Despite the popular saying, “You can’t please everybody,” the Black Theatre Workshop will try to appeal to NIU students with its annual variety show Friday at 8 p.m. in the Duke Ellington Ballroom.

The one-night show will draw people into the world of black theatre with singing, dancing, segments on black history, raps and their versions of television commercials, BTW President Monique Zeno said.

Tonight, as a precedence to the show, the workshop will move its stage to Grant Towers South at 6:30 p.m. and to Neptune Hall at 8 p.m. for a short preview of how the audience will be entertained on Friday.

“We’ll do bits of acts, stop them when they get good and tell the people they have to come to the show to find out what happens next,” Zeno said.

Jana Stringfellow, a three-year member of BTW, said her favorite skit is “What Should I Tell My Children,” in which the actresses play mothers as they discuss how to face the problem of prejudice.

Since the BTW is funded by the Student Association, there will be no cost to view the show.

Although the BTW was made up of all black theatre majors when it was created at NIU in 1968, currently only two of its members have a specific interest in theatre.

“The workshop is just a social place for people with an interest in black theatre, and a place to perform,” although not all of its members perform in its shows, Zeno said.

About 30 of the 41 members will add their dramatic and comedic talents to the show, while those who don’t want to perform for the viewing audience will do their part as ushers.

Van Amos, BTW adviser, said the members, who call themselves the “Smoke Squad,” have practiced nearly every night for the past five or six weeks in order to perfect the show.

Still, the workshop finds time to spend on other engagements, such as the National Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts competition, which will take members of the BTW to Virginia April 1-4.

Zeno said the national competition “is kind of like the Academy Awards. Different teams do short scenes and, at the end, a Best Actor and Actress are chosen.”

The BTW also has several local engagements including entertaining at Elgin High School and the Illinois Youth Center, a home for juvenile delinquents and problem teens.

“People want us to come everywhere and do everything,” Zeno said. She said the workshop’s busy schedule does not seem to bother many of the members.