All students watched the skits performed at Friday’s spirit rally, but not everyone is aware of the effort that each grade’s sikit committee put in to the productions.

The freshman class was the most timely in their skit production, starting preparation two days after committees were announced and finishing their last rehearsal two days before the rally.

“It’s been very smooth,” said Divija Bhimaraju (9), one of the freshman skit leaders, of the process. “Everyone contributed a lot, and practices were almost always focused.”

The eight freshman in the skit committee rehearsed mostly on spirit night and chose to say their lines live instead of pre-recording the audio like the other classes. To get a better feel for the Mickey Mouse theme, each skit participant watched half an hour of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show.

“We realized by the nature of the theme our class had chosen that our skit was going to be lame,” Divija said. “So we thought we might as well make it cheesy.”

The sophomore class went through several revisions before arriving at their final product, a lighthearted story in which sophomores save the other classes. The skit was originally completely different, but after receiving feedback that it sounded too cynical, the sophomores rewrote the script during spirit night.

Another problem the sophomores faced was a lack of workers. “Many people did sign up,” said Sravya Cherukuri (10), one of the skit committee leaders. “But due to conflicts few participated.”

Still, Sravya thinks that the few who worked on the skit did a good job. The sophomores finished their audio file Wednesday and ran their first rehearsal Thursday.

“The process has been fun just by thinking of cool ways to incorporate the other classes themes and make jokes,” she said. “It honestly made me feel closer to the people I never really had a chance to talk to.”

Gallery • 5 Photos

Meilan Steimle

Juniors enter the field as Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

Like the sophomores, the juniors had their first rehearsal the day before the rally. Sanil Rajput (11), one of the skit leaders, described that it was stressful to prepare in such a short period of time while juggling a packed junior schedule.

“Since we’re juniors, we’re all very busy,” he said. “It’s difficult to bring all the participants together.

The juniors drew inspiration for their script from pop culture and the Harry Potter universe for theme coherency. Despite the difficulties in putting the skit together, Sanil remained optimistic about his class’s chances.

“I don’t feel ready for tomorrow,” he said. “But 2016 is used to only having one run through. This year we are filled with passion and spirit and I believe we will pull through.”

Sanil Rajput (11)

In their last year before graduation, the senior class had the largest participation in their skit, with around twenty participants. The seniors stayed ahead of the sophomores and juniors in terms of time management, recording voiceovers the before spirit week and starting rehearsals on Monday.

“Inspiration for the skit idea to be honest came from many many late night Google Hangouts between me and [Riya Godbole (12)],” Arjun Ashok (12) said, one of the two senior class skit leaders. “After a point the idea just came to us.”

Although Arjun acknowledged a few “hiccups” in the process, he felt pleased with the end product and the humor involved.

“ I think we’ll rock it,” Arjun said. “I have the utmost confidence that it will turn out well for us.”

Rankings for skit performances among the classes will be announced at a later date.