Matt Hellman | Lariat Photo Editor
By Jamie Lim
Reporter
Say goodbye to the typical All-University Sing act and hello to something different. This year, Pi Kappa Phi decided to approach the production with a brand new perspective.
Cypress senior Derek Lewis, one of Pi Kappa Phi’s Sing chairs, came up with the fraternity’s theme. Lewis described the act to be thrilling, eerie and awe-inspiring.
“This year’s act will have a lot more originality in the sense of it not being a typical Sing act,” Lewis said.
Preparation for the act started early. The Sing chairs came up with their theme in 2011. Everett, Wash., senior Eddie Labid, another Sing chair for the group, said members were excited about the theme and were quickly coming up with ideas.
During the summer, the Sing chairs brainstormed ideas for songs. Then in August they met up to decide which songs would be in their act.
Ever since the 2012 spring semester began, Pi Kappa Phi has been working extremely hard on their act. Lewis stated that the semester has been exponentially more time consuming.
“With everything from backdrop, props and costumes, not to mention teaching the rest of the chapter the choreography,” Lewis said, “Sing this semester almost seems like a full-time job.”
Unlike previous years, Pi Kappa Phi decided to not hire a choreographer. Instead, Labid came up with all the choreography.
“The choreography is masculine and not typical Sing moves. There’s a lot of choking, fighting and struggling,” Labid said.
Not only will the choreography be original, but the set for the act will be something Sing has never seen before. The fraternity began making the props and backdrop in January. The act will take place in an old, creepy country-like town.
“The show starts off in a graveyard,” Labid said. “It’s kind of eerie and foggy, like a broken-down town.”
With originality comes hardship. The preparation for the act wasn’t all smooth sailing. There were many challenges that come along the way, like time commitment. Members had to juggle school, their social life and Sing practices, which wasn’t easy since they had practice nearly every night once the semester started.
Another challenge the fraternity had to face was having full-time and part-time members. However, Labid said it wasn’t difficult to get the men to come to practice and have everyone in the same room at the same time.
Despite the obstacles that came with practices, many Pi Kappa Phi members found them to be a bonding experience. Red Oak sophomore Dave McGee said practices were a great way to hang out with his fraternity brothers.
“It’s a really good opportunity to hang out with all the guys on a consistent basis,” McGee said. “Basically my social life was hanging out with those guys. “
After overcoming the challenges, Pi Kappa Phi members said the audience will love the act — at least they’re hoping they will. Even though the act is different, the audience will be familiar with some of the songs during the performance.
“Our goal was to put on an act that everyone can be proud of, and entertaining to the audience,” Lewis said.
“We put a bunch of thought into what could make this act more entertaining, and what would keep the audience engaged.”
Although Pi Kappa Phi would like to make it into Pigskin, this is not their ultimate goal. The members mainly wanted to produce something that they could be proud of.
“In years past, I’ve been excited to see other acts,” Labid said, “but this year I think I’m more excited for people to see our act, just because I think it’s special and something proud to be a part of.”
