Cadets 2016

[wallace]

What would statues know about glee? Or joy? Or any emotion for that matter? Why do they have to strain? They would have no conception of the real world, so why are we forcing what we think statues would look like coming to life? How would they know how to act? To move? Why wouldn't something restrained for an eternity race frantically in a horror flick manner once it has tasted freedom? (Anybody who has walked a dog that gets loose from its leash knows what I'm talking about! HA!) Why do they have come to life one by one? Ever seen startled sheep? They move as one. Nope! That's just foisting preconceptions based on our perception of the physical. We don't know how statues would perceive it.

[drummergirl]

I'm hearing some rumblings that a certain group of people were asked to shave half their heads for the show.

So, I will ask this....would you shave half your head for this?

[wallace]

For tacos, maybe!

[DCI-86]

Agreed but just because they spin well right now and may be cleaner than the CBCCG right now does not mean that they will enhance the show or create as much effect as the CBCCG will at the end. It's not just about clean twirls.....

True but the guards above them have better/more interesting and creative written books and are staged better.

[George Dixon]

Ehhh let's not exaggerate. There are two premier guards right now, BD and Crown. Cadets clean will compete in the next cluster.

[chaddyt]

The Statues Awakening show has untapped potential. The emotional umph behind the metaphor is missing because we can't tell if these are good statues or bad statues. Are they protagonists or antagonists? What's their objective? What do they want? What are the doing? How do they change by the end?

The Opening Pose

I've never seen a large Roman statue with 35 figures, each in their own world, with no eye contact between them, in seemingly random poses , all standing next to one another, completely unrelated, one rolling cigars and the other shouting at birds in the sky, as if they're lunatics, or stacked on top of one another as if they're at a factory rejects display. Poses in real Roman statues, like the Trevi fountain, are clustered and tell a story. It might be worth it to explore spreading out the statues on the cupcake so that they span the area off the elevated platform, to the left right and center, just for some breathing room. Look at pictures of real Roman statues. Trevi fountain has story clusters. And there are other statues scattered in clusters down the street, too. Spread it out.

The Physical Properties of Marble Statues

Okay, Viola Spolin 101. How do statues act when they come to life? Like suburban kids finding a kegger in the woods? Or are they struggling to break free of centuries of marble encasement? Start with one statue, not 35. There should be a sense of the physical sensation and surprise of solid marble suddenly being able to move-- the crumbling joints, the agony of the leg that is immobile, the slow steady coming alive, limb by limb. The joy. The helping one another. The one reluctant participant whose leg refuses to move. The carrying of one statue, stiff as a board, and helping to massage the joints. One statue marvels at making a fist. Right now it looks like impatient high school theater kids in spandex who were told to get to the 40 yard line by count 8. Instead take your time with this beat. We want to feel the awakening. We want to come out with you. We want to feel the joy. Could the statues hug with joy that they're finally free? Do these performers know what it's like to be incarcerated for your entire life and to be set free? Are their necks sore? The statues come alive at the beginning like vacuum cleaner salesmen who are late for work. There's no struggle. There's no sense of the stiffness of the plaster of Paris. There's no indication that it's a hard thing to do. The discovery of coming alive should be the focus.

En Mass Problem

Recently, corps are shifting away from dance solos, probably because they're viewed as unfair. So now, you have literally 40 or 50 color guard members swarming like red ants on Honey's Kettle Fried Chicken dumpster, all doing the same motion, and it looks like a soccer match in Barcelona-- indecipherable throngs trampling security guards to get to the soccer ball. In life, throngs are rare. In the life of statues, throngs are even rarer. Why not feature select clusters of statues at select moments instead of en masse throngs?

Cloaks or Diapers?

In the middle of the show, we see all the newly personified statues unfurling large swatches of gold material. What is the material's real world purpose? Presently, it doesn't appear that the shrouds have a real-world purpose. They could be statue drapes. They could be cleaning cloths. They could be cloaks, common outdoor wear in Rome during the Roman Empire. What is the historical reference here and why are the awakened statues frenetically swirling them, wearing them, and then abandoning them like a heap of dirty laundry? What is the symbolism? I suggest that instead of running around swirling the fabric, instead establish that perhaps these are cloaks, and the statues are experiencing clothing for the first time. They help each other with putting on the cloaks for the first time. Maybe they come up to the soloist statues who are still encased in marble, still galvanized, and symbolically place a shroud on them, hoping against hope they too will come alive. But the solo statues don't come alive. The solo statues do not respond. The awakened statues have a puropse now-- they must bring the solo statues to life.

Contamination

So far, this show follows the standard dramatic action of contamination. One by one, people in a group steadily adopt the same attribute. There's usually one or two holdouts at the end (in this case, the solist statues) and so the focus or "game" in the scene is getting the last two guys to join in. That's what this show is about. Those last two soloists awakening.

Ending

Finally, the stage left statue comes to life, with the help of all the other statues, we see the joy, the discovery. Perhaps they have a final miraculous solo, they can move for the first time in their existence. The soloists are brought down, stiff as a board, still playing! The soloists gradually move freely. The Supreme Court has decided, th Roman court has decided, and the statues atop the building come alive with the joy of being alive. For the first time. The pines along the Appian Way have new meaning now.

Every now and then, Channel3.

.... Every now and then.

[DCI-86]

Ehhh let's not exaggerate. There are two premier guards right now, BD and Crown. Cadets clean will compete in the next cluster.

I don't believe this is true. Bluecoats guard is stellar and staged so well. Remember the guard caption is about staging as well as the book and excellence. I suspect Cadets guard will be competing with Cavaliers and Blue Stars more than SCV and Coats

Edited June 28, 2016 by DCI-86

[Tobias]

True but the guards above them have better/more interesting and creative written books and are staged better.

I think the goal THIS year for Cadets was to have a guard thst contributes more than it has in the past several years. Programs need rebuilding and I like what I saw from the other night in Cadets show. If they can clean up a pleasing book, the caption won't win but it won't be a huge drag on them. Again time will tell. Edited June 28, 2016 by Tobias

[ShortAndFast]

The Statues Awakening show has untapped potential. ....

Pretty interesting ideas, ch3. Thanks for sharing. I particularly agree that the opening staging doesn't look like any group of statues in the real world, and if you don't convey "statues" successfully then it's hard to make much sense of "awakening".

[MikeD]

Personally, I liked having the violinist on a prop. She looks lost hanging out at the end of the pit, esp since the trumpet soloist is still on a prop.