56th Annual SING to be featured during Homecoming

Hardin-Simmons University will host the fifty-sixth annual All-School SING competition this week, during the 2018 homecoming festivities. Shows are Friday, October 12 at 6:00 pm and Saturday, October 13 at 8:00 pm in Behrens Auditorium. Tickets are $15 for non-students and $5 for students for both shows. Students and Alumni, alike, can expect a night full of HSU tradition.

In March of 1962, SING was created by two music fraternities. The newly founded Sigma Alpha Iota and the two-year-old Phi Mu Alpha began creating a show in which clubs could have another way to get involved in campus activities. Karen Swartz, the SAI president in 1961, explained, “the objective of the event is to encourage campus organizations to participate in singing.” Early shows featured minimal choreography, fewer rules, more entries, no backdrops, and no costumes. Admission was set at $1, and groups were split into two divisions: women’s and men’s.

Alpha Iota Omega and Lambda Alpha Tau 2017

In 1964, the Phi Mu Alpha stage band joined SING to accompany the groups’ shows. Division lines were crossed for the first time in 1965, when Tri-Phi and Tau Alpha Phi teamed up to perform selections from the 1927 musical, “Showboat.” The ROTC joined the show in 1966, and would continue to win the newly added mixed division for the two following years.

It was not until 1967, that the mini-musicals we associate with SING, today came to campus. With the addition of costuming and set design came a prize of $25 to the winner of each division. This was also the first year that SING ran in conjunction with homecoming, taking place in the fall, rather than in the spring. In 1973, SING coincided with both homecoming and parent’s weekend, creating the need for multiple shows. For the first time, points were awarded to clubs for things like costuming and choreography.

SING has changed drastically over the years, but it is still an excellent way for clubs and organizations to get involved, and to work together, to create an unforgettable experience.

The 2018 SING show is comprised of competing acts from many social clubs on campus, and non-competing mini-shows from the theatre students, the vocal music students, and other on-campus groups. The acts are awarded points based on costuming, quality of sound, and originality of the script. Of the competing shows, one show will be awarded a grand prize for having earned the most points.

The author, Macee Hall, and Beau Drew Rozeboom in the 2017 Epsilon Pi Alpha act.

The goal of a SING director is to write an original show and help your club to perform it to the best of their ability. Many of the clubs began writing over the summer, and some started as early as last winter break. As the SING Chair for Epsilon Pi Alpha, a women’s service organization founded in 1976, I have been hard at work creating a show and working with my cast to finalize a product that we are proud of. SING has long been a part of EPiA tradition, so we aim to make sure that our show makes our alumnae proud. We want to take alumni back in time to when they were students participating in the annual SING competition.

It is a fantastic opportunity for all the clubs to partake in such a long-standing event. It provides an opportunity for various clubs to work together and for current students to connect with those who have performed before us. All casts, whether competing or interact, are working hard to continue the beloved tradition of HSU All-School SING.