By Gerrit Goodwin/campus news editor
The NE drama program is sponsoring a Mardi Gras parade beginning at 10 a.m. Feb. 9.
NE drama associate professor Jakie Cabe has been organizing the parade and recently moved the deadline for participant sign-up to Feb. 5.
Cabe said currently the Drama Club, French Club and music department’s drum line have signed up.
“I think a lot of people were thinking they needed some big vehicle or trailer to participate or be on someone’s float,” he said. “It can literally be a bicycle, three people with rolling suitcases, a little red wagon decorated, several students with wheelie tennis shoes and purple streamers taped on, ‘borrowed’ shopping carts from Target or Wal-Mart, a small marching band or even better, a big marching band.”
Cabe said the parade allows students to experience the history and culture of the bayou. And for those from Louisiana, such as Cabe, it’s a great homesick cure.
In addition to the free beads and trinkets that will be handed out during the parade, Cabe said students at the end of the parade can enjoy genuine bayou cuisine such as gumbo and king cake.
Drama Club president Rani Stromberg said her club is preparing for the event by making stickers of upcoming events and attaching them to beads.
“We will also be decorating a mule and trailer the morning of the parade, so designs and any accompanying inspiration will come in the moment,” she said.
Stromberg said entering last year’s parade was a lot of fun for the club.
“We brought down masks from previous shows and other props, but there are always a couple members who go all out for Mardi Gras and arrive in their own costumes. Decorating our float was kind of chaotic but in an amusing way as tape and streamers went flying around,” she said. “It’s rather odd, but one of my favorite things about last year was the students who weren’t quite sure what was happening as the parade went by but were happy enough to take the candy and beads we were throwing.”
Stromberg said the parade is an effective way to promote an organization’s events with their bead tactics proving especially effective last year.
“I remember a number of people last year went to the theater department’s production of Romeo and Juliet and cited the beads as the reason they came,” she said.
Stromberg said she hopes for the same effect with this year’s production of The Comedy of Errors, which runs March 2-5 and Chicago, which runs April 27-30.
French Club president Ashley Koeneke said this is her club’s second year to participate, and members are excited.
“For me personally, I was an organizer for the first Mardi Gras here at NE Campus. I was the stage manager of Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare, and our director wanted to advertise with a parade,” she said. “Apparently, people and staff really enjoyed the event, so the second year the theater department invited other departments to join in.”
Koeneke said the parade will provide the French Club a great chance to spread awareness and talk about upcoming events.
“Our next event is on March 9, where we will be showing a French film with English subtitles to the general public,” she said. “We are also looking into another trip to the Kimbell Art Museum like we did last semester.”
