Carolina Crown 2025

[MikeRapp]

2 minutes ago, NewArpege said:

They don’t need to abandon their strengths which are operatic music and staging. If they applied that formula to a show like BAC or Bloo this year, they’d be a top contender.

Inferno was imo their best ever show. In some ways quite similar to 2024, but not weighed down with the wooden story telling.

[wigwam]

4 hours ago, NewArpege said:

A concept that is more abstract or a story that doesn’t require an over-abundance of literal imagery to derive understanding.  The past two years Crown has needed to develop the storytelling in a ton of detail in order for the concept to work.  That’s creatively difficult and takes a long time to put a broadway-style production on the field.  The end result is beautiful, but the 2 month time window is a disadvantage unless they go less literal or put more on the field earlier. 

Agree totally.  Something simpler and more easily translated to the audience.  Not many people know a lot about Greek mythology, but everyone can understand and relate to a simple concept, like..... tilt. 

Does anyone know if next season will be as short as this year, or will they be lengthening it a bit?

[MarkHornGA]

Agree with what’s already been said. Simple concept show that showcases that amazing guard and gives the brass line a chance to play more of a variety. 
 

The on-field opera house is beautiful, just not sure it’s going to translate to competitive success. 

[nsxanax]

3 hours ago, MarkHornGA said:

Agree with what’s already been said. Simple concept show that showcases that amazing guard and gives the brass line a chance to play more of a variety. 
 

The on-field opera house is beautiful, just not sure it’s going to translate to competitive success. 

…and that's exactly what I find creates the most ambivalence for me, at least as an uber fan of Crown productions. 

After ‘23, it seemed there was/is a competitive niche for a heavily thematic show, drawing upon stage/literary works.

For selfish reasons, my hope is that the “fault” lies with the overall design, due to the circumstances enumerated by Karuna, and touched on by others—off thread sidebars—all season.

If, in fact, we’re witnessing a true DCI paradigm shift, then Crown’s braintrust has their work cut out.

[regimentlvr]

I’m at a loss for what happened this year with Crown. Started the season beating BAC and PR significantly. Didn’t see this shaking out this way. 

[jwillis35]

For starters let me say I loved the 2024 show. Yes, 4 other corps got judged to be better overall. The top 5 corps were incredibly good. Last year they took 3rd and frankly, as much as I love Bluecoats, I thought Crown should have been 2nd last year. It's not like Crown is far removed from being a top 3 corps. They were just there last season. 

Sometimes what looks good on paper doesn't fully come to fruition on the field. It happens. It's not like the skills are lacking or the membership recruiting is bad. They perform, march, brass, drum and spin about as well or better than anyone. 

Also, just because other corps are doing more concept stuff doesn't mean Crown should follow suit. It's nice to see a dramatic story to break things up and Crown did a nice job of it.

Moving forward for Crown I personally would not change that much. The music ensemble is good. Brass is always the standard, even with Bluecoats winning the Ott this year. Even with BD and Boston playing super well...everyone knows that Crown's brass is one of the Gold standards in the activity. The guard is on fire again. Visual could use a tune-up but even saying that feels weird because I liked a lot of what they did. It really comes down to the little things. They have a super smart design team and caption heads who will evaluate the good and bad from this summer and tweak those thoughts and let that guide them into next year's program. 

The concerns about Carolina Crown, at least IMO, are a non-issue. I don't think there are any issues. Sometimes a show just doesn't hit the way you want it to. They will fix things, move forward, and try new things. They always have. They are not afraid to try things. Sometimes that can work well and sometimes those risks may not pay off. They were still top 5. This is not a corps I envision placing 7th or 8th next summer. They still look and sound like a top 3 corps. Design just didn't hit like they hoped it would. I am pretty confident in their design and teaching team that they will be even better next year while continuing to look and sound like a top 3 corps. 

[BlueStainGlass]

Stop trying to be Broken City drum and bugle corps and go back to east coast crown

[Vuitton]

7 hours ago, ZTWright said:

One word: Evolve.

THIS! Stay with the evolution of the activity. Crown has fallen behind here. It's time to not just catch up, but move forward, start innovating.

The era of big story telling has been over. They need to dump the story shows and do a more abstract theme, as @NewArpege said. Something they can build off of that doesn't require a big production and can be more open to interpretation.

The era of big props is also ending. Crown needs to follow the leaders here now. Next year they need a new visual direction, IMO. More open field, no large props, and no fabric. Simple, elegent, refined. That's what both Boston and Bluecoats were this year and it brought them tremendous success. 

Edited August 12 by Vuitton

[GUARDLING]

17 minutes ago, Vuitton said:

THIS! Stay with the evolution of the activity. Crown has fallen behind here. It's time to not just catch up, but move forward, start innovating.

The era of big story telling has been over. They need to dump the story shows and do a more abstract theme, as @NewArpege said. Something they can build off of that doesn't require a big production and can be more open to interpretation.

The era of big props is also ending. Crown needs to follow the leaders here now. Next year they need a new visual direction, IMO. More open field, no large props, and no fabric. Simple, elegent, refined. That's what both Boston and Bluecoats were this year and it brought them tremendous success. 

You could be right, Although what also has happened is while everyone follows the top 2 or 3 with direction or " evolve" those at the top flip the script and do the exact opposite of what was expected. Could go either way

What was genius with BAC was they used their uniforms ( costumes ) whatever one wants to call them today, they used them as their theme, focus, story which added to their program as a prop could, sort of like Cadets did in 2011. Worked  so well for Cadets but for BAC this year it was even more amazing and complex.

Edited August 12 by GUARDLING

[BlueStainGlass]

7 minutes ago, Vuitton said:

THIS! Stay with the evolution of the activity. Crown has fallen behind here. It's time to not just catch up, but move forward, start innovating.

The era of big story telling has been over. They need to dump the story shows and do a more abstract theme, as @NewArpege said. Something they can build off of that doesn't require a big production and can be more open to interpretation.

The era of big props is also ending. Crown needs to follow the leaders here now. Next year they need a new visual direction, IMO. More open field, no large props, and no fabric. Simple, elegent, refined. That's what both Boston and Bluecoats were this year and it brought them tremendous success. 

Filling up a third of a field with red brick props and tarps seems pretty big on the props... They moved them around but when the bricks were separated and spread out they covered the whole back hash and the tarps cut 20 yards off. I don't care what anyone says they used the props to shrink the field the same way crown, BD, and phantom used props to shrink the field. Bluecoats props took more space than Crowns. Just because people like a prop more than another does not mean it's not big. 

 

I've held that all season and felt now I can say it.