They fox trot and swing dance, they sing the Alma Mater, they portray memorable characters from Southeast Missouri State University's past, and they read aged rules of conduct that weren't supposed to be funny when originally written but now provoke belly laughs.

They are the 10-member cast of the stimulating and at times poignant Lyceum to be presented in a public performance at 8 tonight inside Academic Hall.

The Lyceum is based on writings produced by university students and faculty through the years. Compiled and directed by Dr. Roseanna Whitlow, it is part of the institution's 125th anniversary celebration. A private performance was given Friday night.

The first Lyceum was presented at Southeast in 1906 but the format no longer is used as a learning tool. That's too bad because this one animates words that have been sleeping in Kent Library for too long.

William A. Dunn emcees the performance given on the steps leading to Academic Auditorium and in the hallway. The audience sits in the building's foyer and in the hall on the sides.

The late Dr. H.O. Grauel and Miss Sadie Kent are two of the characters brought to life, Grauel through Patrick Abbott's skilled rendering of the English professor's warm remembrances from his book "The Inimitable Professor H.O. Grauel: His Essays on This and That."

Grauel tells of being mistaken for a jewelry salesman when he walked in Academic Hall the first time.

As the authoritarian librarian Kent, Tana Howard dabs her forehead with a handkerchief in dismay when Grauel asks her for a piece of twine to repair a corset to be used in a theatrical production. She captures the fear and love both students and faculty felt for her.

Whitlow provides moments of delicious deadpan comedy reading from the school's 1876 "Regulation on Student Conduct" and 1932 "Rules for Dancing."

For instance, students were restricted from consuming alcoholic beverages "unless prescribed by a physician.'

The program also includes serious readings written during times of war. Tim Thompson reads a piece titled "I am War" written by Joe Smith in a 1938 Capaha Arrow.

Megwyn Sanders, the only current student in the entourage, reads from an affecting story written by recent theater graduate Brooke Hildebrand. In "Pretty Country," she writes of living in London and visiting Paris and Rome but judges certain moments here "some of the most precious in my life."

Hildebrand and Sanders stop the show for a moment of their own.

Dr. Marc Strauss, head of the Southeast Dance Program, and Suzanne Vaughan, enliven the night by dancing a fox trot from yesteryear and a peppy swing number, a dance which has jitterbugged from one era to the present. Vaughan is the university's coordinator of orientation and coaches the Sundancers.

Jim Buindo, assistant to the president for university relations, reads his poem "Creating Tomorrow," which heralds "a new age, a new destiny" at the brink of the Millenium.

The program concludes with Vickie Long's lovely a cappella singing of the Alma Mater, which few in the audience will probably know. The author of the "Regulation on Student Conduct" surely would be appalled.