Asbury Students Prepare for Upcoming Evening of Friday Night Live

This is an article that I wrote for a journalism class at my university.

Students at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky are preparing to host Friday Night Live this weekend. The campus event will be held on December 1 at the Greathouse Theatre, and it will be directed by undergraduate students Carmen Clemente and Reagan Gibbs.

Friday Night Live began on Asbury’s campus in 2018, and this semester’s show will be held this weekend. The university’s version of Saturday Night Live, it is an evening once a semester where the student body gathers to have a good time. It is student led, and it features a small cast of Asbury students who come together just before finals week to put on a performance of small sketches and improvisation, along with some live music.

The event was popular on campus from the first year that it started.

“I’ve been told it’s been a hit ever since that first show,” said co-director Carmen Clemente. “People loved it from the very start and wanted to see more.”

The main idea behind putting on Friday Night Live is entertainment and fun for Asbury students. Not only for the audience, but for the cast members as well.

“It seemed like a fun group of people,” said Kaja Jaques, a Friday Night Live cast member who is new to the show this semester.

“It brings a lot of joy to my life,” said Tiffany Rutledge, a returning cast member.

The show is meaningful to the cast members, and they have a strong pull to participate in the show again and again.

“It’s a huge time commitment, but I really loved it, and I would like to do it as much as I possibly can,” said Jaques. “It’s definitely helped a lot just with confidence.”

“The environment is a big thing for me and just having something to put my energy in,” said Rutledge. “I was so thankful that I had something that brought me so much joy and other people so much joy.”

“I auditioned as an academy student and I really like just the audition itself and so I knew even if I didn’t get in, that would be fun,” said Jaques.

It isn’t all about fun, though. There is also an aspect of community that comes along with the event.

“It’s a student production, a student run thing, so students want to show up and celebrate and cheer on their peers and their friends,” said Clemente. “The students put on the show, put in all the hard work, for the Asbury students and Asbury community.”

Friday Night Live is an anticipated event on campus, and cast members have several opinions on why the event is still so popular among the student body.

“FNL is still a thing even years later because, first of all, when it happens is right before finals week,” said Clemente. “I think students would just love showing up to FNL to have a laugh to kind of take that stress off their shoulders before finals week, when it’s super busy and super stressful.”

“It brings a lot of joy to other people’s lives, especially before finals week,” said Rutledge.

It seems that Friday Night Live is designed to be, or at least serves as, a break before the stress of final week, given Clemente’s and Rutledge’s comments. It is a way to alleviate some stress and have fun for a night.

The cast has stated that past shows have been received well, and as another semester comes to a close, they encourage students to come out and watch the upcoming Friday Night Live performance for themselves at 9:30pm this Friday night.

“You should come out and have a good laugh,” said Clemente.