Death March

This is the story of a band...........

FALL 1982

It was my first day at Walker High. In spite of its bad reputation it wasn’t a bad day. It was 6th period and I would be going home soon, but to my surprise they cut 6th period short and instead of sending us home they sent us back to homeroom for a pep rally, and I had no desire to go. 

A pep rally? How lame. Lame cheerleaders with their lame cheers, to cheer on a bunch of football players that were going to lose anyway;  just like at my last school. 

And the band? Oh man. Don’t get me started on the band. A bunch of nerd losers playing loud, out of tune fanfares in the bleachers. All day they were dressed in brand new jeans and special made red shirts with white letters and white shoes. What I couldn’t understand was why they thought they were so special.

When we made our way to homeroom, everyone sat down quietly and waited. Shortly after the silence was broken by the all call “May I have your attention please? Teachers when the bell rings please release all advance band, varsity, B-team cheerleaders and football players for the pep-rally and only those students. Once again, please release all advanced band, varsity, B-team cheerleaders, and football players for the pep-rally.  And only those students.  Thank you.”  After that announcement the bell rang  and everyone in the pep rally and only the pep rally: cheer leaders, football players who was distinguished by their jerseys  and band members who wore the War Hawk symbol on their t-shirt  got up and left quietly.  But to my amazement everyone else stayed seated. If this had been my old school, first, it would not have been this quiet and second. you would have had all kinds of class clowns pretending to leave just to get a laugh.

As those students gathered their things and began moving into the hall way, I started planning my escape. No one would notice or care if I slipped out the back I thought. No one knows who I am, they will never miss me. It’s not like I would be skipping school, technically class was over.

As we waited, the other students started talking about how excited they were about the pep-rally. I couldn’t believe it; they were talking about it like it was the best thing ever. 

At my last school we got excited, but not like this. We got excited because we were happy to get out of class, but these people were actually happy about the pep rally. It’s all anyone ever talked about. 

“Oh I’m so excited about the pep-rally” said one girl; 

“Yes me too. I can’t wait” said another.

“I heard they have a girl drummer this year.” someone whispered.

“Oh yeah, her name is Tina.” another one answered back.

Then someone said “I heard they have a boy majorette”and I thought that’s not possible.

Seriously I hadn’t seen this much excitement since the Jackson’s Toured in 81, and was convinced that no person, or group could ever rival that, especially a bunch of band geeks at some stupid pep-rally. 

Finally the chatter was interrupted. This time the announcements called for the dismissal of the remaining student body to enter the gymnasium. 

We quickly gathered our things started heading for the door.

As I approached the gym, my eyes began moving towards the exits which I thought would be covered by teachers and administration but wasn’t. 

I couldn’t believe it, Didn’t they know that someone like me could easily slip out on the way to the pep-rally and go home or where ever? Were they that confident in this whole pep-rally thing?

The students continued moving like cattle towards the gym. I begin to hear chanting from inside. The juniors and seniors were chanting back and forth “JUNIORS!!! “ SENIORS!!!” while at same time the sophomores and freshmen who took on one another were shouting  “SOPHOMORES!!!” “FRESHMEN!!!”.  Only the sub-freshmen stayed quiet.

I eyed the last exit before walking in, but when I decided to go for it, the excitement from inside drew me in like a magnet.

I found a place to sit and sat down.  At first I watched the activity but kind of felt left out so I made a feeble attempt to get into the spirit. I yelled, “SOPHOMORES!!!” but feeling rather foolish I looked around to see if anyone was watching. There were a couple of girls behind me with expressions of indifference who seemed to be watching me make a fool of myself. So feeling embarrassed and ashamed of myself, I quickly sat down.

I’d heard about the pep rally, and now I was here. I still didn’t get it. I couldn’t understand why everyone was so into this and I wasn’t.

As the last few students took their seats I began to survey the scene. I saw cheerleaders on the floor and foot ballplayers sitting on the stage with the coach, but no band and no band stand. No wait  .Are they going to march in? I wondered.  How lame! I was embarrassed for them. While everyone continued screaming for this pep-rally, in my mind I screamed at myself for not slipping out of  the exit when I had the chance.

Without warning, the lights went out, and the Gym was filled with screams, myself included. For some unknown apparent reason, I lost control. When I realized what I was doing, I got a hold of myself and stopped immediately. 

I thought the screaming had reached its peak and could not get any louder, but then there was a whistle blast and a loud BOOM of the bass drum followed by an intro cadence of the snare, and Quads in a slow tempo coming from outside, and the screams began to crescendo to a higher level. 

Then there was a slow cadence, and the band entered two by two, lead by the drum majors in a slow deliberate high step march, and the steps always fell on the BOOM. tThey lead the band into the gym with perfect military bearing that would rival any college or military marching band. 

As they marched in the screams continued. The tempo of the cadence started to speed up, and the BOOM was more frequent, and so were the steps. They came in sections: woodwinds, brass, and percussion, followed by the flag corps, and finally the majorettes And just when I thought the screams couldn’t get any louder, the feature twirler, Carlos,  came in., The band was finally in the gym and running around out of control to the sounds of the snare drums. And the screaming continued.

The drum majors blew their whistles and the bass drum and cymbals crashed bringing chaos to order. By the time the drum section beat the final cadence, the band was split into three sections.  Each section had six columns and each Marching Warhawk stood at attention in perfect formation. The drum majors blew their whistles and the band played a selection while dancing. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen as far as pep-rallies go. 

The flag corps and the majorettes performed as well and when the selection was over the football coach and team captain came out to say a few words. Even though no one could hear them, the student body cheered them on. Next the cheerleaders performed and after that the people got what they wanted, another selection from the band. The principal concluded the program and by the command of the drum major, the band marched off and the pep rally was over That’s when I got it. I saw why everyone was so excited. But I also knew exactly what I wanted.  As the band marched out I followed behind them looking for someone, anyone I recognized that I  could talk to about joining the band.

That’s when I spotted Andre with his bass drum. “Yo Andre! I didn’t know you were in the ban. Man you guys were awesome!” 

“Yeah, thanks man.” Andre said with a huge smile.

“Say Andre, how can I get in the band man, who do I talk to?” 

“Oh, you wanna be in the band?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey aren’t you in my class?

“Yeah”

“How old are you?”

“Fifteen.”

Then Andre reared back his head. “Dang, you kind of old ain’t ya?”

I knew he was going to say that. “Look who do I talk to? this is important to me”

“Talk to Mr. Ellis.” Andre was all smiles all the time.

“Mr. Ellis?” 

“Mr. Ellis is the band director. He’s standing right over there.  Go on over and talk to him. He cool.”

“Alright man, thanks Andre.”

“No, problem man”

“Oh by the way, I’ve never seen a band make an entrance like that before, with that high step. What do you call that?”

“Oh, that?” said Andre with a slight laugh, “It’s called death march”

Tips for the stage mom, The final Chapter from my book Acting 101; The How to guide for Beginning Actors

In theatre, a 40 year old woman could probably get away with playing the part of red riding hood on a stage production, but I doubt if she could get away with that on television or film. In television and film art often imitates life, and people want to see the role of a child portrayed by a child. So how does a parent get their child started in this business? First, make sure it’s something they want to do, if you’re reading this, then perhaps you’ve already established that. 

For children, the guidelines are pretty much the same, child labor laws may apply, if the child gets frequent work say maybe a sitcom or series, many working studios have teachers on set for the working child actors. However, if you decide to home school, be sure to register with the State or your affiliate home school report. If it’s just here and there a meeting with the teacher or school principal might be helpful. In my experience you sometimes get a call from your agent the night before so it helps to have a teacher or principal who’s sensitive to your needs. 

Helping your child follow their dream is the best thing a parent can do, enough said, here are some helpful tips if you are looking to get your child in the business;

• First make sure this is something he/she wants, I would hate to think that someone would use this to live vicariously through their child.
• It’s going to be a long day, plan for it bring snacks, games, homework, enough to keep you busy for twelve hours.
• Sometimes they feed you, sometimes they don’t, be prepared.
• Keep copies of your child’s birth certificate, social security card, and keep extra head shots and or composite cards on you. It may be wise to put together a special binder with these items.
• Do not leave your child unsupervised on any set for any reason. Make sure that you or someone you trust is present at all times. They must be supervised by you or a legally appointed guardian.

Understand that this is more than just an extra curriculum, this could be the start of your child’s career if they’re ready. So how do you know if they’re ready? Children are not shy when it comes to expressing interest in what they want. They may ask to join a drama group at school or just put on a production right in your living room. If that’s the case start small, go with an extra casting company, start out with extra work, and training.

You also may want to open a minors savings account in their name at your bank or local credit union simply because checks are going to come in their name.