Sooner Scandals!

Despite the name there is nothing scandalous about this post... Apart from maybe the breaking down of social 'cool' barriers, but thats kinda what I like about it.

Sooner Scandals is an annual show hosted by the Greek community of Sororities and Fraternities on campus and performed throughout the last week of March. Each participating Fraternity must ask a Sorority of their choice to team up with them in creating a 12 minute musical for the show... A sorority may get one, none or several invitations from different Fraternities. Its almost like having to choose a date to prom every year, accept you are rejected by over 200 girls with just one 'no', brutal. This year my Sorority (Gamma Phi Beta) accepted an invitation from the Fraternity Alpha Tau Omega.

Each year a panel of judges is put together to release a theme for the show, this years theme was 'And So It Was Said' challenging the groups to created a mini musical based on any famous quote of their choice, ours was one from Eleanor Roosevelt;

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

Once the theme has been released the teams have 3 months to create their musical, auditions are held at the Sorority houses and all members are allowed to audition. In the fall semester they hold a similar show called 'U-Sing' however only freshman are allowed to participate.

What I loved so much about Scandals was the fact that men and women studying an array of subjects outside of performing arts still had a chance to perform and show off their amazing voices/dance skills/acting skills (whatever it may be) without having to dedicate their academic career to it. For those of you who don't know, I studied dance as a subject during college and for me dancing died as a hobby when it died as a subject. If this kind of opportunity had been available I would have jumped at it, and i'm sure i'm not the only one at the University of Hertfordshire who thinks this way. The real problem however is not the lack of opportunity at home but the lack of acceptance, it is not 'cool' for a 20-something year old woman or man to want to perform in a cheesy musical in front of their peers - here it is very cool (cue the 'Oklahoma' musical jokes). I was lucky enough to see the opening show on Thursday, which was sold out, primarily by members of the sororities/fraternities there to support their talented friends.

Once each team has written their musical, chosen their stars and rehearsed it a few times they have to try out for the show.. Only 6 teams make it to the show. This year was an important one for Gamma Phi Beta as they made the show for the first time in several years and one of my close friends Katie was a dancer/singer so I was very excited for the chance to see her perform!

Most of the performances were cheesy with beautiful messages, one was a newer version of Les Miserables (which I kinda think was cheating as they're meant to write original scripts but it was still an amazing performance, probably the best although I shouldn't admit it). Ours 'Camp Arrowhead' was about a boy fulfilling his dreams during a week at summer camp, hence the quote. It was fun and colourful and I honestly really enjoyed it, it made me really miss watching school performances and really appreciate the opportunity to still feel young enough to enjoy these sorts of things.