As the countdown to Spring Sing 2009 fast approaches its end, talk and anticipation about this year’s lineup of student talents and celebrity judges is once more stirring.
However, there is equal hype for a different element of the show that attracts just as much interest every year: Company ““ Spring Sing’s group of student performers who are much more than just a filler between acts.
Notorious for performing comedic musical numbers and sketches, including parodies of pop culture wonders such as “The Hills” and Facebook, this year the troupe is back and prepared to deliver an entertaining and extravagant package to Spring Sing.
This year’s Company, composed of eight returning members and six new members, differs from previous years not only in its composition of new versus old members, but also in the type of talent present in the group.
“We have a lot of good lyricists this year ““ more musicians and singers,” said Sasan Ahoraian, a returning member and a second-year physiological sciences student. “It’s just so much energy. … The sense of humor is so different, it’s cool to see comedy from a different angle.”
In addition to musicians, this year’s Company also spotlights the individual writing, choreographing, filmmaking and acting talents of its performers. However, many of the cast members have never been involved in professional comedy beforehand.
“Besides being in “˜Hamlet’ in the fourth grade, I never did anything like this,” said Dylan Matteson, a fourth-year economics student who is also returning to the group for his second year. “I saw Company perform my freshman and sophomore years and saw how amazing and funny they were and thought, “˜Wow, it could be really fun and I think I could do well.’ So I tried out my junior year and got in.”
However, one thing every Company member holds in common is his or her contribution to the script-writing process.
After completing the selection process in January, which requires both old and potential members to audition, members meet for three hours twice a week throughout winter quarter and three times a week starting spring quarter to pitch and discuss scripts, with weekends devoted to filming.
“It’s hard because there’s a feeling of running out of jokes: You can only make so many Facebook jokes every year,” said Madison Vanderberg, a third-year sociology student returning to Company for her second year. “You can’t always talk about Bruin Walk, the Inverted Fountain, USC. It’s constantly a struggle to come up with new things that are about campus life that we haven’t talked about in other years … and it’s difficult to come up with new things about the same campus.”
However, Company members survive this process by rallying together through positive feedback.
“Nothing is ever personal when we write scripts. We really want to support each other and have everyone write the best scripts possible. Everyone is really good about putting their ego in second place and putting on the best show for UCLA as their first place,” said Michelle Lin, a fourth-year economics student and Company rookie. “In that sense, it’s such a positive community. We’re always on Gchat or Gmail … trying to make the best out of a good idea.”
This process can last until the final days leading up to Spring Sing.
“For the most part, the script is selected by this point and the real challenge is rehearsals,” said David Larsen, a third-year psychology student and one of the directors of Company. “But we don’t want to stop the creative juices. Some of the best ideas have come out of the past several weeks.”
In addition to the challenges of creating and performing new material, this year’s Company also faces the switch of venues from the Los Angeles Tennis Center to Pauley Pavilion.
Though the tennis courts have served as the venue for Spring Sing in recent years, the switch to Pauley Pavilion, where Spring Sing had been held before, allows for about 3,000 more spectators to be seated at the event.
Company members, however, do not feel that the change has limited or hindered their capacity to perform.
Rather, the cast has embraced the change positively as a way to further its performances.
“More people get to see the show. That just makes us even more excited,” Vanderberg said. “It’s just going to be a much grander and even bigger event. The stage is different, there are supposed to be two protrusions, like little catwalks, and the end will be a U-stage, which will be different when we’re choreographing and staging the pieces to take advantage of it. It’s almost like performing into the audience. We’ll project, make things bigger and grander, to get to the audience because everything (is on) such a bigger scale.”
Another perk?
“It takes out the chance of it raining on us and ruining the show that way,” Matteson said. “I think it’s going to be a great atmosphere. It’ll be pretty fun.”