In spring 2016, Harding hosted one of the most unique Spring Sing sho\\·s to date. For only the second time in its history, the musical department ca.-t four male students as the Spring Sing hosts: alumnijesse Hixson and ~ ate Lowe, and seniors Thomas \\'illiams and \aron Young. Traclitionall>·, with the exception of the 2010 sho,,·, Spring Sing was hosted by two men and two women. '·\\"hen I found out that the sho,,· was going to be hosted by all guys I just thought, "Alright, let's do this,"" LO\\"C aid. "I knew that th(' p1-c,·ious shmr with all male hosts wa. a really big hit, so I was excited to take mrnership of our show, and that we had the opportunity to make something really unique." The show's theme was "Retro-bution.'· It went back through the 70s and 80s, highlighting the e,·ents and emotions of the U.S. through the popular music of the clay. Young said the theme ,,·a wry close to hi5 heart. "J\fy parents [raised me] on 80s music," Young said. "~1y parents would pop in an ABBA CD and we'd go on a road trip. I have some really strong emotional ties to 70s and 80s music. For me, being able to sing some of the hits was awesome. l\Iy solo was 'l\Ian in the l\1irror· by l\Iichacljackson. lt was really all about bringing the mu ic to life.'' The songs were not the only pan of the Spring Sing process to dig into the hosts' emotions. Injanuary 2016, Blake Hunter, a Spring Sing choreographer and student at Harding passed a,rny. Hixson, a second-time former Spring Sing host, said he was ,-cry close to Hunter. ''Blake·s passing happened inJ anuary after we cam back from [C hristma5] break, which is the beginning of the whole pring Sing process;· Hixson said. "Blake was Spring Sing to a lot of people. I had never been a pan of [Spring Sing] \\·ithout Blake. It was definitely completely new territory for all of us. It wa. a challenge because it's hard to go through something like that - to have such a tragedy happen - and then to think about dancing and entertaining people. In a way, finishing Spring Sing and doing it \\'ell was honoring to him. I think we all got into that mindset. and we ended up putting out a performance that he would hm·e been really proud of." .For Hixson, Spring Sing was a way for the four hosts, ensemble and club hows to honor Hunter and all that he comributed to the university and the Department of Theatre. ~PHI\(, \ I\L <( ()<J
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc5NA==