As the month of March begins, students and directors are preparing for the Bravo performances at Eastview High School by learning choreography, learning the vocals, and making the set that they will perform on at the end of April and beginning of May. It may seem as if they are starting to prepare for Bravo early, but the cast would prefer to start learning the choreography and songs now rather than waiting until the last minute. Even though the auditions for Bravo happened the second and third week of February, the directors knew some of the musical numbers for this year’s Bravo during last year’s performance.
With the correct song choices by the directors, the chorus members are going to be pushed both vocally and in their dancing ability. The directors chose songs by artists such as The Beetles and Michael Jackson and also from popular movies and TV shows such as Glee, Flashdance, Fame and even Slumdog Millionaire. These songs have been chosen to flaunt all the talents that people at Eastview High School have. Some of the songs will have the exact movement that they did in the original music videos and movies. These numbers are sure to be showstoppers in this year’s performance. Also, Ms. Mahr, one of the choreographers for Bravo and dance tech teacher at Eastview High School, says that “there are going to be a lot of good and big dance numbers in this years’ show and they should leave the crowd in awe.” The directors chose these upbeat, high energy numbers so that the chorus and dancers would be pushed to a level that was needed to make this show like it has never been before.
One of many reasons for Ms. Sagen choosing such difficult choral songs is because the amount and quality of the cast this year. Over 80 people are in the chorus, 30 are dancers, and almost 20 people are in the jazz band. This is one of the largest casts that Bravo has ever known. Ms. Sagen stated, “This is a great group of students and they are going to make this show amazing, and that excites me and the other directors.” The students, while keeping up with their school work, learning the choreography and vocals for more than ten numbers, also have to contribute to making and preparing the stage for the shows.
All performers apart of Bravo have to complete four hours of Tech hours. “Tech Hours are where you go and help build the set. But, some people like painting the set instead of building and cutting wood,” explained Tech Director Rob Rachow. Rob is not only in charge of the tech hours, but is also in charge of the people you do not see on stage performing during Bravo, the “techies”. Rob and the technical aspect of Bravo take care of cleaning and maintaining the stage, lighting, microphone cues, and also running the show back stage. These people are backstage the entire show and are on radio with the directors letting the performers know when to start a number and when to wait for a costume or microphone change.
The lighting cues and jazz band are added in during tech week for Bravo. Tech week is the week before the first performance. Adding the lighting and jazz band then will give the performers time to work out any “kinks” that may occur when the dancers, chorus members, and jazz band meet for the first time. That is also when “quick changes” are worked out with the band and when vamping should happen.
Bravo performances this year are on April 23rd, April 24th, April 25th, April 29th, April 30th, and May 1st. The shows on the 23rd, 24th, 29th, 30th, 1st are at 7 pm and the show on the 25th is at 2 pm. Tickets are nine dollars for adults, seven dollars for senior citizens, and five dollars for students. Also, on April 21st, there is a Senior Show and the cost to free to go and see Bravo that night.
No comments:
Post a Comment