This year City Lights has an edgy theme, one that judges received with enthusiasm.
“The theme for City Lights is the Evolution of Flight. We start with Leonardo da Vinci thinking about the idea of flight and continue on through history with the Wright Brothers, the US Air Force, the beginning of commercial airlines and finishing with the exploration of space,” City Lights member senior Kyra Florea said. “It’s something that no other show choir has done before which really makes us stand out at competitions.”
The space theme show won second in their division, qualifying them for finals, along with winning the caption awards for Best Ballad and Best Show Design. After competing in finals the choir won the grand champion, along with the caption awards for Best Diction, Best Choreography, Best Vocals, Best Tech Crew and Best Combo.
“We were expecting to place high though not necessarily win. We knew that there was going to be competition especially from Smith Cotton,” Florea said. “They beat us in our division which shook us a bit, but we were able to overcome that in finals. ”
Satin n’ Lace also competed well, winning first in their division along with Best Costumes, Best Show Design, Best Set Design and Best Opener. After finals it was announced that the all girls choir won second runner up.
“The theme of our show is “Silver Screen Divas” so there’s appearances from Barbara Streisand, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews, and Ethel Merman in the show,” Satin n’ Lace member sophomore Sarah Merrifield said. “What I like about the show is how much “girl power” there is in the show. It highlights all these women who’ve become icons and I think it’s a really cool theme for a women’s choir to do.”
While both choirs enjoyed success, this did not come without difficult work and hours of preparation, Director Mike Pierson said.
Merrifield said that the work the choirs put in helped them to gain muscle memory and confidence, allowing them to compete with assurance.
“Mostly [we did] a lot of repetition, doing the same move or sequence of movements over and over again until everyone looked the exact same, angle of the leg and or arm,” Merrifield said. “We also went back and sang through our songs without choreography to work on diction and dynamics, stuff that most of us forgot when the choreography came into play. But it was a lot of the ‘nitty, gritty’ stuff.”
Not only do RBHS choirs have an edge due to their dedication, but also their natural abilities, Pierson said.
“We have a lot of talent and a lot of seniors who are very experienced and very talented,” Pierson said. “They carry that in with them and help the underclassmen.”
Florea also sees their originality as an added bonus, contributing to their success.
“We have a lot of contrast in our songs, which is also shown in the costumes and choreography. We start with a classic choral piece, move to Broadway numbers and end with a mash up of multiple modern pop songs. Most choirs stick with just pop,” Florea said. “We have a lot of unique choreography that most choirs don’t have. Also, we have an amazing tech crew and combo which makes performing that much easier and less stressful.”
Senior Austin Spriggs is a member of the tech crew. He is enrolled in the tech theater course, and one of the class requirements is to work outside of school hours on a production. He chose to tech for show choir.
“I really like working with my hands so building all of the sets and problem solving has been my favorite part so far,” Spriggs said.
Tech crew members play a crucial part in making the show run smoothly and at this competition their fluidity was noticed, as they won Best Tech Crew. Spriggs plays a vital role in keeping the machine working properly.
“I am back behind the divas with another tech and we flip the divas around.We also hand out the light blue stairs,” Spirggs said. “For city lights I have to move the panels that are in the back at the beginning and then I move the Wright brothers boxes and the silver boxes that come out for the closer.”
The competition is exhilarating, if not wearing at times. Merrifield said the day starts before the sun rises, with students traveling for hours on a bus. Once they arrive the competition lasts nearly the whole day.
“Usually we have to leave pretty early in the morning to get there, when we get to the competition we go to our room and depending on when we perform, we either go watch some choirs or start getting ready for our show,” Merrifield said. “After every choir performs for the first time, there are preliminary awards where they hand out some caption awards like best soloist, ballad, costumes. Then they announce who got first, second and third in different divisions. At the end of preliminaries they announce the five or six choirs who will perform again in finals. After the choirs perform again we go back into the gym where they hand out some more caption awards and then announce who got grand champion and all of the runner ups.”
But the students manage to keep their energy up, a very necessary part of performing in a show choir. Energy can make or break a show.
“There are a lot of naps taken. Some kids probably chug red bull, not that we condone that in any way,” Pierson said. “But it’s hard to not have your heart start racing, when you are performing in front of that many people.”
By Abby Kempf
