The opener, an original composition by our
arranger Scott Boerma, was deemed "The Adventure Begins," and was based
on various pirate and seafaring themes. The second piece of the show,
"A Day in Port" was a change in mood...the pirates on a day off (something
we Scouts know a great deal about!)
which even included a quote from the
Disney ride "Pirates of the Caribbean" (you know, "YO HO YO HO a pirates
life for me!"). It and our third piece, "Moods of the Sea," which
depicted a storm followed by a soft calming, were based on a British brass
band piece entitled "Tall Ships Suite."
The closer was another original composition,
this time by our frontline percussion arranger, Taras Nahirniak, entitled
"Confrontation and Finale." As the title suggests, the scene, portrayed
by the colorguard, is that of a mutiny. The colorguard "uniform"
was just the opposite; they were each in their own costume.
Effects on the field included a rotating drum rack which two guard members
fought on...
lots of sword fighting, and, on finals night
only, a special surprise...
when our drum major, Bob Guinn, took the time while we were holding out a great LOUD chord near the end of the show to wave a Jolly Roger pirate flag at the crowd, then snap a picture of them and us on the field!
The captain of the ship is overthrown and eventually
slain by another pirate, who takes his sword and hat as booty. He is praised by the rest of the pirates as the new leader.
The dead captain even laid on the field until
he was carried off by another colorguard member after the show.
This show was probably my second favorite, running
a VERY close second to 1995. The colorguard was absolutely amazing,
and the storyline of the show was wonderful. We had the most inexperienced
hornline probably in our corps history, with only 25 out of 64 members
being veterans. It took us a while to get going, but once we did,
we wowed every audience we saw. We even won the Spirit of Disney
Award for the most entertaining show for the second year.
Here is my seat partner, Scott Fortney, and myself posing for the camera. Due to our love of passing the time on these long bus trips by reading, we earned the nickname "Library."