The show goes on

The dizzying winter storm that swept through Bloomington on Saturday night kept many resident Hoosiers indoors and off the roads. IU's streets were noticeably empty, and the few cars out driving kept to a nervous snail's pace. \nHowever, the crowds surrounding the IU Auditorium proved that snow or no snow, the show must go on. Under a blanket of snowy haze, crowds of IU Sing performers and production staff braved the chill and wetness to keep the show running. Performance groups had to walk all the way from the residence hall or greek house to the IU Auditorium and then had to wait outside the rear stage entrances to the auditorium before being allowed backstage. \nSongleaders pleaded for their performers to stop throwing snowballs at each other and a group of heavily eye-shadowed young men and women struggled to keep the slush from smearing their make-up. Under the Neal Marshall Education Center's overhang nearby, a cluster of band members, with plastic trash bags wrapped around their guitars and microphones as impromptu snow protection, huddled in a group hug to keep warm. Meanwhile, IU Student Foundation members tried to keep things running smoothly. \nColleen Goddard, a junior and member of IUSF, said despite the snow, everything was running smoothly and on schedule.\n"Everyone seems excited, ready to perform and find out the final results," she said. \nGoddard, who was stationed downstairs monitoring the chorus room, said IUSF was trying not to bend the rules for Saturday's performance groups in order to keep the competition fair. Since IU Sing runs for two nights, keeping the rules consistent for both Friday and Saturday, despite Saturday's snow storm, was the only way to ensure a fair competition, Goddard said.\nIU Auditorium officials were working overtime to clear the snow and make the show run as smoothly as possible, said John DeLong, the IU Auditorium stage manager. Campus Division even put out extra snow crews to accommodate the crowds.\n"The snow just makes it a bigger hassle for the groups to walk from their dorms and houses all the way down here, but there haven't been any major problems," he said. "The house is still pretty strong (in attendance), but I'm sure the snow might have turned some people away."\nOnce backstage, the performance groups got a chance to dry off and seemed to quickly perk up. \n"Walking down here was kind of a pain," said freshman Will Douglas, who performed with his fraternity, Sigma Nu. "But everyone was pretty excited backstage." \nThe atmosphere on "the dock," the area stage right where performance groups are lined up before taking the stage, was filled with nervous energy. Performers struggled to wish each other luck and stay quiet while songleaders hurried to add final touches of stage make-up and mouthed, "Have fun!" and "Smile!" to their performers. \nFrom the other side of the stage, production staff members and IU Sing emcees watched the performances from television monitors and danced along to the music. \n"IU Sing is a genre all its own," DeLong said. "There's definitely a different environment with students instead of professional performance groups. I spend most of my time running around trying to take care of things, but I've definitely been enjoying it all." \nDouglas also seemed pleased with his IU Sing experience. \n"It's something I'll look back on and laugh about but probably not want to do again," he said. "It was fun because we got a few good laughs during the show, and that was definitely the best performance we've ever done"