CMU School of Drama


Thursday, March 30, 2017

Greek Sing

www.cmu.edu/news: Carnegie Mellon University's Greek community is stepping up to help children cope while their parents battle cancer.

CMU fraternities and sororities have set a goal of raising $150,000 over the next two years for the university's Camp Kesem chapter, which trains college students to run and manage a free summer camp for children of parents with cancer. This year's fundraising effort culminates with Greek Sing at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 1, in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Oakland.

7 comments:

Zak Biggins said...

Greek sing is such a cool tradition we have here at Carnegie Mellon! I know many of the school of drama students, design production in particular, are involved! Greek sing almost makes me a little jealous and envious of greek life. Greek life at Carnegie Mellon seems to be a lot more relaxed and nicer comparatively to other schools. I mean they still have formals and events and bigs/littles but they aren't nearly as mean and as elitist holistically as compared to the depiction of greek life/culture in mass media. I also know that right now is a heavy time for the sororities and fraternities because they are in the middle of building their booths and buggy. I am looking forward to carnival to be able to see these events take place. These traditions such as buggy, booth, and Greek Sing continue to make Carnegie Mellon unique and ooh so cool.

Evan Schild said...

Greek sing is an amazing tradition Carnegie Mellon Greek life takes apart in. Just like Zak mentioned many School of Drama students are involved. Just in the Freshman Design class I know of three! It gives the School of Drama students an opportunity to design there freshman year! Another amazing thing that Greek sing does is that it showcases musicals to a lot more people. Just this year they are singing from "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” more people will learn different types of musicals! The most amazing thing that Greek sing does is that all of the money goes to charity. I am so proud to be a part of Carnegie Mellon in times like this. The money raised will go to trains college students to run and manage a free summer camp for children of parents with cancer. Every child and counselor that go through this program are amazing people and I am so proud of everyone who is involved in this. Can’t wait to see the show!

Vanessa Ramon said...

Oh Greek Sing. I have herd so much about it in the past and coming tomorrow, I will have experienced it for myself. I like what the article said about this event bringing together the greek community rather than making it more competitive. I think its really cool that sororities and fraternities come together to build and rehearse an entire show, all for charity. Not only that, but plan several philanthropic events that also go to supporting Camp Kesem. I haven't been a part of the entire process, but I was recruited to help "lead the crew". SO I went to work. It was interesting coming into such a different type of production. A production where the sets need to be set up and struck in 1 minute and are held up by frat men. At first I was a little overwhelmed by the seemingly impossible production, but then without even realizing, I began to have a blast. After all, I always say I'm after a challenge and whats more of a challenge than coming into a show 3 days before we open with seemingly no organization? I have really enjoyed being able to use the skills I am learning in school and apply them to such a fun situation. Everyone involved has worked so hard and I hope you get a chance to come watch!

Emily Lawrence said...

I am really impressed by the amount of work that has been occurring to make sure that this event happens. I have talked to many people who have been dedicating a large amount of their time towards this event this past week, and I am excited to see it. From what I have heard it is going to be very entertaining and worth the time and money. I was originally under the impression that this event was to raise money for the sororities and fraternities, but the fact that it is for Camp Kesem makes the whole event even more worth it. I am definitely going to attend the performance tonight now that I know it is to help people who need it rather than people who want it. It will also just be fun to see friends performing who typically don’t perform and to see everyone just have fun with what they have been given. I am very excited to see the show tonight, and I am even more excited to see how much money they are able to raise for the camp.

Chris Calder said...

Greek Sing was definitely one of my highlights of last year. It came right as the year was starting to wind down and was a great way for me to get closer to the people in my fraternity. I must say that I was very impressed with the results of some of the organizations. It really goes to show the hidden talent that people have (computer science genius by day and campus superstar by night). SAE sees this event as purely a way to have fun and to make people laugh. Most of the other organizations see this as an extreme competition and fight to the death. At the end of the day, it is a great way to have friendly competition between the different organizations and I am glad that I get to be part of something like Greek Sing every year. It goes to show how Carnegie Mellon Greek life serves as a nice break from the stressful academic culture at CMU.

Ali Whyte said...

I was the lighting designer for this event last night and I was thoroughly impressed. I had heard in the weeks leading up to this that it was one fo the biggest events of the year and people really put in a lot to make it happen and happen well. I did not expect the level or quality and dedication and quite frankly scale that I saw last night. One group rewrote Book of Mormon, another created a saga about tools in a Lowe's, there was a Dora story involved, and of course some cutting but not rewriting of contemporary hits like Moana. The scenic and costume elements were well done, and you could tell that all of the people there spent a good amount of time and energy into everything happening onstage. I didn't realise the impact of the fundraising aspect of this event until the awards ceremony and speeches given by those who have been helped by the efforts of the camp they were supporting. They even broke the fundraising record this year, which is likely going to make a big difference to a lot of people.

Claire Farrokh said...

Greek Sing is a really great tradition that Carnegie Mellon's Greek community puts in a lot of work on every year. I went last year, and while it was kind of painful to watch a lot of my favorite musicals being smushed into thrieeen minutes and performed by fraternity brothers, it's still all supporting a really great cause. This year all the proceeds went to Camp Kesem, which is a fantastic organization that proivdes a supportive environment for children whose parents are affected by cancer. While I did not attend Greek Sing this year, my boyfriend and his roommates went and enjoyed being with the CMU community and supporting this great organization. It's also a great experience for a lot of people who have never been involved in theatre to sort of dip their toe in and see how insane and mildly rewarding it is. It's always really exciting to see a lot of people come together for a cause