West Side Story

[84BDsop]

as a drill writer i think it would be fun to design for a show with different uniforms. sounds fun

Youre referring to 87 Sky Ryders, I believe.

One of the things for the 87bdrill writer that must've been the biggest pain in the ### was the -- if you watch the show -- the only times the upper/mid brass and low bras mix visually are during those times in the WSS show whwre the 2 gangs interact...Mambo and the Rumble. Must've played havoc with staging.

But GOD was it well done!

And the DVD didn't show the very last pose in the show. At the end of "Somewhere" the brass is misex black/white/black/white...after teh last note, a black and white pair of players turn toward each other and embrace...the camera then focuses on one pair....a black guy in the upper brass and a while gu in the lower brass...very yiong/yang-ish.

But you'll only see it on the video tape...sadly, those lind of end moments were left off the DVDs.

Edited April 25, 2006 by 84BDsop

[Snapps]

My top 3 WSS shows

Cadets 84

Bridgemen 81

and I am with you Sam, Dagenham Crusaders DCUK finals 86 ( I was there)

[jwscv87]

84 Garfield was not only the best WSS ever, but the best drum corps show ever IMO.

[walder]

84 Garfield was not only the best WSS ever, but the best drum corps show ever IMO.

of course, that's debatable.....i dont consider it garfield's/cadets' best show ever.

Ive have always been a big fan of their 85 production of Jeremiah Symphony as well as Appalachian Spring...Le Mis was incredible and their 95 show had to be one of the most entertaining ever.

[MaxwellNotes]

84 Garfield was not only the best WSS ever, but the best drum corps show ever IMO.

I agree, this show changed the activity in sooooo many ways.

[SkyRyder_FMM]

Youre referring to 86 Sky Ryders, I believe.

One of the things for the 87bdrill writer that must've been the biggest pain in the ### was the -- if you watch the show -- the only times the upper/mid brass and low bras mix visually are during those times in the WSS show whwre the 2 gangs interact...Mambo and the Rumble. Must've played havoc with staging.

But GOD was it well done!

And the DVD didn't show the very last pose in the show. At the end of "Somewhere" the brass is misex black/white/black/white...after teh last note, a black and white pair of players turn toward each other and embrace...the camera then focuses on one pair....a black guy in the upper brass and a while gu in the lower brass...very yiong/yang-ish.

But you'll only see it on the video tape...sadly, those lind of end moments were left off the DVDs.

That was 87, and hte drill designer was Marc Sylvester. The sops and mellophones wore all white. The flugals, baris and contras wore all black. The percussion wore all grey. The guard had all the color in their clothing, which was an attempt to be very authentic to the movie version (i.e., the dress design and color of the dresses very closely resembles the girl from the movie they are portraying).

The black and white sections of the horn line mix at a few moments of the show - strategically placed along with the story line.

At the end of Mambo, portions of the white and black mix - similar to the interaction between the Jets and the Sharks at the dance at the gym.

At the end of One Hand, One Heart when Tony and Maria are "married" to each other, Tony and Maria embrass and kiss. The half of the white horns mix with half of the black horns at the point where they embrass. They immediatley separate when the Rumble begins.

In the middle of the Rumble, Tony kills Bernard. The white horns are in a block, and the black horns are in a snake. The white block then moves across the field, while the black snake works it's way through the white block (we called the move snake in the box - essentially the Jets and the Sharks mixing and mingling during the Rumble), then proceeds to unwind. As the black snake unwinds from the white block they form a black block directly alongside the white block. In the final build of the Rumble, the black and white blocks converge, Tony and Maria run towards each other right in front of the converging blocks, and the Jets and Sharks run towards each other on the outter edges of the block, the horn block, merges, Tony and Maria hold each other, and Chino shoots and kills Tony.

Somewhere begins with a block - the block is comprised of a white triange and a black triangle stacked to form a block. As Somewhere begins, one white horn emerges from the block, followed by one black horn - meshing into black, white, black, white - which is how the drill was completed. The closing set is an inverse of the opening set - a city street extending from the fire escape/scaffolding at the front of the field back to the fire escape/scaffolding at the back of the field. The opening set had all white on one side, and all black on the other. The closing set was meshed black, white. In the closing strains, Maria comes out dress in all white with a white double flag, that when extended and held up looks like wings. Tony comes out in all white, they embrase, Tony takes one side of the wings while Maria holds the other, and they run down the black, white lined street to the back of the field and out the back of the stadium. As they leave, the black and white horns turn and face each other and embrase - starting at the front and working their way towards the back of the field and Tony and Maria leave.

The show design was brilliant - the execution was lacking - seriously lacking. We rarely rehersed that summer due to all of our transportation problems (can you say bus break down h-e double hockey sticks). We spent more time just trying to get down the road than actually rehersing. We were out of commission for about 4 days in Boulder, CO after DATR, and ended up missing several shows. We spent those 4 days in a death camp, and managed to clean about 14 points in those 4 days - amazing what a little rehersal will do, eh? We then limped across the country to make DCI East in Allentown, breaking down on the way.

We were scheduled to perform last in prelims (final 3 corps in prelims were Garfield, Madison, then Sky), and when the first bus pulled into the stadium, Madison was taking the field. It took us about 45 minutes to unload the truck and set up all of the equipment for the show, so we were VERY late. Only one of the four busses was there. About 30 minutes later, two of the remaining three busses arrived, and one went back to pick up the rest on bus 4 that had a flat tire. We learned that VK was involved in an accident on the way to the show, and they were late as well. Both of us would be permitted to perform in prelims as soon as we could get ready. We had not had anything to eat yet that day, no showers in over a day, and only a few minutes to warm up.

The crowd at Allentown stayed for a little over 2 hours waiting for both of us to perform. Neither corps had great performances, but the crowd was absolutely unbelievable. That was one of the best crowd reactions I have ever experienced. I still get goose bumps thinking about it. I think the judges were a bit generous as well, given our score and relatively poor performance.

Just imagine what that show would have been like if we would have had some time to actually reherse?

[AnnouncerMonkey]

Just FYI: Cadets' 84 WSS was top-of-mind for BD's Wayne Downey when he was asked which non-Blue Devils' show over the years has impacted and influenced him most. You can hear what he had to say by listening to a clip of The Field Pass posted today at dci.org.

http://www.dci.org/news/news.cfm?news_id=d...58-fba18e46a984

Dan Potter

[SBrancheau]

SkyRyders WSS was so innovative (IMHO) as far as the visual elements go. The black, white and gray uniforms were just brilliant. That had to be some very hard drill to write to keep the color aspects separate.

SkyRyders' versio had a real "Broadway" feel to it...full of emotion. I can only imagine how it would have done had the show been technically cleaner. The guard outfits were just incredible...especially the HUGE flags at the end of "Somewhere"...cold chills!

[84BDsop]

That was 87, and hte drill designer was Marc Sylvester.

Thanks for clearing it all up (I MEANT to say 87...it was late when I wrote that)

A LOT of detail there Id never known....cool!

[jwillis35]

I can definitely see how people can like all these shows. Sky Ryders show from 1987 was just tremendous. Cadets 94 was also really good, as were others that I have seen over the years.

BUT...Garfield 1984 is the best WSS production, and perhaps the quintessential drum corps show of the 80s.

If you get to see this on the big screen this Thursday, and have never seen this show before, you will be blown away. I believe it stands up to today's corps, although the demand is different today, but a corps of that caliber is good during any era. For a lot of fans at the Cinecast, the Garfield Cadets 1984 and the Blue Devils 1979 will bring out the tears, the chills, the goose-bumps, and the cheering perhaps more than any of the other corps.

Jonathan