MU Homecoming talent competition presents finals

All skits were based on nursery rhymes, with some changes.

By Travis Cornejo

Published Oct. 23, 2009

Audience members filled Jesse Auditorium on Thursday night for the 2009 Homecoming talent production finals competition. The preliminary competition lasted the three previous nights and results will be announced 10 p.m. Sunday.

"We have probably sold around 5,500 tickets throughout the four nights," Homecoming Tri-Director Sally McVey said.

McVey said the 5,500 tickets do not include online sales with alumni and the community.

The official title of the 2009 Homecoming talent production is, "Fight for the Spotlight: Tales of a Tiger."

Kappa Kappa Gamma freshman Abby Lanasa said the overall theme for the skits is nursery rhymes. Each house has its own story and it correlates all props and skits accordingly.

"This year we streamlined themes and nursery rhymes are now the theme of parade, talent and campus decorations," McVey said. "Tales of a Tiger was an idea of the talent committee in the middle of the spring semester."

The committee members include Aaron Finnegan, Betsy Jensen and Haley Wayman. Finnegan and Wayman were the masters of ceremony for both the preliminary and finals competitions.

The night's events began with Kappa Delta Chelsea Woodard singing the national anthem. Kappa Delta, Delta Tau Delta and Tau Kappa Epsilon were the first triad to perform a skit.

Their performance followed the childhood tale of the Hare versus the Turtle in MU's Homecoming 5K Race. Characters included Jessica Rabbit and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

According to the Mizzou Homecoming 2009 Official Rulebook, each skit needed to include a song with lyrics altered to reference MU Homecoming and two choreographed dances.

"The songs were chosen by the skit directors about two months ago," McVey said.

McVey said the organizations had complete control over what dances and songs they chose to use.

Chi Omega Katie Steis said organizations that participated in the talent production included all Panhellenic Association sororities. A few Interfraternity Council fraternities chose not to participate, possibly because of time or financial concerns.

"No other organizations want to participate in the skit portion," McVey said. "But a very diverse group of people are interested in performing with the (in between acts)."

The four in between acts that advanced to finals were the women of Kappa Kappa Gamma, John Gurney of Sigma Chi, the Mizzou Drumline and Kevin Valliere of the Alumni Association Student Board.

Gurney played the guitar while singing a song he wrote about Thursday nights in Columbia.

Senior Kappa Alpha Theta Josie Patton was another of the night's performers. She was one of 10 to 12 girls in her sorority who were selected as dancers after tryouts earlier in the semester.

"The hardest part is getting over your nerves and just having fun," Patton said. "It's pretty intimidating when you're not used to dancing in Jesse, because of the lights and crowd."

Patton said since her triad found out it made finals, it has been able to rehearse once earlier in the day of the finals competition.

Steis said hours and hours went into preparation for talent production.

"It's nonstop practicing from morning to late at night with not a lot of breaks," Steis said. "Marathon Weekend is when it finally comes together."

Steis said Marathon Weekend is the weekend before Homecoming when all the final preparations come together.

"We work on finishing the float, the pomp boards, getting the skit perfected," Steis said. "It's where the whole chapter comes together and works towards getting things finished."

Steis said the talent production is her favorite part of Homecoming. She said it is not about the competition but to get everyone excited for Homecoming.

"I'd like to see everyone do well and have fun," Steis said.

The judges for the preliminary competition were Aaron Cook, Emily Bach, Neil Stenglein and Molly Lyman. The judges for finals were Greg Chase, Jason Scherer, Sue Hartman, Mark Baker and Robin Wenneker.

Steis said from what she heard, Alpha Delta Pi not making finals surprised people. The rest of the results were pretty expected.