Students will have their own James Bond adventure at the “Top Secret: Skyfall” dinner theater experience.
On Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. USU Productions is hosting its fourth-annual dinner and theater event. The Satellite Student Union will be transformed to fit the secret agent theme for students. As they eat dinner, students will enjoy live entertainment and watch a screening of “Skyfall.”
Delivering an evening of fun means weeks of behind-the-scenes work.
Alejandra Prado, a fifth-year social work major, is a student event coordinator for USU Productions and is one of the people in charge of organizing the event. She said the planning began in October and was in full swing by December.
“We like having events to cater to students by students, and, overall, it’s just a night for students to get away from school and have affordable fun,” Prado said. “It’s like planning a wedding in two months.”
Prado said that after the students voted on the movie and theme, their first challenge was booking the venue.
“Usually our event is in March, but Fresno State Talks was nice enough to give us one of their dates in early February,” Prado said. “So I would say that time can be our enemy sometimes.”
Once the venue was officially booked and university catering had been contacted, the next step was to find a way to incorporate the theme. Alexis Orozco, a second-year recreation administration major and student event coordinator, said he helped with ideas for games students can play, such as pin the tie on the James Bond.
“There’s not a lot of spy-themed parties so I would say the research was the hardest part,” Orozco said. “But Pinterest is where we got the ideas for the games and mocktail drink names,”
Sona Soghomonian said a big challenge was getting the decorations and centerpieces done on time. Since the movie is set in three countries — England, Scotland and China — the Satellite Student Union will have three sections of tables, each corresponding to one of the countries.
Soghomonian said the volunteer students in the pit crew were a big help in making the posters for the event as well as promoting it on social media. She said everyone’s hard work pays off in the end because they are able to give students a fun night off from school.
Soghomonian said, “Everyone is already stressed with homework and exams, so our mission is to get students to come out and enjoy time for themselves.”