In the back room, a group of performers flutter about the dressing room, anxiously chattering amongst themselves, visibly excited about the night’s events. They’ve been practicing their skit for months in preparation for this night, and it’s finally time to see the fruits of their labor.

A few doors down, a solo vocalist stares at the floor, paralyzed by her fear of singing alone in front of audiences. Tonight will be her first night on the big stage in front of hundreds of people, and she is nervous. However, she knows this is the best place to premier her talent.

At the end of the hall, a new local band tunes its guitars and practices chord progressions in its head. Tonight is its chance to make its name known within the community, and in order to gain a following, the technique and the energy of the performance must be flawless.

A few are apprehensive. Others are eager. All are excited.

For some, tonight’s gig will be the most significant show they have ever performed. For others, it will be merely the beginning of their “Step into Stardom.”

Varieties, a university-wide talent show, has held a place on the Iowa State calendar for 67 years, and this year won’t be an exception.

Every spring, the Iowa State Varieties Central Committee (VCC) initiates its own star search, scouting out Iowa State performers who are willing enough to stand on stage for a few minutes and talented enough to provide entertainment in the process.

Unfortunately, unlike in the T.V. show, “Star Search,” cash prizes aren’t awarded. Nevertheless, the entertainers contending for first prize compete vigorously as if they were competing for cash. The performers toil night after night, working to polish that which seems impossible to perfect.

In the end, the best act gets the best prize; the most talented wins the trophy.

Way back when

Iowa State has always had talent.

In 1932, the ISU Mortar Board decided to take advantage of that talent by initiating a new program called Campus Varieties designed to utilize the new (3-year-old) Memorial Union to offer free entertainment to students.

The program provided free entertainment every Friday night for 10 weeks of the winter quarter to anyone who was interested in watching Iowa State and the Ames community take the stage.

And it was a success.

Talent from all around the campus and the Ames community flocked to the Great Hall to be entertained by or participate in the one and a half hour shows. Performances included everything from dancing to singing to instrumental music to one-act skits.

Due to its popularity, the university decided to sponsor the event as a part of its responsibilities to the Memorial Union Council, and was soon joined in sponsorship by the Memorial Union Council.

When the Memorial Union Council had to withdraw its sponsorship to help with the war effort, the Memorial Union Student Union Board stepped in and took the reins.

Throughout the next few years, the Student Union Board altered the rules and procedures of the event, refining it to the point that it was a judged contest with a preliminary round and a final contest.

By 1958, a wooden traveling trophy was carved by Iowa State alum and nationally known sculptor Christian Petersen, and was named the Sweepstakes Trophy.

It wasn’t until 1963 that the event took on its present state. Today, in 1999, the event consists of three weekends of performances followed by one final weekend of Sweepstakes competition.

Spreading the word

Change is good, and even more change is better.

Varieties started out as a community event, but after a few years of development, it became an event only for the greek community. Due to the efforts of the VCC committee over the last couple years, the event is being reclaimed as an activity for all of Iowa State.

Casey Powers, producer for Varieties, said when he first became involved in Varieties four years ago, it was mostly a greek event. However, he said, since then, the Student Union Board has done quite a bit to promote the event to the non-greek community.

“[SUB] has gone about trying to find a broader base of people to perform,” Powers said.

The VCC has regained student interest among the non-greek communities by visiting different campus groups.

“We went to the vice president meetings for dorm floors and talked to them about what Varieties was about,” Cathy Roehl, co-marketing co-chair said. “We also handed out informative fliers and table tents.”

Roehl said the committee hopes that the non-greek groups who have agreed to participate in Varieties this year will continue to participate in upcoming years.

“We’re trying to get [the event] to snowball, where the [non-greek] groups will be able to do more in upcoming years and others will join them and try it themselves.”

Co-emcees and vignettes co-chair Jessie Scofield said her goal as a co-chair was to get a variety of campus groups involved in the show.

“As far as vignettes and emcees were concerned, I didn’t just want bands to perform, I wanted to find varied talents,” Scofield said.

As a result of the efforts of Scofield and her fellow emcees/vignettes co-chair, Kristy Henry, the Varieties vignettes lineup will include acts such as a Tae Kwon Do demonstration, a local ska band, and a gospel choir, among others.

In addition to recruiting a broader base of performers, the committee has also tried to reach out to a broader audience this year.

Roehl said the publicity committee plans to publicize the event on local radio station, KCCQ, and is currently trying to get coverage from newspapers and T.V. stations in Ames and Des Moines.

“We’re basically sending press releases everywhere in Ames and Des Moines,” Roehl said. “Ten to 15 years ago, [Varieties] was a thing the whole community came to. We’re trying to get it back to where it’s more of a campus and community-wide thing.”

Keeping up with the times

Though the most drastic changes were made while the event was in its beginning stages (pun intended), little changes are made every year to improve the quality of the show.

One of the major changes the committee decided to make this year was deciding that nine skits would be able to compete at the second-cuts level.

“We had the skit quality to do it [this year],” Powers said.

Since nine skits will be competing over the next three weeks, the competition is expected to be thicker than ever before.

But according to Assistant Producer Laura Tripple, the fact that more skits are going to be involved in the semi-final rounds this year isn’t a surprise.

“I’ve seen the quality of the skits, vignettes and emcees improve over the years,” Tripple said.

And the trophy goes to…

Judging the performances of nine different skits, six vignettes and three groups of emcees may seem like a grueling task, but to the panels of judges who have offered their time to judge this year’s competition, it’s nothing short of a delightful dilemma.

“We try to include university faculty and prominent figures in the Ames community,” Tripple said. “We also want people who will enjoy the show.”

In order to get a wide variety of opinions, two panels of judges are chosen to watch each of the second-cuts performances. An entirely new panel will judge the final Sweepstakes show.

Since the list of criteria the acts will be judged on is long and complicated, a lot of input is needed.

Steff Klein, a judges and trophies co-chair, said the skits are judged by such things as their plot, how well the cast members enunciate during their musical numbers and whether or not the cast stays in character throughout the show.

Another big factor during the second cut performances is how well the cast handles their choreography.

“We like to see polished choreography,” Klein said.

One of the most important parts of being a good judge is being objective, so the VCC is trying hard to make sure the judges aren’t influenced by anything but the performances when they’re judging.

“We’ve really cut down on labeling groups by house, religious or greek affiliation,” Roehl said. “We’ve taken a lot more simplified approach so [the audience] sees the people performing, not the group.”

For the next three weekends, Iowa State students and members of the Ames community will be invited to attend the second cuts in the Great Hall, to judge for themselves who is worthy of the great trophy.

At midnight on Feb. 13 it will be revealed which of the acts will go on to compete at the final level on Feb. 26 and 27.

Until then, it’s showtime.