As the clock struck 1:33 p.m., a haunting blast from an ocean conch echoed through the Quad and signaled a mass call for stillness. Within moments, hundreds of students, professors and passers-by fell still and silent.Movement in the Quad ceased for five full minutes Thursday afternoon as part of a loosely organized flash mob designed by several University theatre students. Inspired by a growing international trend of improvisational public events, the Quad was transformed into a still life of campus activity.The flash mob was developed by Ann Harris, theatre senior, and Rebecca Stewart, theatre sophomore, and communication studies senior Casey Miller. After almost a year of talking about it, the students created a Facebook group two weeks ago to finally organize the scene.”At first it was kind of a joke we would mention to each other in passing, but at the beginning of the semester, Ann got really serious about it all,” Miller said. The word got out, and the idea snowballed from a group of only about 20 to more than 260 confirmed participants within a two-week period. The event was attended by even more students, many of which participated on the spot without any prior knowledge of the event.”I knew what it was because I’m a theatre minor, and in New York, people do random acts of theater all the time,” said Sherrin Perkins, mass communication junior. “When I recognized what was happening, I just froze.”  Harris said she was inspired by the work of the New York performance art group “Improv Everywhere.” The group, which has staged similar freezes in New York, is also responsible for such scenes as the annual “No Pants” events in which participants ride the New York City subway across town dressed only in shirts and boxer shorts.”A lot of people have asked me if we were making some kind of political statement or something like that, but it’s really just to have fun and laugh at ourselves,” Harris said. “It’s a prank.”Despite the massive number of participants, like all good pranks, Thursday’s Quad freeze took the unaware by surprise. Reactions ranged from confusion to annoyance with the arbitrary nature of the freeze.Other students were excited about participating in such a unique campus event.”I feel like it gave people a chance to stop and look at their surroundings for five minutes,” said Kelly Ryan, theatre senior. “It was really cool.”After a highly successful turnout in the Quad, urban-style pranks like this might become a regular occurrence on campus. Harris said she and her fellow pranksters are working to create an official student organization dedicated to causing scenes of social absurdity.”The student organization would be focused on  performing arts and improv skits, fun things around campus to keep people entertained and exercise our creative juices,” Stewart said.Spontaneous musicals in dining halls, giant picnics and slow motion students are some just some of their prospective ideas for future events. The likelihood of a student organization forming around such social pranks depends mostly on the types of events they would create and whether student risk was involved, according to Michelle Lowery Eldredge, assistant director of facility services.Though flash mobs have a tradition of being politically galvanized events, Miller said their event was not a protest. Along with the goals of having fun, these student improvisational scenes also carry the weight of campus art.”It’s important that we can laugh at ourselves and have fun, but also it’s performance art,” Harris said. —-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]