Although Sing Song only ended two months ago, new co-chairs for next year’s show have already been selected and will be hard at work for the next several months.
The new co-chairs for this coming year are Amanda Clary, junior accounting major from Denton, Ashley Crisp, sophomore communication disorders major from Dallas, Brady Johnson, junior multimedia major from Round Rock and Zeke Morgan, sophomore psychology major from Keller.
“We had [co-chair interviews] all last week, so Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week,” said Mark Jackson, director of student organizations and programs.
Co-chair interviews were open to all students. This year 10 students applied and through the process of a 20-30 minute interview for each applicant, that list was narrowed down to four finalists.
“In recent times we’ve had anywhere from three to five co-chairs,” said Tom Craig, director of student activities and productions, “but the norm is typically four.”
Jackson said the students who applied were asked several questions during their interviews about this coming year including “Why do you want to do this?” and, “What role do you see yourself in?”
“In a nut shell it’s a job interview, so we’re looking for the best person with the right skillset who we think can accomplish the job best,” Craig said. “They need to have organization, communication, vision, the ability to see the big picture and relate how Sing Song impacts students, faculty, staff, guests and the university.”
While many students won’t be thinking about Sing Song until sometime next semester, these four co-chairs will start preparing for the show next week. They will be responsible for brainstorming ideas for the show, coordinating the process of putting together a production team and coming up with ideas to make next year’s show great.
Co-chairs have the responsibility of coming up with ideas along the lines of songs for the hosts and hostesses on the down stage, auxiliary items such as merchandise, props for the show, sound and lighting and anything else they feel would improve Sing Song.
“Some of the perennial questions we get are ‘What about pyrotechnics?’ . . . and ‘Can we use harnesses for the down stage groups to make them fly?'” Craig said.
To the dismay of some students, the answer to both of these questions is always no, due to several safety and liability reasons. However, Sing Song co-chairs have come up with several new and innovative ideas over the years.