Hey! My name is Amanda. I’m marching mellophone in the Mad Circus this summer! The corps just finished up another pretty busy weekend. On Saturday, we met at our regular Eagan rehearsal site to get everyone loaded up on the busses and to head down to Waseca High School so that we could get a few hours of rehearsal under our feet before we made our way to the DCI Open Class show in Forest City, Iowa. It was a fairly short bus ride to Waseca, about an hour and a half of solid rest time before our long weekend. The busses made it there without a hitch (can’t say the same for some staff members), we unloaded the circus, and got right to rehearsing. We only had three hours together until we had to pack it all up again and head out, so we had to make the most of our time on the field. Thankfully, the practice fields were already lined for us when we got there. That could have taken out a huge chunk of valuable rehearsal time; thanks Waseca! After the corps finished up rehearsal, we had two hours to relax, stretch, eat, shower and load back up before making way to Forest City for the show.
It was another shorter bus ride that most people chose to nap through, but when we got to Forest City High School it was ‘Go Time’. Off the busses and straight into uniform! The hornline warm-up was relaxed and steadily paced. We ended up having some extra time for warm up due to a delayed gate time. Anyway, once we made it to the gate and then onto the field, our train suddenly started rolling! There were plenty of excuses we could have used for a bad show: it was hot, we were tired, we had an awkward three hour rehearsal, but not one single member of our corps let these or other excuses get to them. The corps had a fantastic show that night: The crowd loved it, we loved it, all was good.
We packed up our trailers and left Forest City High School feeling great. The corps had a little complication with our housing site, but Forest City High School was more than accommodating by opening up their gym to us once again this year (we stayed there last year for this show, too) after their previous tenants, Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets left. It was a calm night with plenty of down time. Thanks again, Forest City! We hope to see you next year!
