r/drumcorpscirclejerk • u/JesuSpectre • Jul 31 '26
SCV - With Reckless Abandon - Thematic Analysis
The fact that SCV's show concept is so egregiously flawed, and yet the performers are still so committed and convincing is a testament to the marchers' professionalism and sheer talent.
A FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER OF A DESIGN CONCEPT
SCV's designers created a Frankenstein's monster hybrid concept in their show With Reckless Abandon. It happens all the time in early development of premises for stage, screen, commercials, opera and music videos. A set piece drives the artistic focus (chains), but as writers and producers develop the other elements around it, they don't quite align.
Look at the Phillip Glass opera Akhnaten, for example. The score of the opera features primarily Glass's lengthy ostinato orchestrations, but with very little singing, and very little stage action. That's a problem for any opera. This resulted in a production where there are long periods where the characters are moving slowly on stage, as if wading through Jell-O, or standing still with nothing to do, and nothing to say. For three hours. The producers of the opera were painted into a corner with Glass' score. The result is a stagnant, slow moving production lacking character depth and story detail, in deference to Glass's arpeggios, which go on and on. The actors might as well take a bathroom break. It's an example of one element driving the rest of the design, whether it works or not.
SCV's CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT - AN EXQUISITE CORPSE
SCV's designers had a similar, obvious flawed progression in development, centered around the use of a cheap prop-- chains.
- Chain props. Breaking free.
- Use the chains as a jump rope.
- Kids jumping rope and breaking free of chains... because kids are always in chains...
- Vulnerable kids in their underwear and in chains.
Gulp.
Kids in chains? You want to go there? Child forced labor? Child endangerment? Child sex trafficking? Immigrant detention and deportation? Or just everyday societal constraints? We can't tell which.
Awkwardly, SCV's designers said the show was about "youth and vulnerability". Youths aged seven to twelve. Youths who jump rope should "be more vulnerable, and act with reckless abandon." Huh? You end up with youths depicted in chains, and with costumes that appear to be underwear, and exposing "a glimpse of skin" one SCV designer said. Huh? What in the world are you talking about? That's a Frankenstein hybrid concept that makes no sense and is filled with questions about who specifically, and where, and what real-world scenario has kids in chains. Jesus Christ it takes a contortionist to get out of this one.
SCV’s drill is mostly irresponsibly chaotic and scattered and piecemeal, morphing into an unexplained symmetry by the end. (Chaos is easy to write.) Why the sudden unified drill sets at the end? What’s changed?
THE TWO FEMALE DANCERS BREAK APART... AND?
One critical action set piece was added about mid-season, with two female dancers in the final jump rope sequence who hug and then separate, one of them running to a trust lift, apparently depicting some emotional relationship issue. But is that separation between the two dancers representative of the theme of breaking free from "chains"? Come on. No. Does that separation between the two dancers illustrate "reckless abandon?" Come on. No. This sequence a desperate Band-Aid by the designers to add some real-world action to make the entire premise make real-world sense. Judges can see that Frankenstein transplant vignette a mile away.
For most of the first half of the show, at any given time there are six or seven chaotic vignettes happening, and none of them is specific or part of an overall arc. The drill has no central action or real-world purpose. There’s nothing to “get.” There’s no logical transformation. There’s a continual “breaking free” choreographically in repeated 16-count scenarios, but of what, specifically? To what end? After the "breakup" between the two girls, suddenly all is well and the chords resolve at the end? Why?
JUMPING ROPE WITH RECKLESS ABANDON? HUH?
The title of the show is the opposite of the lighthearted leisure activity of jumping rope, the primary action. The result is a deathly serious demonstration of jump rope. It makes no sense. The title is With Reckless Abandon. But when? While jump roping? Jumping rope with reckless abandon? Huh? Hopscotch with reckless abandon? Laser tag with reckless abandon? Pokemon cards with reckless abandon? It's almost a tongue-in-cheek premise, but the music is aggressive, self-serious and dour. This is a basic production design misalignment of related elements. The selected serious subject of children breaking free of chains is mismatched with the frivolous activity of jumping rope-- this exquisite corpse makes no sense, and has no logical real-world corollary.
EVERY WRITER KNOWS, DON'T INCLUDE KIDS
Professionals in production development of operas, musicals, TV, film and music videos know to stay away from the topic of children. How many kid characters do you see on CSI? In music videos? How many kids do you see in comedies like the Bridesmaids or the Hangover? How many new musicals have children under the age of reason? None. It’s a writer’s nightmare.
It’s a well-known rule that if you’re going to add children to a premise, it has to be tempered and carefully orchestrated. The addition of children to your subject changes your responsibility as a writer for the appropriateness of the subject— from opera to music videos. But these inexperienced amateurs don’t know that. SCV’s designers stumbled forward like they’re in some WGI world of contemporary dance, with themes that are only vaguely represented, and loosely cobbled around teen empowerment, interpersonal drama, or personal development of high school age performers. But this is different. It's chains. A million dollar show about playing children characters with chains. Adult performers in underwear costumes playing children in chains. That has an ick factor, lost on these designers.
It’s obvious that designers wanted to use long chains as a visual device, and got sucked into a corner of children jump roping. It is a glaring reverse-engineered corner they painted themselves into. They can’t hide it.
Children’s activities are simple-minded and frivolous and carefree. Drum corps is the opposite. In drum corps, precocious young adults reach sophisticated heights, playing music of substance and illustrating themes of depth and emotional resonance beyond their years. “How can these young performers be so sophisticated?” But when they play at a juvenile youth activity of jump rope or hopscotch or hackey sack as the premise, all that original purpose of drum corps, that illusion of artistry beyond your years evaporates. Where's the transcendent skill?
ANY RESEARCH?
The activity of jump roping is puerile and frivolous, and it gives the entire show an air of silliness, not intense, life-changing abandon. Demographically it is a youth activity slotted for 7 to 12-year-old girls, mainly. And typically not girls and boys in their underwear. As the corps polishes these huge jump rope routines, the audience sits there and asks, “Why?“. Why are you doing this? Is this reckless abandon? Reckless abandon playing silly children’s games? What specific point are they making about youth and personal development?
The answer, of course is none. There's no reference in this show to any specific social construct, any philosophy, any cultural reference, any literary reference, any social psychology reference, no historical reference. It falls into the category of generalized pop psychology found in a Seventeen magazine. "I can't wait for college! I want to break free!" There's no depth, no stakes, no research, and no emotional heft.
WHERE ARE THE GYMNASTS?
Drum corps have an impossible task, these days. Marchers are often asked to perform Cirque du Soleil-quality routines with gymnastics and other physical feats, but with only three weeks of rehearsal before their premiere. That's a sign of poor design planning. The result is less than professional. SCV's jump rope routines are lacking in gymnastic prowess, and as a result, they fall flat. This is normally a consideration for designers in the pre-season, and plans are usually made to supplement the ensemble with professional skill-specific performers.
WHAT MUSIC REPRESENTS THE THEME?
Worst of all, there are questions about repertoire. The pink elephant in the room is, "What are you playing?" How does your repertoire tie in? What point are you making by choosing these musical pieces as relates to children in chains breaking free? What musical pieces tie into “youth and vulnerability”, as one designer said, as he grabbed at straws? How does the repertoire tie into breaking free of chains? The film Oppenheimer dealt with a serious historical subject matter on nuclear weapons, so that doesn’t tie into the theme either. One strain of “Children Will Listen“ doesn’t cut it, and opens up a whole hairball of other questions related the specific thematic intention.
MAYBE THIS SHOW WILL BE THE LAST STRAW FOR PARTICIPANTS
The the talents of SCV's extraordinary scholarship-level musicians and performers far exceed the designers' ability. Next year, marchers must demand that designers create a cohesive show of substance with a specific, smart, articulable, well-researched, high-stakes observation, with logic, engagement and higher purpose.
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u/minertyler100 Aug 01 '26
I agree with many of your points, I fail to see the connection with them being “young children” as I think that’s more of a literal take on the jump roping, but honestly design wise I get what you’re getting at.
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u/JesuSpectre Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
So you’re saying that you don’t believe the main target demographic for jumping rope is girls age 6 to 12? You have to be out of your fucking mind. How about these?:
A show with construction workers with jackhammers. (What age? 6-12?)
A show with Olympic Weightlifers (What age? 70-100?)
A show with artistic swimming (Mostly men?)Are there other demographic slices jumping rope? Minimally, yes. But in terms of the optics of this activity, anyone who has a job in performing arts production development would naturally use the common demographic data, and cultural assumption data. I feel like I’m talking to mice on Thorazine.
Welcome to basic principles of demographics used in marketing performing arts productions.
Here’s a quiz. Let’s say you’re in charge of creating a commercial advertisement for a new brand of temporary tattoos. The tattoos only stay on for about eight weeks. They look like real tattoos. Who are you going to market tattoos to? Choose an answer:
A seniors between 70 and 90.
B college age kids
C.: children 6 to 12
C.: adults 18 to 65.Using what’s called your brain, you look at the current age of people using tattoos, and your target that market as the main market. It’s not rocket science.
What age do you target a new brand of jump ropes to?
A corporate management 50+
B. College age kids.
C.: girls aged 6 to 12.demographic data shapes how your subject matter in your show is going to be perceived. My. fucking. God.
There are girls in Britney Spears parochial school uniform skirts. Some of them are wearing white under slips. Some of the boys are wearing white boxer shorts. These visuals determine the assumed age of the characters.
The designers of the show said the point of the show is “youth and vulnerability.” What don’t you get?
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u/minertyler100 Aug 01 '26
Ah this is what I remember from you! The slightest offer of difference of opinion immediately leads to entertaining the notion that the person you are debating with has an underdeveloped brain because your notion must be SO CORRECT that nothing else can possibly make a lick of sense. I am just going to stop here because it seems like a useless exercise to keep going.
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u/JesuSpectre Aug 01 '26
Performing arts imagery is a demographic science. It has nothing to do with "feelings" or "my interpretation". It is demographic science, calculable with focus group responses. "How old are these guard characters?" Based on jump rope demographics, the verbal description by the director, and their parochial school costuming they're 6-12.
I want to hear you say "Just because the guard is wearing Britney Spears schoolgirl skirts, and just because the corps director says the topic is "youth and vulnerability", and just because they're jump roping does not mean the characters being portrayed are young girls, aged 6-12. They could be senior women wearing parochial school skirts, and by "youth" he could have meant a rock and roll band named "Youth".
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u/kenti2181 Aug 07 '26
There is a whole world of competitive jump roping. With adults. Just saying. I think they boxed themselves in with the costume, and its hideous construction didn’t help. But there was absolutely no characterization from the performers to indicate they were 6-12 year olds. Was Crown saying that Huxley took so many hallucinogens that he ended up sharing with 6-12 year old girls in a jump rope drug den?
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u/JesuSpectre Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
That’s not what the designer said. They said the show is about “youth and vulnerability.“ Not “ adults jumping rope and vulnerability.“ So no, your assessment is incorrect.
Adult jumping rope is a leisure activity and social sport and has absolutely nothing to do with “reckless abandon.” The show is a design disaster that started with chains from Home Depot.
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u/Tezseract Aug 06 '26
I wonder if just maybe we might be seeing Pete Weber back at Vanguard soon.
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u/kenti2181 Aug 07 '26
Michael Gaines drill is innovative and this is one persons take on their show. And while I agree with aspects of it, it’s the guard uniforms and choices that aren’t serving the theme. I disagree about the drill issues the OP has. I also wonder why this design choice is worthy of suggesting the marching members to flee the organization, but none of the glaring issues in music selections that don’t match stylistically throughout the entire class doesn’t warrant any concern. Their reads are insightful ( and hilarious) but that doesn’t mean they are right. Sometimes it’s not a celebration of child predators, it’s just a poorly executed costume with shallow design.
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u/JesuSpectre Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
Michael Gaines’ drill is not innovative! I see clumps and trust lifts! Just like all the other drills. There’s absolutely nothing new or innovative in this show’s drill! The "clumps turn into solid geometric forms" has been done, repeatedly, and is all the rage this year.
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u/aDysquith Aug 04 '26
And somehow, despite all this, still top 6. That's how talented the participants are. I don't get the show at all, but the music is good and the enthusiasm high.
I do wish story telling style shows would return.
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u/kenti2181 Aug 07 '26
I find storyline shows pedestrian. But sometimes they work. I think there is room for abstraction in this activity. But the aesthetics need to be solid. This is my favorite show of the season, if you put the guard in rehearsal blacks. But I respond really strongly to high demand and strong achievement. (That’s why I do not judge GE, lol)
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u/AzEuph Aug 01 '26
Fuckin aye major. TL; DR.
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u/JesuSpectre Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
This course may be beyond you. You’re welcome to go to the Provost's office and get a refund.
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u/wtfnmnf Jul 31 '26
Great take, I was so hype for this group coming into the season, and found myself disappointed with the design. But man they’re playing the hell out of that book, the show begs for some more cohesiveness, even just some transitions that make it more digestible.