Last Tuesday, Sept. 20, the hosts and hostesses for Spring Sing 2012 were selected from among 25 hopefuls who auditioned Sunday night, Sept. 18, and from the 17 who made callbacks and performed the following Monday night. This year to go along with the Spring Sing theme of “Slightly Askew,” the judges selected five hosts and hostesses: seniors Caroline Snell, Nate White and Matt Flynn and juniors Emily Helton and Benji Holder.
The last time Harding had five hosts and hostesses for Spring Sing was in 1997’s “Seize the Day,” when three females and two males hosted the show.
“Whenever we are looking for [hosts and hostesses] we always keep an open mind to more than just two males and two females,” said Cindee Stockstill, producer of theatre. “We are looking for the best package available for Spring Sing, such as with the four male hosts we had two years ago.”
Both Snell and White are veteran hosts. Snell was a hostess last year for 2011’s “Coming Home,” and White was a host for 2009’s “Juvenescence” and 2010’s “Spring Sing International.” White said he needed to take a break from Spring Sing last year and decided not to audition. But after watching Spring Sing last year, he said he knew he wanted to audition again as soon as the show was over.
“I had nothing to do with Spring Sing last year,” White said. “I did not audition for host, I did not do it with a club, not even a small part. Instead, I just went to the Friday night show, sat and watched it by myself and after watching it, I knew right then and there I wanted to host again.”
Snell said she is excited to return to the stage again and looks forward to getting to know her fellow hosts and hostess on a deeper level in the months of practice to come.
“Ever since [last year’s] Spring Sing ended I knew I wanted to host again,” Snell said. “I thought and prayed about it a lot over the summer and was pretty concrete in my decision to do it again before school started.”
Flynn, Helton and Holder have all been involved with Spring Sing in some manner during their years at Harding and are involved in other performing groups on campus. Flynn was a Spring Sing director in 2010 for Gamma Sigma Phi and is a member of the Good News Singers.
“The hardest part of auditioning [for host] is having to perform in front of your peers,” Flynn said. “But it is to see how you perform in front of an audience. I was not sure if I wanted to audition, but I got a lot of encouragement from friends and the audition was a whole lot of fun. I did not want to have any regrets.”
Holder was a Spring Sing director for TNT in last year’s show and is a member of Theatron. He is also performing in a lead role as Daddy Warbucks in this year’s Homecoming musical, “Annie.” Holder’s father and uncle were also Spring Sing hosts when they were students at Harding. Holder said his father was host in 1982, which will be exactly 30 years ago this spring.
“This is such an honor to be in this position,” Holder said. “I have wanted to be a host since I came to Harding. I am so looking forward to working with a diverse group of people who have a common love for performing.”
While Helton is not involved in a performing group here at Harding, she has been involved with Zeta Rho and TNT’s Spring Sing in the past and performed the lead role of Millie in her high school’s production of “Thoroughly Modern Millie.”
“I think ‘Slightly Askew’ is going to be very different from past Spring Sing themes,” Helton said. “It is going to be really quirky, but it also is going to surprise the audience. All of the preparation for it will be fun.”
Coming up, the hosts and hostesses will be assisting with ensemble auditions, which will be Nov. 14 and 15.
