University of North Alabama - Diorama Yearbook (Florence, AL)

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FACE FULL OF FUN. ron Irons [opposite] wears the result of Spring Fling ' s cake-eating contest . SPRING FLING CHALK THING Organizations test their creative abilities, decorating the Gulliot University ' Center ' s sidewalks. MARK. GET SET. SPITl-poby Eveland leans back to demonstrate the best way to catapult watermel- on seeds. ' !ikni she is. The stage is mine tonight. Look at all these people who came to see me dance. I ' m going to give them a performance that will knock them off their feet. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... Cluck, cluck, cluck. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... The guy beside me has my shoe. He ' d better ' give me back that shoe. What on earth does he want with my I shoe? His foot is twice the size of mine. He ' s a thief, that ' s what Ihe is. Well, he ' d better be giving back my shoe, or there are going to be serious consequences. After all the money I paid for those babies. I deserve to get to wear them. 1 ... 2. ... 3 ... Everyone is staring at me again. They ' re S • applauding, and everyone ' s leaving. 1 haven ' t even done any- | thing, have 1? I can ' t remember the last few minutes. Why do 1 have the urge to cluck like a chicken? But here come my o friends; they ' ll clue me in. | They ' re are saying I did all kind of things: playing like a lit- z tie girl, flexing like a bodybuilder, dancing around the stage. They have got to be kidding me. I wasn ' t really hypnotized ... was I? — Lori Tays PULLING FOR THE DELTAS- a Tria Kin, Darcell Jordan put their best foot forward for Sigma Theta in Spring Fling ' s Tug-of-War. ; and Delta 19

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You are getting very ... 18 Spring Fling caused students to forget their manners: they ate with no hands, they spat their watermelon seeds, they drew on sidewalks, fought over ropes, and much, much, more. Me, me! I wave my hand around. 1 want to be hypnotized. I ' ve heard about Tom Deluca and his show last year, and I want him to choose me. My friend Klrstie was hypnotized and she had to do some crazy things. Everyone says this will be the best part of Spring Fling 1999. i He ' s coming this way ... pick me ... Yes! Everyone ' s looking at me. I hope I don ' t do anything too stupid. He ' s saying I should Imagine a vase of flowers. Imagine the roses leaving the vase one at a time. Now count backwards from 200 ... I ' m not hyp- notized — am I? 1... 2 ... 3 ... I love kindergarten. It ' s my favorite grade. I love to play with the blocks. Where are my Barbies? I need some Barbies. See, see my playmate, come out and play with me ... Hey, what are those big people doing? That one over there is dancing around really funny-like. That man keeps telling him to do stuff. I hope I don ' t act like that when I grow up. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... I have absolutely the biggest mus- cles of anyone on this stage. Why doesn ' t everyone believe me? I ' ve got to show them. I ' ll flex and flex and show them my biceps. It ' s hard being a woman body-builder these days. No one appreciates the time I spend working out. But one thing ' s for sure — that football player over there ain ' t got nothing on me. Flex ... I ' ve got to make my muscles bigger than his. I think I won. I ' m sure I did. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... Cluck, cluck, cluck. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ...Wait a minute. Have I been cluck- ing like a chicken? No, surely not. The hypnotist man is saying that I am about to be in a dance con- test. I don ' t like to dance In front of people, but ... this music just makes me want to dance! I ' ve got rhythm and I don ' t care what anyone thinks. This girl beside me doesn ' t have any coordination at all. I ' m sure glad I ' m not making a fool out of myself as

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This is one of those plays that does not try to make specta- tors feel they are watching scenes from real life. In fact, if a member of the audience manages to forget he or she is sitting in a theater watching actors perform from a script, not only is the show a failure but that audience member would do well to seek psychi- atric help. I went with my ex-girlfriend to see The Skin of Our Teeth. Just as we were both aware we were watching a performance onstage, we both knew we were acting roles as we sat there in our seats. She and 1 were both pre- tending nothing sour had ever occurred between us. Also, since we both knew most of the cast, in their off- stage roles as drama students and friends, we pretended not to be surprised when mild-mannered, light-hearted Daryl Crittenden or kind, energetic Krissy Warren flared in raw anger or trembled in emotional pain. For a while, she and I pretended to be old friends instead of old loves, and pretended not to know Anna Brooks or Mark Hampton or Annelle Caspers. Cast and audience played their roles with dedication and bril- liance. My ex, Beth, is now a student of drama at the University of Alabama. She has been onstage several times, in a variety of roles. I met her when she per- formed the role of Abigail and 1 played Reverend Hale in The Crucible. Most of the actors in The Skin of Our Teeth had been in the audience during the run of Crucible, just as most of the cast of Crucible found themselves sitting in Norton Auditorium a year later to watch the former audience of our sl|p| perform a show for us. Tit for tat. Quid pro quo. You show me yours, Fll show vmi mine. Etc. ' ]V%|k,mho played the lead role of Antrobus in Skin, llfes Superman, Star Wars and Austin Powers. nous spring, he and 1 were in The Tempest pre-Phantom Menace, and every day he gushe(fnews about the irripending Star Wars flick. As Antrobus, Mark cheated on his wife, attempted to kill his son (who, granted, was also trying to kill him), and repeatedly saved humanity from extinction. Antrobus probably would not like Star Wars or Austin Powers. Everyone likes Superman. Rachael Scanlon made her first appfrafi-ance play as a mammoth. That ' s right — she entered wear- ing a large muppetesque costume. 1 did my first play with Rachael: she was Juliet and I was Paris, the guy Juliet kills herself in order to avoid marrying, in Romeo and Juliet. And Daryl was in RSuJ as well, as was Heather Cannon (Fortuneteller). Rachael made a fine Juliet and she made a fine mammoth. You can ' t say that about everyone. The p toget ce m So Beth and I sat in the audience, aware we were an audience and aware we were not boyfriend girl- friend. She had a new boyfri|ni, in Tuscaloosa, but I was still as single as a slice of cheese. With my social skills, I was also as hermetically sealed as a slice of cheese, but not as orange or as square. ig| bMI I Anyway, audiences share an intimacy not com- in most parts of lives — there are few other places, besides an auditoriuiii. where a group of strangers siFtogeS er quietly S find themselves pro- foundly moved, sometimes to the point of tears. In fact, auditoriums and funeral homes are about the only locations I can think of where people cry in public. Laugliing happens all over the world. Crying hap- pens in only a few sanctioned spots. Beth and 1 sat in 20 the auditorium watching our friends move an entire the audience nearly to tears, to laughter, to reflection, to a hundred other emotions, and somewhere in the last act Beth and 1 were moved to hold hands. After the show, Anna Brooks, whom we had just watched resist floods and famines and other family crises, joined us for a late dinner at IHOP. Anna ' s boyfriend came with us but they broke up a few days later. I hope it was nothing I said. The university ' s production of The Skin of Our