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(Edison, New Jersey)
First, dispel the notion you have of the color guard you remember accompanying the local high school band at halftime of the football game. These are fully choreographed arena presentations. A fusion of art, dance, theater and music; modern day color guard performances are complete theatrical presentations. Fully choreographed and costumed with rifles, flags, batons and sabres flying in the air.
More than 1000 Guard from around the world converged on Ohio in mid-April for the 2018 WGI (Winter Guard International)World Championships. Each is given 17 minutes to stage and complete a 10-minute performance.
One corps, the Bluecoats Indoor, brought a new sonic dimension this year to color guard presentations with the integration audio into their performance set design. First, the evolution of the Bluecoats audio for the drum corps.
In 2016, the Bluecoats ushered in an era of change to drum corps activity, a sister activity to WGI, shedding the militaristic sense of style and audio. The corps hit the field in an all-white with a more theatrical look integrating movable slides while they performed. Then they added multiple stacks of sound to help integrate the visual with the audio. These innovative additions led them to the Gold Medal at the DCI (Drum Corps International) World Championships in 2016. The very next year the activity followed suit in both audio and the theatrical design.
Now in 2018, the Bluecoats are once again bringing change to the format of color guard with the dynamic they have added to the color guard performance with incorporating audio into the performance program bringing a new concept to the competition.
“This is an incredibly inspiring and exciting time for the Bluecoats,” says Bluecoats Tour Administrator Chris Drake. “Renowned for their outdoor corps, this is the debut for the Bluecoats Indoor color guard.” It was Artistic Director Jon Vanderkolff who brought the new image to the drum and bugle corps while now extending his creativity to the WGI activity. As Vanderkolff holds an Emmy Award and a Tony Award for his visual design of the Broadway show Blast!, he sought to bring a theatrical presence to the Bluecoats performances. His involvement with the Bluecoats dates back to 2013. While the drum line was one of the premiere corps musically, Vanderkolff brought a new level of creativity the group had never seen. And he’s now done that with the Bluecoats Indoor.
Installation
FICO Eataly World, the largest agri-food park in the world covering more than 100,000 mq, and located just outside Bologna, was opened on 15 November 2017. The new park showcases 150 Italian food companies to an estimated 6 million visitors. The Fabbrica Italiana COntadina (FICO) Eataly World has two ambitious goals: to attract visitors from all over the world, and to represent Italy with all its top-quality products and biodiversity, mixing Italy's food and wine traditions with innovation and research in the agri-food sector.
The park, jointly managed by the two major Italian food players, Eataly andCoop, includes 2 hectares of fields and open-air stalls, and 8 hectares hosting: 40 factories; 40 shops, markets, and eateries; areas dedicated to sport, children, reading, and services; 6 classrooms; 6 large, educational "fairgrounds", a theatre and cinema; a modular conference centre for 50to 1000 people and a Foundation with 3 universities.
Installation
In 1905 Evangelical Lutheran national church leaders envisioned a new mission in Madison, Wisconsin that would use English as the primary language and service the students at the University of Wisconsin. With that, a small Bible study group founded Luther Memorial. From these humble beginnings, the congregation grew and in 1923 they dedicated their new church building, hailed as the “Cathedral of the Northwest.” A Madison landmark now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the neo-Gothic architecture reminds one of a European cathedral. The building stands tall in the heart of the University of Wisconsin campus despite the challenges it has faced over the decades including fires, threats of bankruptcy, a bombing and cultural shifts with the denomination itself.
These days, the church services the intergenerational faith community in the region of the state’s capital. Entering the nave, a stone living-water font greets worshippers into this architecturally stunning worship space. The floor plan is laid out in traditional cruciform design. With 40-foot high arched ceiling, a domed apse frames an ornate centerpiece that rises two stories above the altar with a statue of Jesus Christ looking down watching over his flock. On either side, ornamental organ pipes add to the majestic look with their 56-rank Austin pipe organ and Steere tracker organ. When trying to define the church itself, Walt Miner writes in The History of Luther Memorial Church,“In daily speech it’s often a building, but also an organization, a religious fellowship, a pattern of changing activities and goals springs over more than a hundred years.” He continues, “It is made – and continuously remade – by the One who says ‘Behold, I make all things new.’”
