Most students at TG have an idea or are at least aware of what show choir is, and what the three choirs here do. However, most do not know what a day is like at a show choir competition. Many students at TG are involved in multiple show choir groups: Company of Singers, The Testosterones, and Encore It can be an exhausting experience. This narrative provides some insight into a day in the life of a student in all three choir groups.

4:00 am. Your alarm goes off. It’s still dark outside and you think about what you need to do. You wash and dry your hair, pack up your bags, and put on your nice clothes. You eat breakfast and leave for school at 5:20 am. Check yourself in with the directors and load the buses. The buses leave at 6 am. You arrive at Eau Claire Memorial High School at 7:50. Once arrived, everyone, except girls in Encore, have to help unload the truck. It is full of set boxes, band stuff, and nine costume racks. Since you are in Encore band, you have to get ready almost right away and have to be down in the band area at 8:50. Getting ready involves putting on your green dress and green robin hood hat. Encore warms up with you and you perform the fairytale theme show for the crowd and judges at 10:00. The show goes well and now the group goes into critique, along with the band. Except you cannot go listen to their critique because you have to get ready for the all-female band that backs up the T-tones, the Estrojams.

Before getting ready you have time to grab a quick snack (the last time you ate was 5 am!) and then you head back to get dressed. The theme this year is royalty so you wear a long purple dress and a gold crown. After getting changed you run down to the band area again and warm up with the guys. They do a great show and the group goes into critique, which you can attend this time. The time is now around 1 and you have two hours until you have to be ready for Company. You grab a sandwich and eat some lunch before going up to the room to get everything ready for Company by 3:15.  You change into your black crew jacket, leggings, and shoes.

Since you are leader of the crew, you make sure everything is ready to go down. When the singers are called, the group goes down. As the singers rehearse the show, it is your job to get everything used in the show in order to be put on stage. Soon, the singers come back and you are ready to run the show. The people who run the competition give you 25 minutes to get set up, run your show, and take everything out. Company crosses the red line that starts the time, and everyone feverishly works to get ready. Finally the show starts at 4:35 and the floor is strewn with costumes ready to be changed into. The space backstage is tiny, but the show goes without a problem. At the end of the show, you look up at the clock and notice there is 4 minutes left. After everyone gets past the doorway, your director is excited and says we had a minute and thirty seconds left. You take the costumes that need to be organized back to the room and begin to sort through them. It is now 5:15. Prelim awards are at 5:50. You get to change back into the E-jams costume to go up for awards. The Company claims a spot in the final 6, wins best female vocalist Grace Savard, and best band. Encore Singers wins second place. After you return from awards, the directors give all three groups an exact description of how close everything is. The Company is revealed to be in 1st place and T-tones was in 7th place. You go through the same routine for Company as you did for finals, except you are not timed this time.

The show goes extremely well and the best part of the night is finally here: changing into comfy clothes. After you organize the costumes again and get the truck loaded. Final awards come and they name who got what place. Finally, it comes to 1st runner-up. You wait and hear “Hastings Riverside Company!” This means that Company of Singers are Grand Champs! You run up stage with everyone and get your medal. After everyone loads the bus you stop at Festival Foods, get some food, eat it, and fall asleep on the bus. Soon you come back to TG and unload the truck. You drive home and, finally, get to go sleep in your bed.

The show choirs do this all again on Saturday, February 10th in Fort Atkinson, WI. It is Encore’s last competition. Company and T-tones go to Davenport, IA the next weekend. Totino Grace’s home competition Spectacular is March 3rd, 2018.