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PAGE 8 HOMECOMING 2014
Jayhawk Jingles highlights students' musical talent
RYAN MILLER
@Dyonmiller LINK
A student group performs during Jayhawk Jingles as part of Homecoming Week on Oct. 3, 2013. This year's show will take place Wednesday.
Student groups perform short skits and songs during the Jayhawk Jingles event on Oct. 3, 2013.
With Homecoming back in the spotlight this week, it's time to look forward to Jayhawk Jingles. The show will take place Wednesday from 6-9 p.m. at the Adams Alumni Center.
Jayhawk Jingles is part of the Homecoming Food Fest at the Alumni Center this year, and groups can earn points for Homecoming Week by participating in the event.
Michael Garrett, a senior from Lenexa and a campus outreach chair for the event, said the participants in jingles bring other people from their organizations to watch and cheer on their friends in the event, as well as get free food while they are there.
"You make up a seven-minute song and skit, and groups take that a lot of different ways," Garrett said of the basic premise of the Jingles.
He said that some people sing the whole time, and some people do singing and a skit, like a musical, while others do a medley of songs.
There is no lip syncing involved because, most of the time, the students are creating their own lyrics. Students often will take popular songs and re-word them to relate to Lawrence and the University.
Garrett says that groups also usually aim to include the theme of Homecoming into the Jingles. This year's theme is "Roll with the Hawks."
On Sunday night when Homecoming Week starts, the groups come in to audition.
"Usually they're really, really rough, because they haven't gotten a lot of practice yet," he
said. "We just want to see if it's going to go anywhere."
Specifically, Garrett and the committee need to know if the groups have an idea of what they're going to do and have songs and a theme picked out
"We have a panel of alumni judges, and they love doing it," Garrett said.
According to the Alumni Association's website, the judges are selected by the Campus Outreach Chairs and Awards Chair.
The judges. remain a secret until the night of the performance, and every effort is made to select impartial judges not affiliated with the groups that are participating in the event.
criteria to select the winners. They judge on overall effect and audience appeal, group coordination and participation, clearness and volume, the costumes and finally the groups' cooperation.
The judges use certain
On Tuesday, dress rehearsals occur. There, the groups bring in their costumes and practice to ensure that performances are within the time limit. The show takes place the next evening.
At the end of the night, after
[Performing in Jayhawk Jingles] was interesting because we had to incorporate what KU is all about. So I really learned a lot from our skit.
ELLARIE WOOLPERT
Sophomore from Topeka
won the event.
every group has gone, the panel of judges pick their top three choices, and those three are chosen as the winners of Jayhawk Jingles.
"I got asked to do it randomly last year, and it was a lot of fun," Woolpert said. "I'd done musicals and shows the year before in high school, so I was able to do the Jingles pretty easily."
Ellarie Woolpert, a sophomore from Topeka, took part in the Jayhawk Jingles with her Kappa Alpha Theta sorority partnered with the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity last year.
"It was interesting because we had to incorporate what KU is all about," she said. "So I really learned a lot from our skit."
Woolpert said the Jingles last year was also a learning experience. Last year, her sorority and their partners
Garrett said last year's
groups signed up for the competition.
Jingles only involved greek organizations. He hopes the show gets some other groups because he said it's fun if you have good diversity in the groups participating.
Garrett said that because of the Food Fest part of the event, vendors from Lawrence, Kansas City and other areas come and give away food.
This year, the show has eight
Each attendee will be given three tickets for food, with each ticket providing one portion from any of the vendors.
Edited by Emily Brown
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