SHAFTWAXER

I now remember exactly why I’m not a fan of central Illinois.

I had lived there for 2 years, it’s a bit of a requirement when you are working at a school there. It was also the first time that I had left Michigan. In the end, it was a good experience, I learned a lot about myself, but of course there was a cost. One of the major things that I learned was that I took Michigan for granted. It’s a great state. It has interesting things like curves in roads, hills, and legitimate lakes that were not man made from run-off when building the highways through long-ass stretches of corn field and… corn.

My first experience with central Illinois came from working at the BOA Summer Symposium in 1999. I was astonished at how utterly flat it all was. And the sheer volume of nothing that was surrounding you was pretty impressive. Impressive in a not great sort of way. Just as we were pulling into Bloomington, there was the sign for our exit. Amazingly enough, there was nothing around. How could this large city be surrounded by absolute nothing? Get off the highway and you are suddenly in what would appear to be a large city. Strange. I would later find out that this is the norm. When I was living in Champaign, I was in the city, yet less than a mile from me were corn fields as far as the eye could see (probably further than the eye would want to see…)

So for the first time in years, I was back in town. This time, I was there to do a rehearsal with a bunch of kids I had never met. I would be there for 2 days, mostly observing and listening the first day, running the rehearsal the second. After the first day, I was seriously concerned. The kids were more chatty than I was ready for, and I was starting to get really concerned that the show that was written for them was a bit over their heads. Fortunately for me, I had an afternoon visit from a friend in St. Louis and a long phone call from the woman that night to figure out what I was going to have to do to make it work.

Part of the anxiety came from the fact that it was the first rehearsal that I had done in a very long time. Beyond that, I knew that I was going to have to strike a balance between being the jerk as well as the cheerleader. I decided that I was going to set the unrealistically high expectation that we would make it through the first 5 minutes of the show with percussion and pit by the end of the rehearsal. We would not have any train wrecks, we would be slightly under tempo, but it was going to be incredibly readable, occasionally musical, and in the right style. Considering that the music was passed out the previous morning, this was a ridiculously lofty goal.

Amazingly enough, they did it. They worked very hard, and they managed to keep their focus for almost the entire hornline rehearsal. I was busting my ass up their trying to keep them entertained and focused while making my way through music at a very fast pace. Somehow, it worked, and I was extremely happy, exhausted, and satisfied.

One thing I did discover, however, was how much conditioning I had lost since not directing anything in almost forever. My upper body and arms were kicking my ass for the next 4 days. It was insane. Hell, I still feel a little bit of strain today, and that was from working Tuesday.

That’s OK, I think it was worth it.