Madison Scouts 2023

[C.Holland]

And this years show… An  allright idea, I guess.  Theres a connecting component it’s lacking currently.  And my concern is that it hasn’t been thought of yet.  Create a moment, give the viewer a bit to digest, set and stage the next moment, execute, decompress rinse repeat. The flow feels weird. 
 

Cmon artistic dept.  either I’m missing something or you haven’t designed it in.   And, as a person who works in frickin’ professional theatre, I’m generally pretty good at picking up narrative. And unfortunately, lack of. 

This show currently tells me it wants to be too hip for the room. Be better than that. You can’t blow the doors of a building when you think you’re above it.  I dig the charts, I think there’s a mountain of design still to do that will be a hinderance for growth of this show.  And something that pulls it all together that just isn’t there yet. 

[kdaddy]

7 hours ago, C.Holland said:

This show currently tells me it wants to be too hip for the room. Be better than that. You can’t blow the doors of a building when you think you’re above it.  

I think this is a tremendous point. Not true of only the Scouts, but given what little I've heard from the personalities of the program coordinator and his brass arranger prior to this season, this sentiment comes through.

Jason Robb bad-mouthed the 2019 Scouts design on social media. Many, including me, would agree with his assessment. But it was weird coming from a designer, whether a Scouts alum or not. And he didn't walk it back in at least one subsequent podcast appearance. 

Likewise, Daniel Montoya crapped on Robert W. Smith's (!) arrangements in 2011. A head-scratching "who do you think you are?" moment for me that told me plenty. 

I think there's a lot of unfounded bravado to "we're making art - sorry you don't get it." Especially for a, with all due respect, non-finalist.

[musicteacher]

5 minutes ago, kdaddy said:

I think this is a tremendous point. Not true of only the Scouts, but given what little I've heard from the personalities of the program coordinator and his brass arranger prior to this season, this sentiment comes through.

Jason Robb bad-mouthed the 2019 Scouts design on social media. Many, including me, would agree with his assessment. But it was weird coming from a designer, whether a Scouts alum or not. And he didn't walk it back in at least one subsequent podcast appearance. 

Likewise, Daniel Montoya crapped on Robert W. Smith's (!) arrangements in 2011. A head-scratching "who do you think you are?" moment for me that told me plenty. 

I think there's a lot of unfounded bravado to "we're making art - sorry you don't get it." Especially for a, with all due respect, non-finalist.

 

[C.Holland]

1 hour ago, kdaddy said:

I think this is a tremendous point. Not true of only the Scouts, but given what little I've heard from the personalities of the program coordinator and his brass arranger prior to this season, this sentiment comes through.

Jason Robb bad-mouthed the 2019 Scouts design on social media. Many, including me, would agree with his assessment. But it was weird coming from a designer, whether a Scouts alum or not. And he didn't walk it back in at least one subsequent podcast appearance. 

Likewise, Daniel Montoya crapped on Robert W. Smith's (!) arrangements in 2011. A head-scratching "who do you think you are?" moment for me that told me plenty. 

I think there's a lot of unfounded bravado to "we're making art - sorry you don't get it." Especially for a, with all due respect, non-finalist.

That show in 2019 was built to quiet the old farts screaming to go back to a different era. It was given a budget to match.  Music selection was fine, but overall as a show package it just wasn’t good. It looked like something straight out of 1990. 
 

Now I’ve generally enjoyed it music selections for the past years, but I’m concerned that when it came time to storyboard (moment A, B…etc and basic ideas of how to setup each moment) this is where the details turn to “we”ll figure that out later”.   

Nope. Cmon design types. Plans unplanned become half thought bandaids. 

[IllianaLancerContra]

Ok.  I just rewatched the premier.  
A few positive observations 

1. Uniforms have green, red, & aussies(!).  This is a win

2. Solo work is good - sopranos (oops trumpets) at start sound like Madison of old.  
3.  Drill is better than last season. 
 

Let’s let them do some cleaning + revising & see what it looks like in a few weeks. 

[DudleytheWest]

2 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

Ok.  I just rewatched the premier.  
A few positive observations 

1. Uniforms have green, red, & aussies(!).  This is a win

2. Solo work is good - sopranos (oops trumpets) at start sound like Madison of old.  
3.  Drill is better than last season. 
 

Let’s let them do some cleaning + revising & see what it looks like in a few weeks. 

Valid points, but when you watch the Midwest Premiere it pales in comparison to what those 4 corps are doing, and how prepared those 4 are compared to Madison, especially on the colorguard front. 

The problem for me is the design. I just don't understand it. The models of what works are plain for everyone to see. Like I said, if you can't do it yourself then copy someone else. It's that simple.

This team has given this corps a show that cannot be successful from a competitive standpoint. They were 15th last year, it's doubtful they will place higher than that this year. You have to write a show slightly BEYOND the talent of your corps. That's the way to move up. A great design with positive feedback from the audience and judges can propel a less talented corps above more talented corps. This design has neither. 

I do agree it is better than last year, but it's still not good enough.

[DudleytheWest]

3 hours ago, C.Holland said:

That show in 2019 was built to quiet the old farts screaming to go back to a different era. It was given a budget to match.  Music selection was fine, but overall as a show package it just wasn’t good. It looked like something straight out of 1990. 
 

Now I’ve generally enjoyed it music selections for the past years, but I’m concerned that when it came time to storyboard (moment A, B…etc and basic ideas of how to setup each moment) this is where the details turn to “we”ll figure that out later”.   

Nope. Cmon design types. Plans unplanned become half thought bandaids. 

I disagree - the 2019 show was just another year of the team throwing #### at the wall to see if it stinks. I saw an interview with one of their design team members. He said the corps competitive goals were to get back into the top 12 - well into the top 12.

We have got to stop blaming anything other than the administration and the design team. Madison needs a major overhaul. 

[DudleytheWest]

12 hours ago, C.Holland said:

Let’s be real.  Had Scott stayed the corps would be doing exhibitions for piggly wiggly or worse, not existing.  His views were a one sided idea that everything about this activity was going poorly and that his ideas were the only way to preserve it.   
 

Sitting on the steps of school in the early 00’s and hearing him dismiss much of the activity, you needed to take him with a grain of salt or you’d have the same toxic mindset.  There was a point when you couldn’t hear much good from him about everything else on the field, when he needed to take a step back and look at his own choices for the corps. 
 

I love the guy, but his ideals were not going to be good long term. 

I never said Scott was the right person in the early 2000s to lead the corps. I said he failed to make finals once and was gone. Yet this team has had years of failures while the BOD and the excuse-making supporters continue doing nothing while this corps flounders towards failure.

[DudleytheWest]

14 hours ago, Rudy18 said:

So it’s fine to dump on Scouts for choosing to do their closer standstill at their preview, but no one bats an eye when Crown omits their whole closer from their preview show?

Crown is doing vastly more complex things through their entire show than the Scouts are doing through theirs. This is an apples to oranges comparison. I said before, for me, it's not about the closer not being on the field, it's about the complete lack of preparedness from the beginning of the show, especially the colorguard. It looks like the guard got their work yesterday. I can't imagine there isn't talent there and that the guard members aren't competent, so what happened?

[C.Holland]

1 hour ago, DudleytheWest said:

I never said Scott was the right person in the early 2000s to lead the corps. I said he failed to make finals once and was gone. Yet this team has had years of failures while the BOD and the excuse-making supporters continue doing nothing while this corps flounders towards failure.

Scott’s ideals and his growing disdain for the activity (along with that finish) got him canned.  You can only watch bridges being set on fire for so long before you realize what has to change.  Madison would have been an island had he stayed. 
 

current admin dug the corps out of a texas size hole that very few could. So failure, not so much. If you’re only looking at the field placement as success or failure, you should remember there’s so many other things going well that aren’t field related that no one else is crazy enough to take on. But hey, feel free to nominate someone to take over at the end of this term.  Or at least go ask the members their thoughts.  I think you’ll be very surprised at their answers.