Late night rehearsals, last minute set changes and a sudden rash of piano problems have been plaguing several Iowa State performers. And with only a day left before the second round of Varieties competitions, some are becoming increasingly nervous.

“It’ll go well and we have practiced well, but we are all a bit nervous,” Amy Collins, a senior in journalism and cast member of the Salt Company’s skit, said. “It’s only the second or third time we’ve performed on stage and it’s all a new experience.”

Varieties itself is not a new ISU experience. This year marks the 66th anniversary of Student Union Board (SUB) sponsored Varieties. This year’s show, “Spotlight of Imagination,” will feature a wide spectrum of entertainment from participating ISU students in the forms of vignettes, emcees and skits.

Beginning competition in the fall semester, Varieties hold the first cut, or first competition, so all those who want to participate can. Those who make it get the opportunity to continue onto the second cut.

Second cut competitions will be held the next three Saturdays. Each performance will include one set of emcees, four vignettes (20 to 25 minutes each) and two skits (about 30 minutes each). Winners of the second cuts will go onto the Sweepstakes for a chance to win the entire competition.

Preparing for the second cut

A constant steam of activity has been coming out of the Great Hall in the Memorial Union this week as Saturday’s performers prepare. With Sublime playing quietly overhead, stage crews busy shouting orders and a band making final preparations, the lights dim and the curtain opens as the cast of “Factory Fued” takes the stage.

“[The skit] takes place during the ’40s,” Carolyn Kapaska, a junior in journalism and mass communication and skit director, said. “It’s about a factory owner who gets called off to war and his wife is going with him. He has to figure out who will take over the [steel] factory.

“He chooses his daughter,” Kapaska continued. “This causes a lot of problems because people don’t accept a women taking charge. There are a lot of gender questions.”

With members of Alpha Chi Omega and Alpha Gamma Rho, the 50-person cast is directed by Melissa Cross, a senior in child and family services, Dave Wendt, a sophomore in agricultural education and John Schmidt, a sophomore in animal science/pre-vet.

The cast has been working with the skit since October; however, the idea for it developed last summer.

“This summer my roommate and I were watching the news and saw a strike and thought, ‘What a good thing to base a Varieties skit on,'” Kapaska said. “Stuff just kept piling up and we began to put it all together.”

Another aspect of “Factory Fued” that makes it unique is that it is mostly based on music. A saxophone, two trombone players, a trapset and a keyboard player make up a small “orchestra” for the skit and will be playing music from “Le Mis,” “Rent,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “Swingers.”

The only serious problem the cast faced was when the piano player unexpectedly quit. “But we found a new one and she’s quite good,” Kapaska said.

Facing challenges of their own, the cast of “East Side/West Side,” performed by the Salt Company, has been making last minute prop and set changes to meet regulations.

“There have been a couple of long nights working out the details,” Collins said. “But they will be taken care of.”

Like “Factory Fued,” the Salt Company’s production takes a satirical view at a serious concern — the ISU parking problem.

“[The skit] is centered around the parking problem and the sacrifices the Campanile makes so the students can be happy,” Collins said.

But the Salt Company isn’t participating in Varieties to mock the parking situation. “Varieties is usually thought of as a Greek event,” Collins said. “We thought it would be a good opportunity for another campus group to get involved, and so we can show people who we are.”

There will also be three vignettes performing — “Monte Carlo,” Merinda Squires and “New Beginnings.” After another loss of a piano player, the fourth vignette, Chad Mitchell, a senior in marketing, will be unable to perform as scheduled.

With Mitchell out of Saturday’s competition, Squires, a sophomore in sociology, will be the only solo artist with accompaniment.

Squires will be singing a Christian Rock Song, “The Great Divide,” popular radio song “How Do I Live Without You,” and a song from a musical, “Someone Like You.”

“The most difficult thing for me was selecting songs,” Squires said. “I tried to pick songs that reflect different environments.

“I was worried about the Christian song,” she continued. “Varieties is mostly a Greek thing and I wasn’t sure how they’d react to it. I went back and forth and even did surveys. My friends finally told me to just sing it.

“It’ll be a classy affair,” Squires added. “We’ll be wearing gowns and suits so if we stink they can say we looked good.”

In between the two skits and vignettes, emcees “Seven Acoustical Jam” will be entertaining the audience.

Until it is time to take the stage, however, performers will keep reassuring themselves and each other.

A brief history of Varieties

In 1932, the Mortar Board began a program, Campus Varieties, with two purposes — to use the three-year-old Memorial Union and to provide entertainment for students during the Depression.

After a successful turnout, the Memorial Union Council began to sponsor the event in 1933. In 1944, the responsibility of sponsorship moved to the SUB and, in 1948, Varieties became a judged competition.

During the next 10 years, SUB began changing the judging process until it reached a final decision in 1958 to have overall winners. This also marked the development of the Sweepstakes Trophy, a carved wooden traveling trophy.

In 1963, Varieties took its present form and, for the last 35 years, the contest has been judged the same.

The first round of the second cut will be held in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union Saturday at 6:30 and 9 p.m. Tickets are $5 and are available at the door and through TicketMaster.