Three University students spent their summer dancing, singing, and leaping into garbage trucks. What's more, it has all been captured on film in the new John Waters motion picture Cry Baby, coming out this spring.

While many students worked internships or odd jobs, theater majors Drew Ebersole, Craig Stephen-Wallace and Bill Mulvey were in the movie business, fulfilling what many consider an unreachable fantasy.

"I have an agent in Baltimore, and he told me they were casting for a movie," Ebersole said. He said he then returned to his home town of Baltimore and met the casting director and director John Waters.

Waters, who has been slowly building a somewhat offbeat name for himself, is responsible for slightly surreal and wacky movies such as Polyester, starring the late Divine and 1960's heartthrob Troy Donahue; and the more recent Hairspray, also starring Divine and Ricki Lake.

Ebersole said he learned a song, auditioned -- and got a part.

"When you leave, you shake John Waters hand, shake people's hands, and then when you leave the room... YES!!" and he leaped in the air.

Ebersole learned that there were more parts available in the film, a black actor and a dancer were needed. He called his roommates Wallace and Mulvey, they traveled to Baltimore and got the parts, Wallace coming very close to a lead role.

The story centers on 1954 Baltimore, Ebersole said. There was a general division of youth, the drapes and the squares.

"The drapes are cool, anti-establishment, but not in a negative way," Wallace said. "They'd just rather hang out and play rock and roll." He suggested Arthur "the Fonz" Fonzerelli as an example for the typical drape. Wallace was a member of the Conks, a gang of drapes.

The squares were clean cut, sort of a crew-cut crew. For his role as a square, Ebersole had to get a Pee-wee Herman haircut, "Complete with the flip up front," he said.

Wallace's hair was reminiscent of a 1950's process which straightened black hair. "He spent the summer looking like James Brown," Ebersole said.

When a square girl falls in love with drape leader Cry Baby Walker, a nonviolent gang war erupts that culminates into a battle of the bands between the Cry Baby gang and the square gang, called the Whiffles. The gangs, and the entire cast, is comprised of an interesting array of people.

"John Waters seems to have strange afflictions for desperate souls and strange people," Ebersole said. For Cry Baby, Wallace, Mulvey and Ebersole worked with Johnny Depp ("21 Jump Street") -- who played the title role, Troy Donahue, ex-porno queen Tracy Lords, Iggy Pop, Patti Hearst and Ricki Lake. There is even a cameo appearance by Willem Defoe. The shooting lasted about thirteen weeks, and the three either lived at Ebersole's home in Baltimore during shooting or commuted from Philadelphia. It was long days, longer nights and little pay.

"Two weeks of my shooting was straight-night shoot," Wallace said. "We started at 6 p.m. and we went until dawn."

"Craig and I learned all night we had to keep everyone's energy up, " Mulvey said. Much of the dancing has a Penn State touch because the choreographer was open to suggestions and John Waters gave a lot of free rein, Mulvey said. "There is a lot of Penn State dancing in the film," Mulvey said.

"The dance we (filmed at night) was called 'Teenage Rage,' and the dance is just high energy. We did it at least ten times and it was stop, start, all night long," Mulvey said.

That was one of the main differences the three found between theater and film work. Where theater work is months of preparation that culminates into high-energy conclusions; film work is choppy with little time to build up your emotions or motivations, Ebersole said.

Another difference is that a major proportion of film footage is never seen by the audience. Much of the actors' labor and even pain have ended up on the infamous cutting room floor because of factors like script changes or filming errors.

In one of the scenes, Wallace and another member of the Conk gang help Crybaby Walker escape from prison in a garbage truck. They suddenly realize that the departing truck could also mean their freedom.

"I have a trick shoulder, and the first time we shot the scene, I jumped into the back of the truck dislocated it," Wallace said. After the shoulder was relocated, the scene was shot again.

"The truck pulls off , and we are running toward it. My friend was supposed to jump in, then grab me and pull me in," Wallace said. "Only he pulls me in by my dislocated shoulder." The last thing the camera saw was Wallace's legs flailing out of the back of the truck. Everybody loved it, the cast loved it, John Waters loved it.

"They cut it," Wallace said with an ironic smile.

Another time, when the Whiffles were done with a competition number called "Chicken," they bent over and pulled down their tuxedo trousers. They had spelled "WHIFFLES" on their behinds. That too, was almost kept in the film, but when the ending was changed, Ebersole's backside was abandoned, Ebersole said.

Nevertheless, "the magic of movies can sweep you away," Ebersole said. They said they enjoyed the catered sets, the visits from "Entertainment Tonight," People magazine reporters, and the clips on MTV news. In April, the three will attend the formal premiere.