Tarzan and Jane, Barbie and Ken, and Mario and Princess Peach are among the couples who will be showcased at Jesse Auditorium this week.

Part of an annual tradition, Greek Week’s Fling preliminaries began Monday and will continue through Wednesday.

“It gives fraternities the opportunity to work with other fraternities and sororities and to work with beneficiaries and raise money for a good cause,” Fling emcee Matt Happe said.

This year’s theme, “Famous Couples Around the World,” was chosen by the Fling committee to allow for more creativity in skits, Greek Week Director Blair Thompson said.

“We didn’t want to do something that had a set plot, like a story or movie does,” she said.

The preparation process started about six weeks ago when the committee brainstormed a list of both real and fictional famous couples. After skit directors contributed their ideas, the committee had a list of about 40 couples from which pairings could choose. Skit directors picked numbers out of a hat, and the pairings with the lowest numbers chose their couples first.

Pairings write their own skit scripts, create their own backdrops and provide their own props for Fling. Skits can be a maximum of 12 minutes.

Each year, items from subcategories such as 1990s toys must be included in the skits as a way to promote more creativity, Thompson said. This year, each skit must mention the pairing’s beneficiary, incorporate a country and a girl pop band and write original lyrics to a song by the band.

The steering committee thought involving a foreign country would add unique twists to the skits, Happe said.

“It gives (the pairings) something to run with as far as characters,” he said.

Introductory videos accompany each skit. Lasting about a minute and a half each, these videos set up the skit by giving the audience background information, Thompson said.

Judges score skits in categories including plot originality and creativity, dances, songs and props, Thompson said.

Different judges score the preliminary competition than the final competition to incorporate a variety of perspectives, Greek Week Director Nikki Bracken said. But the two are related, as points awarded by judges in the preliminaries factor into rankings for the final competition.

“You get points for everything,” she said. “Making it to the finals means (you’re in the) top five automatically, then you get judged again, which determines your place in the top five.”

Musical ensembles, a commercial from sponsor Brookside and a dance performed by house mothers will be some of the nine in-between acts shown to break up the skits chosen from more than 30 applicants. At least one member of each group must be a member of a Greek Life organization.

“It’s an opportunity for individual members of chapters to get together and display talent, for bands to play or just friends,” Happe said.

Fling showcases the talent of the entire Greek Life community, Thompson said.

“I think when people come and watch Fling and see the skits, the dancing and acting exceptional, they appreciate the talent in the Greek community,” she said. “Even though it’s a competition, (Greek Life members) like to see other people do well.”

Audience members should expect to see lots of laughs from the skits, Thompson said.

“They’re good at including some pop culture jokes,” she said. “I’m also impressed with the creativity behind the songs and the lighting and the costumes dancers have (are) really great.”

The top five acts will perform again at 7 p.m. Friday in Jesse Auditorium.