an acting warm up, such as a game, a physical warm up with the choreographer and a vocal warm up conducted by the music director.
Once the performers run through the entire act, they get notes from the director, music director and choreographer.
If there is enough time after rehearsals they will run back through the entire act or spend more time on parts that need more practice.
“This being my first musical, it has been a very enjoyable but stressful experience,” said Cody Pinson sophomore from Marion, Ky. “Enjoyable because I am meeting so many great people and making new friends. And stressful because of the pressure that is on everybody to make the play good and to try and memorize so much information in such a short amount of time.”
The brothers of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia created Campus Lights as a fundraiser to pay for the fraternity’s charter.
When World War II came, the sisters of Sigma Alpha lota stepped in order to keep Campus Lights up and running.
And now Phi Mu Alpha and Sigma Alpha Iota work together to bring Campus Lights to Murray State students and surrounding community every year.
“Anything Goes” runs Jan. 23-25 at 7:30 p.m. and there will also be a 2:30 p.m. matinee Jan. 26.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children 12 and under.
The proceeds are used to raise money for music scholarships for incoming freshmen.
Said Knight: “We believe this is still one of the most important and worthwhile things we can do to support the next generation of Murray State.”
Story by Brandon Cash, Staff Writer