Grasshopper 2017

This past weekend marked Family Weekend at Andover.  Parents and guardians are invited to the school to get a condensed day-in-the-life of an Andover student by going through all the classes students take. At night, there were several concerts.  One of them was the annual talent show, Grasshopper!

2 weeks ago, I auditioned to be in Grasshopper.  In late September, the word about Grasshopper had already started spreading, as GHOP has been running for many years.  When I heard the news, I thought to myself, wow, this is really something I want to do. But I wasn’t sure what I’d do.  I wasn’t part of any of the big dance/sing groups, and in the past, GHOP has been 90% big group acapella or dances.  There are usually only around 2 solos and they’re all related to music.  The theme for this years show was Back to the Millennium: 2000’s.  All the acts had to be relevant to the theme in some way.

I auditioned to give a talk………about talent……by myself, but moreso, how that word has personally affected me.  I auditioned at 5:15 on a Sunday.  I felt bad for the judges, because they’d been watching 15 minute auditions since 12:00, and there were still 3 more groups behind me when I auditioned.  That next Friday, I found out I’d made it into GHOP!! It was very exciting, since not only is it difficult for freshman’s to make it [especially solo], but it’s a very anticipated show!

I was very excited until I found out the time commitment.  3 hour rehearsals every day this past week.  We had two show nights, this Friday and this Saturday, and we performed twice on each night.  In total, I must have spent almost 24 in Tang Theater rehearsing.  It was difficult to find time to do my homework, as practice started at 6:30 usually.  Oh, did I mention I didn’t practice piano for a solid week?  It was hectic.  

But my 4 performances of my speech were my highlights of this week.  I think the time I spent preparing, memorizing my speech, and learning the finale dance with the 13 other groups in GHOP was a good bonding experience and well worth the time I’d invested.  It was interesting to me as a performer as well.  I have never been in a show where I’ve had to perform it more than once.  At GHOP, I gave a memorized speech 4 times and each time, it was different.  As the speaker, I observed how the vibes of the audience contributed to the meaningfulness of my performance, and I noticed how my preparation strategy influenced my performance.  When I felt rushed to get onto stage, I spoke more passively and with a less clear meaning behind every word I was saying. When I prepared ahead of time, meaning I was on the wings of the stage well before my performance, I performed more smoothly, having more time to think everything over.   

Grasshopper, my first performance here at Andover.  I gave a speech…a little peculiar for a GHOP act, yet I argue that that’s what relates my speech back to the theme. I’m happy, about my time investment and about the product.