Tight pants and big hair will be making a comeback for one weekend this year, as the Penn State Thespians travel back to the '80s for their presentation of Fame.

The story revolves around a group of students at a prestigious performing arts high school in New York during the first half of the 1980s.

Michael Walkup (senior-theatre), who is directing the performance, said the show is mostly comedic, with the occasional dramatic plotline.

"I think it deals with a lot of heavy issues in a very light manner," he said.

Walkup said the show tackles issues that include drug use, high school relationships, race, teacher and student conflicts and most notably the continual strive of artists for success in the performing arts.

Fame began as a movie in 1980 and then evolved into a television show. Nearly 20 years later the musical premiered on Broadway.

The story and characters changed during these reincarnations, and the Thespians will be performing the musical version from 1999.

One of the main storylines involves Nick and Serena, played by Sean Bradley (sophomore-theatre) and Gwyneth Simone (senior-theatre) respectively.

Both actors said they loved the '80s elements of the musical.

"I spent seven years of my life in the '80s, so I don't remember it all that well," Bradley said. "But I've seen movies and shows and stuff and I think it'll be fun for the audience to watch all the goofy '80s fun that happens -- the silly dancing and hair and everything."

"Fame is so period-oriented. It's just about the '80s," she
said. "It's really, sort of what
the whole basis of the show is, you can't change it to make it not the '80s cause it's not Fame then."

Lynn Hyde (sophomore-theatre) was the dramaturge for the performance, and it was a large part of her job to research the period to make sure every part of the show fit with the script.

She said she found a lot of random information about the decade to give the actors an idea of what's going on in their characters' lives.

"I found things that would have been important to them as artists in the early 1980s -- actors they would have respected, movies they would have seen, songs they would have listened to -- things like that just to put them in the mindset that is this show," she said.

Walkup said the Thespians enjoyed recreating the decade, even though it took a lot of research and work.

"We had a lot of fun with the period," Walkup said. "We're '80s through and through."

Another element heavily inspired by the decade is the dance numbers, choreographed by Tammy Lange (senior-English). Lange said she watched music videos and '80s dance movies to inspire her choreography.

"I now own Footloose and Flashdance and like all the big '80s musicals," she said.

Bradley said students should come to the show for a night of entertainment.

"It's kind of just a fun escape from everything else because there's craziness going on in the world and this is just so far removed from all of that that people can just sit down and just have a good time and forget about all the stuff that's going on," he said.

The Thespians will present Fame at 8 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday in Schwab Auditorium. There will also be a performance at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Schwab. Tickets are $7 for students and $9 for the general public.