Under flashing lights, buzzing timers, and crowds of people cheering, Marching Band takes the field at John Davis Stadium ready for their performance at half time of the football game. The band’s theme this year is The Grand Illusion and involves the story of magician Harry Houdini and his magic tricks.
Marching Band commenced their season at the end of summer and practices every week on Monday and Thursday from 5:45 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., senior Drum Major Keira Read said. The performances at the start of the season consists of two of the four music pieces and less complicated marching lines. As the season progresses, other variables, such as the rest of the repertoire, props, marching, and body movements, are slowly incorporated until every aspect of the full show is involved, Read added.
“We keep adding new things as the season [progresses],” Read said. “We add more body or dancing as we are marching throughout the show.”
“This season’s show is harder than it has been in previous years due to trickier music tempos, rhythms, and an increase of prop usage to create the show’s magic, senior Drum Major Macy Heublein said. The props used for The Grand Illusion include four backdrops with photo printouts, a box to make a student disappear and reappear, and a 4,500 square-foot piece of fabric that hides the entire band creating the illusion that the band disappears, Band Director Brian Boron said.
“Since [the show] heavily relies on props for storytelling and everyone can tell if a magic trick is done poorly, the biggest obstacle is making sure that we are doing our best to portray the illusions as they are supposed to happen,” Boron said.
Hours of rehearsal and lots of hard work go into making each show possible, Heublein said. As a Drum Major, there are extra challenges to keep up with, especially because of the larger and trickier show.
“[There are] a lot of faster tempos, and it [can be challenging] to keep up with them because it gets tiring,” Heublein said. “Being able to push forward, block that out, and keep up with everything else [is important].”
The members involved have learned to persevere through problems during performances, Boron said.
“[Each show can be] nerve-wracking because if something doesn’t go to plan, there aren’t a lot of [ways to] help the [band recover],” Boron said. “Luckily, the students are very well-trained, and they rehearse hard so they are ready for anything that comes their way.”
