By Hannah Stumpf | Echo
Nostalgia Night will take place in Rediger Chapel on Saturday, May 5, at 8 p.m.
The theme for this year's show will be Live From Dracula's Castle. The Student Activities Council (SAC) has been planning the event since early February.
Themes for Nostalgia Night and other similar events on campus are decided by SAC. Each member of the cabinet brought three ideas to the February meeting. Then, the cabinet brainstormed which theme was the most unique, creative, beneficial and inclusive. SAC took two weeks to finally settle on the theme.
"We just feel it's really unique, unexpected," said senior Brooke McKenzie, president of SAC. "It isn't necessarily playing favorites for anyone in terms of someone really relating to this, but . . . something we think we can bring people in to relate to because it's so off the wall."
McKenzie said the theme is meant to be a spoof of creature features and is meant to be funny and lighthearted, not scary.
After a theme is chosen, SAC starts to brainstorm how to make it cohesive with emcee's, different plots and decorations. The emcee's for Nostalgia Night 2018 are junior Will Kercher and freshman Zach Winters. SAC chose Kercher and Winters because they had the best Dracula impersonation.
A new feature to this year's show will be multimedia incorporated into the emcee's plot. SAC hired a few film students to produce the multimedia in order to take off some of the pressure emcee's might be under, considering the final weeks of the semester do not allow students to make commercial submissions as they normally would.
When choosing the acts, SAC looked for a wide range of music genres to present through the night. The cabinet chose acts based on preparedness, good song choice, stage presence and strong musicality, both vocal and instruments.
Junior Payton Scott has participated in MyGen before, but Saturday will be her first Nostalgia Night performance. Scott did not know what to expect before the show, but singing with friends made the process exciting.
Acts are generally kept a secret before the night of the show, but Scott hinted that her act was from her favorite romantic comedy.
"We're going to be singing something a little dreamy," Scott said.
Senior Caleb Grubb has performed in Nostalgia Night twice prior to this year's performance. For Grubb, every time his group comes on stage it feels like a new song.
Grubb still gets nervous playing in front of a large audience, so he urges underclassmen who would like to perform next year to try out.
"Just go for it," Grubb said. "Find a few friends and practice early. Mistakes are okay. No one is perfect on stage. The night is more about having fun with the larger Taylor community."
Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $5.
