Ryan Ostry
Bugle Reporter
@RyanOstry_BR18
rostry@buglenewspapers.com
The Romeoville High School performing arts students presented their annual adventure into the world of percussion with their presentation of Drum Theatre.
(Photo Submitted)
The performance, which was held on a Thursday and Friday, was something that Director Adam Hill knew parents and bystanders didn’t exactly know what they would receive.
“It’s very important that people don’t think of it as a concert, but think about it as a running show with a lot of different theatrical production and lights,” Hill said. “I thought it went really well.”
Romeoville also got a nice surprise with the visit of She-e Wu, who is a world renowned Percussion player that travels all over the world playing at different venues and different events.
“It was such an honor for her to be a guest at Romeoville to play with our students,” Hill said. “She really gave them a clinic and was here for two days, what a great experience.”
The performing arts students prepared for their moments of glory since the end of December to early January.
“The production material and the music ensembles started awhile ago,” Hill said. “It’s also an hour and 45 minutes worth of that percussion music, so it takes a long time to learn with all the different set ups and instrumentation.”
This event started four years ago, with 52 percussionists who participated in this show in 2019.
Rehearsals for the show sometimes lasted anywhere up to six hours long according to Hill, but with more than 400 people who watched the talented Romeoville musicians, Hill said it was all worth it in the end.
Between 18 and 20 pieces are rehearsed in practice from December up until when it was performed, with many difficulties taking place.
“One of the hardest parts are for the students to balance this while also learning their band parts,” Hill said. “Learning these eight tunes for our band concert, choir concerts and many other different musical groups these kids participate in, so it can be pretty stressful.”
For the performance itself, Boom Bap (Nick Worth), Compound Autonomy (Jim Casella) and Marimba Spiritual (Daniella Ganeva) were just a few of the many popular and performed productions played for the crowd.
Hill attributed the success of the musicians to the long grueling practices that prepared them to deliver the performance that he called, “great”.
“I thought they truly did a great job all together,” Hill said. “It definitely wasn’t easy, there was a lot of hard work that went into this, but I thought it turned out very nicely.”