The Performing Arts.

On Thursday, March 17th I made the trek down to Northfield, Minnesota to check out the High School's Rock and Roll Revival. For anyone who doesn't know what it is, Rock and Roll Revival is an event in which students bring back songs that were big back in the 50's and 60's with a full band, some great vocalists and a multitude of backup dancers. Auditions are in December, and between the first audition and opening night each member of the cast puts in some ungodly number of hours rehearsing both with choreographer Shari Setchell and "vocal coach" Bob Gregory-Bjorklund.
Because RRR is such a big deal both in the school and Northfield's greater community, and because it takes so much time, effort, and money to put on, it only happens once every other year. But when they do it, they do it right. The school spends thousands and thousands of dollars hiring professionals for sound and lights, rents out the middle school auditorium (which at capacity holds upwards of eight hundred good folks) to sell out every single evening, hires Bob and Shari-both of which are great at what they do, and the list goes on.
But it pays off. Off of ticket sales RRR brings the school around $50,000 in the two weekends. Of course a good portion of that goes to the costs I mentioned previously, but seriously. If it weren't a bunch of students who had busy lives in this, it could probably go on for a couple months and still sell out every show. Hell, they could even take it on the road.

Now, why I thought to write about RRR is because two years ago I was a junior in high school and participated in Rock and Roll Revival. Four years ago I was a freshman and also participated.
Four years ago: Freshman year. I tried out in December and got a backup dancing/singing part. I was in four songs and sang/danced in each.
Two years ago: Junior year. I tried out in December and got a solo, a couple small-group songs, and the swing dance number. I was in 7 songs total; the most of anyone that year (which seemed like a big deal at the time).
This year: I did not try out. I texted a few friends as soon as I knew the list was up and was pleased to see who got solos. I was lucky to be able to buy a last-minute ticket for the Thursday night show, and I was very pleased by the performance.

This year was the first year that I'd actually seen RRR. Before I was in it in high school I had never seen the show. The closest I got was running into the group practicing outside the auditorium in 7th grade. Before that, I hadn't even heard of it.
I didn't realize it would be so true, but being in the back of the auditorium as opposed to backstage was an entirely different experience than I had two years ago. I noticed a couple things that I didn't quite realize when I was on stage.

First off, when singing as backup, it is impossible to differentiate between voices. As a singer, I was always very self-conscious about how loud I was singing. I've got a naturally very loud voice, and I never wanted to "out-sing" the soloist (however, when I was the soloist, this came in very handy). The monitor directly in front of the microphone I was singing into blasted my voice right back at me, which only perpetuated the feeling.
From the audience, no matter how hard I tried to hear an individual voice, it was the backup and the soloist.

Second, no matter what, there is someone watching you when you're on stage. It's something they always say during rehearsals and it's something I always dismiss as unimportant. But damn. At RRR there were a few people I saw in the backup that clearly weren't thinking about the audience potentially staring them down throughout the course of an entire song (which I caught myself doing with a few of these lucky folks).

Finally, there's no need to worry whether or not you mess up a little. An audience member really can't tell, especially if they're only seeing the show the one time like I was. This was another thing that I beat myself up about when in the show. If any tiny thing went wrong I would let it basically ruin my night. What a waste of my brain cells.


All that aside, I'd just like to say that everyone in RRR did a great job, and it was nice to talk with everyone in the show afterward. It's always a good feeling to be greeted with excitement consistently when going back to high school functions.

Here's Straight No Chaser with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". I chose this one here because every year a group of faculty sing a song and this was it for this year.