Juniors Randall Schmidt and Sam Hay and senior Madeline Chestnut describe their journey for Encore 2014 and weigh in on their experience.

Pre-Auditions

When did you start preparing for Encore?

Sam Hay: Mine started in January. Some groups started over winter break but there weren’t any actual set plans until January.

Madeline Chestnut: Well, if you do Encore, you’re always thinking of songs. It could be summer of three years ago but you’re always like, ‘Wow I’m going to do this for Encore in high school.’ You’re always looking out for good songs to be in Encore.

How do you start preparing for Encore?

MC: We have a big main Facebook page, Encore 2014, but when you start your different groups you have individual secret groups and  you invite people to be in your group. Or a lot of my smaller groups you just communicate by phone.

Randall Schmidt: It depends on if you’re going to lead a group or not because if you’re going to lead a group you have to think of the song and then you have to contact people and get them all on board.  There’s a lot of thinking about it before January, but it doesn’t really start until January.

How often do you practice before auditions?

MC: Before tryouts is hell. You hate Encore. It’s horrible. I had maybe five [practices] a day. We only had a month, after we came back from winter break, to start thinking about Encore. And a month is not a long time because when you audition it needs to be pretty show-ready. You need to show them what it’s going to be like and it can’t be rough. I tried out 10 or 11 [songs] but you only have a month so you have to do more than one practice a week for each song, sometimes three [practices].

SH: Some groups are better than others [about practicing]. Some practice religiously, like twice a week.

RS: It depends on the size of the group too and how hard the song is.

SH: And what type of song it is. So if it’s one of those songs where you just sit down and sing, you don’t need as many practices. But the ones with a lot of choreography need it. And difficulty of harmony [affects how often groups practice].

What is preparing for auditions like?

MC: It was crazy stressful. Everyone hates that point. You just want to rip everyone’s hair out because it’s completely student driven so it’s kind of hard to find that role of being the leader of other people. There’s music rehearsals in people’s basements, random churches. And sometimes groups fall apart but you don’t really know when to pull the plug, so you rehearse with groups you know aren’t going to make it. It’s really stressful.

What were tryouts like?

MC: They were a lot easier this year, than last year. My junior year it was really scary because you didn’t know what to expect and you didn’t know who the judges were but this year I was fine. By the time you get to auditions you are so ready to be done with your little makeshift rehearsals that you’re like, “I don’t really care, I just want to get this over with.” Auditions are more relieving than stressful because it’s out of your hands. You aren’t responsible for your group anymore, to a certain point.

SH: [Auditions are] not really stressful.

RS: Everybody just shows up with a clothes basket because we’re supposed to have a costume for every song and we have a list of the schedule and we go in one [group] by one [group] and perform. If you relax it will go fine.

SH: I think solo and duet days are much more stressful. One day is for ensembles and one day is for solos.

 Post-Auditions

Were you pleased with the songs that made it?

MC: I think it was really predictable what [songs] made it out of mine. The ones that didn’t make it were kind of crap at auditions so I’m happy those didn’t actually make it.

RS: There were a couple pretty good groups that didn’t get in but overall there’s a good variety and the ones I’m in I’m really excited for; they’re a lot of fun. The more energy you put into it the more fun it’s going to be .

How often do you practice now that auditions are over?

MC: We have to practice once a week at school. Ms. Morton hires people to come help us put all our stuff together  and we practice on stage and the nice thing is everyone’s held accountable so everyone has to be there and if you miss more than two [rehearsals] you’re kicked out. For groups that struggle, we have to practice on our own outside of school practice. . . It’s nice after auditions because you know what’s in and they handle it and you don’t have to be bossy anymore. . . [During show week] we practice every single day and do the show every single night.

 Show Week

What is the atmosphere like now, during show week?

RS: For the past month and a half we’ve been focusing on the groups that made it. We’ve had practice  every weekend, pretty much. For spring break we took a week off but it’s picking up and it’s every day after school now.

SH: It’s definitely not as hectic as I thought it was going to be but it’s still a lot of work.

Do you feel ready for the show?

MC: It’s hard coming back from spring break because we haven’t done stuff for two weeks and yesterday was kind of rough because we just started with mics and the band but it will get there.

SH: By the time it’s tech week, most of the groups are pretty set.

RS: There are some that are almost there but they need work. Sunday was our first tech day; it didn’t go too well. Yesterday, everything went really well. It went a lot better than Sunday and it just feels like everything’s settling into place. I’m excited for Thursday.

SH: It will all come together by Wednesday or Thursday.

Post-Show

What made the show fun?

MC: It’s kind of nerve wracking sitting backstage waiting for your number to go on because you have to watch the one before you. It was really fun when people scream your name; it makes it a lot easier to have energy.

RS: I love the people, they’re all great, and when you do the songs you really get into it. And that’s the point of it, to have fun. It all sounded really good which was a positive and then being on stage was good for finally getting it to pay off. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait until next year.

SH: It was fun being on stage, of course, but then it was a nice experience because you got to meet and get to know a lot of people I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know. A bunch of different people come together and it’s a really cool bonding experience.

Which night was the best?

MC: I think Thursday night we had the best energy but quality of singing, Saturday was the best. Plus, all of the nerves were out. We were still really excited because it was our last show but we were kind of ready to go.

RS: Saturday night overall went the best but each song had a good night and I’d say most of mine were Saturday but there were some that were great every night.

SH: Saturday. A lot of people finally realized that it was the last night. A lot of songs got the practice that they needed the other two nights.

RS: One of our songs went terribly the first two nights and then on Saturday that was the best we’d ever done it. Even in a rehearsal, with directors, it went the best it ever had that night.

Were there any mishaps?

MC: Friday night, we had an a capella song, “Bottom of the River”, that didn’t really start with the right note. I mean we saved it, but that kind of freaked us out. But other than that there really weren’t any mishaps.

RS: I think it was Friday night, there was one really bad transition, where everything that you could possibly think could go wrong, went wrong.

SH: A lot of things during transitions actually went wrong. A couple missed cues, but like people running into each other, falling down.

Was this year’s show better than last year?

MC: I don’t think it was necessarily better. It was a really different feeling because last year it was all new and exciting and being senior year, it was a little more sentimental. It was sad; it was our last show; people cried. I think I liked last year better, song-wise, but this year’s I had more control.

How is next year looking?

RS: [I don’t have] really any ideas for songs next year, [I’m] not really thinking that far ahead.

SH: I liked the number [of songs] I was in. I might look into getting a different variety of groups just because a lot of my groups had the same people in them. Out of my six numbers, three of them had the same three or four people in them. I think a bigger variety would make for a better experience.