Written by Morgan Wrigley // Graphic by Cooper Turman
In the aftermath of Spring Sing, the directors and performers involved in the “Living Color” show reflected on how they worked together to persevere through some particularly turbulent times during the week of the show.
Spring Sing week brings an intense schedule for many students, and “Living Color,” the show that included women’s social clubs Delta Gamma Rho and Pi Kappa Delta and men’s social club Omega Phi, experienced some unprecedented challenges right off the bat.
“We had two cast members get injured on Super Saturday; one who went to the ER, and one who was able to perform for the shows, but he marked his choreography up until Thursday,” said “Living Color” director sophomore Aubrey Jones.
Jones said there were at least four other injuries that happened over the course of the week. The only other one that resulted in an emergency room visit happened when a cast member dislocated her knee during the Thursday matinee performance.
“I said something kind of jokingly about not getting hurt, as like a real ‘Please don’t get hurt,’ but kind of as an off-handed thing before the show Thursday night,” Jones said.
“And then for Saturday’s shows, we were very adamant that our cast continued to drink water and to stretch. We stretched a lot extra before Saturday shows because we were all tired of the directors having to come out of the audience and say, ‘Who got hurt this time?’”
Freshman Reagan Marks, who was carried offstage and taken to the emergency room after dislocating her knee during the Thursday matinee performance, said the damage resulted from a previous knee injury.
“To not be able to perform and do the big shows that were actually for points was really heartbreaking,” Marks said. “One of my directors went in for me because she had learned all the choreography, so she just took my costume and ran with it.”
Marks said the cast joked that the show was “cursed” due to the injuries that kept happening.
Jones added that the injuries seemed to be a combination of preexisting conditions and unfortunate timing.
“Each individual injury had a logical explanation,” Jones said. “As a show, we weren’t doing anything wrong. Each individual injury could have happened to anybody, to any show. It was just really unfortunate that it kept happening to us.”
One of the “Living Color” choreographers, junior Eli Smith, emphasized that everyone involved in the show effectively made sure all of the performers were taken care of.
“Freak accidents happen, and you just manage that,” Smith said. “And I think it was handled very well.”
Jones said everyone who suffered injuries during the performances is recovering well, and the cast was thankful to persevere through both shows on Saturday with no further injuries.
Despite the unforeseen challenges, the cast of “Living Color” finished strong Saturday night and took home the title of second runner-up and an $800 donation to their charity, Jacob’s Place.
