This was no ordinary Late Night BU.
Last Friday’s event drew more than 1,500 students who got to witness a rare collaboration between two different university arenas: Student Affairs and Academic Affairs.
Students in the interactive media department pretty much ran the show, from a rock concert upstairs to a dance room downstairs.
“In the first year that we had a Late Night BU … the Accounting Department … came in and set up something that was like a night at the races,” said Dain Gotto, assistant director of student activities. “That was the only other time, and it was nothing close to this level.”
The night included student impersonations of famous musicians, a Glow and Jump Around game and the dance room, where students could control the what was happening with iPads.
Student performances included impersonations of Prince, Marilyn Manson, Britney Spears and Steven Tyler.
Current Bradley students weren’t the only performers to took the stage. Eric Zuber of the class of ’09 came back to his alma mater to perform a routine he did from his sophomore year as Billie Idol.
“It was a lot of fun,” Zuber said. “It took a lot of work to pull it together, and it was great performing as Billie Idol because he was such an ‘80s icon.”
Zuber said it took at least a month to get all the moves of the performance right. In preparing for Late Night BU, all the performers researched the celebrities they impersonated to learn their performance quirks and signature moves.
Students were able to rate each act via texting and could also text a shout-out to members of the audience and have their message appear on the large screen beside the stage.
In the basement of Markin there was an interactive media room, where students created music using an application on a number of iPads, and spin-art T-shirts for students to design.
For Gotto, the event was more than a good time.
“There were a lot of faculty members, so I’m hoping that sparked some interest (for further collaboration),” he said. “There really are a lot of different ways to integrate.”
