The beginning of the spring semester saw the 86th installment of one of Murray State’s longest standing traditions.

The annual Campus Lights production was held the weekend of Jan. 20-22. This year’s production is titled “Big Fish,” based on a 1998 novel by Daniel Wallace. Wallace’s novel also served as inspiration for both the film and Broadway adaptation of “Big Fish.”

The story follows the relationship between Edward Bloom and his son, Will, who is preparing to become a father himself. The story features a split timeline in which a teenage Edward’s past encounters with a witch, giant and mermaid are detailed.

Senior co-director Davin Belt said “Big Fish” was ultimately selected from a list of student suggested productions, with the help of music fraternities Sigma Alpha Iota and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.

“[We] chose this show from a process of narrowing down suggestions from anyone to 10 shows, and then we narrowed those down to our top three choices,” Belt said. “Once we got a top three, we presented them to the fraternities and voted on our top show.”

Belt explained the final Campus Lights product is the result of months of effort by those involved in the production.

“We started working on this show officially back at the beginning of the fall semester,” Belt said. “It is very hard to put on a full scale musical in this amount of time, but the production staff, the board of producers and the cast and crew have been running nonstop.”

The production also featured a pit orchestra, which contained 17 musicians. Along with the cast, the pit orchestra began rehearsing music under the leadership of instrumental director and Murray State 2022 alumnus Nic Hawkins in early January.

Hawkins explained the cast and musicians of Campus Lights operate on a shortened timeline compared to other musical productions.

“So the pit orchestra started rehearsing just three weeks ago, the same time everyone else started working on this show, “ Hawkins said. “For context, musicals usually take a couple months to put together…Three weeks seems like a miracle in perspective.”

The musicians of the pit orchestra also faced an unusual challenge with the music of this production, Hawkins said.

“For our production this year, ‘Big Fish,’ we had quite a bit more music to prepare, mostly because the composer wrote a lot of music to be played under dialogue,” Hawkins said. “I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a new challenge for me, but it has all come together really nicely, and I think everyone who’s worked on it is really happy with the results.”

The ticket sales from Campus Lights are used by the Sigma Alpha Iota and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternities to fund scholarships for music students.

Campus Lights is traditionally held in Lovett Auditorium, but ongoing construction led the board of producers to schedule the event in Robert E. Johnson Theater.

While Campus Lights may not have been hosted in its traditional venue, the team behind the event says it is a Murray State tradition that transcends location.

“Regardless of wherever Campus Lights takes place, it is always a joy to watch, put together, and/or be a part of, and Murray State is lucky to have such a fun, long-standing, student-run tradition on its campus,” Hawkins said.