Various groups of freshmen were busy performing for the 40th annual Freshmen Follies last weekend.
With more than 200 freshman participants, audience members had a wide variety of acts to look forward to. Hall acts, dance troupes, specialty acts and other performances were featured in this years’ show, “Have No Fear, Follies Is Here!”
“We chose the theme because of the current superhero trend with all the new movies coming out,” said Carly Branscum, one of the assistant directors of Follies.
The superhero theme proved to be beneficial to the show.
“I feel the theme this year was much more interactive,” said Zeke Morgan, sophomore psychology major from Keller. “The superhero theme helped the audience interact better with the acts.”
Freshmen Follies features hall acts, in which a specific hall from a dorm creates an act. Specialty acts include independent groups of men and women. Performances included slam poetry, singing groups and dance. This year, unlike past years, there were fewer men’s acts and more hall acts in the show.
“Normally in the past, Gardner dominates the show,”said Branscum, senior Ad/PR major from Fort Worth. “This year Nelson had more than one act and Gardner had a smaller amount.”
Despite these differences, some things did not change.
“This year the audience really enjoyed all of the typical freshmen lyrics talking about dorm life and dating.” Branscum said. “It was just amazing to see a concept come to life on stage.”
A bigger influx of auditions came with the larger freshman class.
“I was able to watch the specialty act auditions,” Morgan said. “I was blown away by the large amounts of talent that showed up.”
Though Freshman Follies is held on Family Weekend and many of the attendees were families of the freshmen, students, faculty and other Abilene residents also came out to see the show.
“This year was especially sentimental for me,” said Hailey Thompson, senior Ad/PR major from Allen. “Follies is such a rich ACU tradition and I love the way it brings the campus together.”
Hall acts were a crowd favorite as they danced, chanted and just goofed around on stage to lyrics about dorm life and what it means to be a freshman at ACU.
“My favorite acts are always the boy’s acts,” Thompson said. “They’re not worried about looking cute or cool so they’re always the funniest.”
Andrew Collins, freshman biology and pre-med major from McKinney, was part of the winning men’s act, ‘If I Was Not A Wildcat’, in which he sang and pretended to cough up hairballs.
“I absolutely loved being in the show,” Collins said. “Whether it was on stage or waiting in the gym, I had so much fun just goofing off as a cat and hanging out with my group.”
The women’s act, ‘Cats’, also received first place.
However, the hall acts were not the only crowd-pleasers; the specialty acts also made an impact on audience members.
Zach Carstens, freshman biblical text major from College Station, gave a solo slam poetry performance.
“The slam poetry act was incredible,” said Emily Morrical, family studies major from Wylie.
The 40th annual Freshmen Follies was enjoyed by many this year and performed by the largest group of freshmen to date.
“It seemed like they were all having a lot of fun, so that’s what matters most,” Thompson said. “It’s a good show for all.”
