The marching band wins high scores at contests around the state every year. Band directors Todd Hollis and James Hollingsworth decided to step up the 2023 marching show.
Hollis searched online for the show to purchase before the marching band season.
“There is a composer out there that has a bunch of marching shows that he’s written and composed, and we looked on the website where he has all his stuff and this one popped out,” Hollis said. “We liked this the best.”
Hollingsworth turned to film for his inspiration for the marching show.
“The movie ‘Poltergeist’ was kind of an inspiration,” Hollingsworth said. “That’s why we watched it at band camp because that was an inspiration I had in my head for a while.”
Drum major senior Emma Neuschafer thinks that this show is a good first for the band.
“I think it’s the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve done something like this, and I think it’s a really cool opportunity,” Neuschafer said.
Junior Zane Balser compares the level of marching in Augusta to his previous school Emporia.
“This is a lot cooler than anything I’ve done in Emporia, we can hardly get anything on the field,” Basler said.
Hollingsworth spent months working before the season on the where the band moves, also known as movements, on the field.
“For the opener, there were four drafts before I finalized what I wanted to do, and that one honestly took me a couple of months,” Hollingsworth said. “The second movement took me a week, and then the third movement flowed so quickly it took me an hour and a half to make.”
Hollis knows the band is good enough to step up the intensity for the band show.
“We felt that it is time to step up our game. If you go to a drum corps or Bands of America show, this is what they’re doing,” Hollis said. “They’re doing original music, not that what we have done in the past was wrong, but this is stepping up to the next level.”
Neuschafer, in her second year as drum major, sees the show as a little different than others she has been a part of in years past.
“The main thing for me is timing with everything because this is different from all of our other shows,” said Neuschafer. “We have sound effects, and getting the timing right with the band and the sound effects it’s hard to work with.”
Hollis also struggles with the timing of the sets, also known as drill, during the show.
“This show is composed where there’s no real break and one song leads into the next,” Hollis said. “That’s a new thing, and when we write drill for that we have to take those things into consideration how we segue from one piece to the next.”
