Armchair Program Coordinator: DCI 2023 (12-9)

Looking back at the great shows from this year and making them even better.

Now that the 2023 drum corps season is wrapped up, we can take a look back at the shows. If you’ve read any of my articles, you probably know that I (despite not having any real design experience) love to have opinions on show design. So today, I will start running down the finalist corps’ shows and discuss what I liked and where I think they can take the next step. Starting off this three-part series, we have the four lowest-placing corps from finals: Colts, Troopers, Blue Stars, and…

Blue Knights - Unharnessed

What I liked: 

First things first, this show was a big step up in design quality from last year’s Vibe. The new design team better understands what makes a Blue Knights production feel like the Blue Knights. The ensemble blend between sections was much improved and had less of a disjointed feeling, which I would attribute to more cohesive arranging between the brass and percussion sections. I especially enjoyed this show’s darker take on The Door’s “Break On Through (to the Other Side)”; it worked as an easy and recognizable tune for the audience to latch onto as a connecting tissue throughout the show. This show’s costuming was also among my favorites this year; the color scheme in both the guard and the rest of the corps was very cohesive and helped many of the show’s great visual moments pop.

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Where they can take the next step:

As a big fan of the Bluecoats’ past two seasons, I appreciate the Blue Knights following in their footsteps with rhythmic narration implemented into the musical performance. However, I think they could learn from what Bloo does well. First, I don’t think the show required as much narration as it had, especially in the closer, as the theme isn’t exactly unclear to the audience. Secondly, I found the narrator’s delivery to be unenthusiastic and lacking in character. What makes the narration work with Bluecoats is how expressive the voice actors are with their delivery of the lines; they draw you in and tell you a story instead of just reading lines off a page. My other main critique of “Unharnessed” is it felt like there was never a big moment where the corps takes up the entire field, always favoring one side or the other.

Summary:

Overall, I enjoyed the show, but I wish there were more big visual moments to go along with the well-written big musical moments. I’m delighted to see Blue Knights back in the finals lineup again, and this show proved that the design staff behind this corps has what it takes to design a World Class finalist program. I’m very excited to see this team grow into their roles over the next few seasons. 

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Blue Stars - In Absintheia

What I liked:

Blue Stars has been a corps that has produced well-designed shows for a while, but not ones that generally end up fan favorites. Going into the season with their show announcement, I was intrigued by how fun the show’s theme seemed and the eccentricity of the repertoire. All of the props, from the straw tubes, giant spoons, and massive sugar cubes, created an excellent visual stage directly connecting to the theme: the creation of absinthe. I’m also always a fan of a well-executed uniform change, and seeing such an ambitious full uniform swap was exciting for me as a fan. There were also quite a few moments in the brass arranging that rank among my favorite moments of the year, specifically the baritone feature in the second movement and the ballad impact. I also thought that the percussion book took a step up from last year despite their struggles in that caption.

Where they can take the next step:

While I praised the uniform change above, I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a preference between the two uniforms. The starting uniforms had so much more personality, varying from member to member (plus, I’m very heavily biased toward purple on the field). Green is a hard color to make work on a football field, as virtually every stage you perform on is the same color. You need some contrasting colors to make the performers visually pop off the field from a distance, which is especially important to me as Blue Stars almost always have some of my favorite drill moments every year. Also, to contrast my compliments to the brass arrangement in specific moments, I thought overall, there weren’t many moments that grabbed my attention outside of what I specifically shouted out.

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Summary:

As someone who is generally an uncommon fan of recent Blue Stars shows, I was admittedly disappointed by this year’s design. My biggest complaint with last year’s show (which still ended up as one of my favorites of the season) was how the theme was unclear despite a very clear topic. I want more “why” from the Blue Stars team to go along with the “what” because I almost always like the “what.”

Troopers - To Lasso the Sun

What I liked: 

These past two years for Troopers have been a fantastic realignment on design goals for the corps, maintaining their identity as the “cowboy corps” while also making a more engaging product than many of the corps’ western-themed shows of the past. While I don’t think To Lasso the Sun reached the same emotional peak as the electric closer from VorAcious, I felt it was a much stronger show with a more engaging and easier-to-follow story from start to finish. Much like last year’s oil rig, Troopers brought more visual spectacle to the field in their mesmerizing spinning sun prop and platforms to raise performers up in peak moments of the show. On the music side of things, I loved seeing a harmonica on the field as someone who is a “radical” in their beliefs about what instruments should be permitted on the drum corps stage. The way the unique timbre of the harmonica blended and contrasted with the French horn and trumpet soloists in the ballad was magical, and I hope to see Troopers continue to push the envelope in instrumentation.

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Where they can take the next step:

I don’t have many critiques of this year’s Troopers production. I thought the show was overall an excellent and engaging show for seasoned fans and newbies alike. My main critique is the closer that was added on later in the season and how it felt like it dragged on the ending for too long. Additionally, considering the lack of musical shaping while trying to get in all the awesome visual moments, from the classic Troopers uniform reveal to the actual lassoing of the sun, it felt to me as an observer that they didn’t thoroughly plan out all the changes in advance, and like getting everything they wanted in there was an ongoing process throughout the tour. A nitpick in the grand scheme of things, but something I felt was worth discussing anyway.

Summary:

I loved this Troopers show, and it was one of my favorite productions of the summer from start to finish. All the changes made throughout the summer felt intentional to the goals of forwarding the story and improving the show on both the competitive and entertainment fronts. I’m excited to see how this design team continues to work together and bring more Western classics to the field.

Colts - Where the Heart Is

What I liked:

After a very fun two years in the mid-2010s, which almost felt like the predecessors for the Bluecoats’ recent use of narration, Colts have had a bit of an identity crisis from 2016 through 2022. While I don’t think any of those shows were designed poorly, they all felt relatively safe and lacked personality. This year, Colts fully bought into their identity as the Iowa corps, and the product they gave us, as a result, was the most enjoyable and identifiable Colts show since 2015 for me. Michael Miller expertly crafted the brass arrangement to show off the talented hornline’s strengths, and the percussion’s writing had a much-needed boost in difficulty to match the caliber of the section’s skill. The staging of the entire show was textbook, with there not being a moment where you couldn’t find which section or soloist was featured and the music having a clear development and progression. Throw in a cute allusion to Dvořák’s “Going Home” melody in the closer (Editor’s fun fact: Antonín Dvořák was briefly an Iowan), and you’ve got a very well-constructed and enjoyable show.

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Where they can take the next step:

At the risk of beating a dead horse, the color scheme did not work. While I like the idea behind the uniforms, every color being a throwback to the corps’ previous uniforms throughout the years, there simply was too much red on the field when you also account for the props spread across the field and an otherwise fantastic visual program became an eyesore because of it. To touch on the brass book some more, it became apparent halfway through the season that it was too easy for the talented hornline, echoing last year’s drumline writing. Also, while this show is a good step out of the Colts' identity crisis, there are still lingering bits of “blandness” from time to time, a lot of which could be fixed by addressing the other issues laid out in this section.

Summary:

Establishing themselves as a solid finalist corps was a significant step forward for the Colts, tying their highest placement ever and blowing the corps’ all-time high score record out of the water by topping 90. An airtight design to bolster the corps’ growing talent pool was a big part of this step, and I’m looking forward to seeing what is next for the Colts.

Aaron Blackley is one of the original contributors for General Effect Media. He has a vast knowledge and passion for the marching arts and has worked alongside the likes of HornRank as a ranker and moderator as well as the TxBands.com liveblog team since summer 2021. Aaron currently works front of house at Interstellar BBQ in North Austin. He can be found on Twitter as @GEMAaronB.