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Laxumi Chandrakumar

Ambassadors members perform their show “Route 66.” The show will take place on Friday, March 27.

Aarthi Eswaran, Junior Ambassadors member

As we head into tonight’s performance, how would you describe what this show choir program has built over the course of this season?

Our show is Route 66 themed, so that is our set theme. Throughout the season, we have really been delving into all the different layers of our show, where that’s like having our fun numbers about the blues, then going into more emotional songs about getting our dreams coming true, and then fun Hollywood songs, so that’s kind of the premise of our show.

The theme of a show can really shape the whole experience — what can the audience expect from the themes you’ve chosen, and how do they come to life on stage tonight?

We are going from Chicago to LA to Hollywood. In our show we stop at a drive-in movie and we have a fun number there. Then, we sing a song from Ragtime called Wheels of a Dream. It is such a beautiful song and is the central aspect of our show, and it really connects the story we are trying to build about following your dreams and going to Hollywood.”

From the competition floor to the stage tonight, how has this group evolved through the season to get to where they are right now?

Well, we’ve had to put in a lot of time and focus, especially on the smaller details as the season goes on. The small corrections, even though they might seem small, can actually have a very big impact on our show. Our show has improved so much given the judge’s feedback and our hard work during rehearsals. Our director, Mr. Barker really pushed us and made our show better.

What does it take — behind the scenes and in the spotlight — to bring an evening like tonight’s performance together for an audience?

So, there are four show choir groups that perform: Allegro, New Edition, Accents, and Ambassadors. All of them have a different set in a different story. They have all worked so hard in their respective rehearsals to make their specific story come to life and it is very versatile. It is so fun to watch how these different groups come together and create something like this.

For anyone walking in tonight, whether they’ve followed the competition season or this is their very first show choir experience, what do you hope they leave feeling?

I hope that they leave feeling very entertained, but also inspired to create art, especially because there are so many different shows, and you’ll see so many people doing different things. I hope they feel very inspired by the different messages everyone has to share.

Emma Miller, Senior Ambassadors president

As we head into the performance, how would you describe what this show choir program has built over the course of this season?

“There are four show choirs that compete and all four of those show choirs perform at the Evening of Show Choir. That is Allegro, New Edition, Accents, and Ambassadors. Every year they work super hard and create a piece of art that’s really unique and individual to them that year. Our set is Route 66, and we’re going to Hollywood. It is about pushing yourself to take a chance, try something new and finding yourself. Every set has something to do with self-improvement, adventure, and finding something for yourself, which I just think is powerful.”

The theme of a show can really shape the whole experience — what can the audience expect from the themes you’ve chosen, and how do they come to life on stage?

Allegro’s theme is make it shine, being individual and authentic to yourself. New Edition’s theme is New York, just being able to find yourself and having fun. Accents is doing the zodiac signs, not having to rely on a zodiac to tell you who you are, but just being able to be yourself. Ambassadors is doing Route 66, going to Hollywood, just being able to create a better life for yourself.

From the competition floor to the stage, how has this group evolved through the season to get to where they are right now?

So specifically for ambassadors, It always feels like everything’s coming down to the last second. We felt like we had a good show, but we didn’t feel like it was where it should be yet. So we went out to our first competition and we ended up winning and we ended up creating a show that was way better than we had ever expected. Being able to see our hard work be rewarded that weekend set us up to continue being successful through the season. We won our next two competitions, and then this past weekend we got second place. But I think we took it in stride and we won and lost with class, which I think is the greatest part. The biggest journey of the season is just knowing that what we do is valuable.

What does it take — behind the scenes and in the spotlight — to bring an evening like the night of the   performance together for an audience?

Behind the scenes we have tech students, our Tech Director, our Auditorium Director Mr. Szuhaj, and all of the technical theater students that helped put the show together, run lights, sound, and manage all the effects in the shows. Our amazing band travels with us to all of our competitions and also does Evening of Show Choir. We also have parents that volunteer, selling concessions and flowers, and the costume moms who took the costumes we were given and tailored them for every single one of us to make sure that we look together on stage. There are so many people that go into creating shows like this.

For anyone walking into the performance, whether they’ve followed the competition season or this is their very first show choir experience, what do you hope they leave feeling?

“I just hope that they leave feeling that it’s fun. The show choir that we do is very specific to Carmel, very specific to the Midwestern style of show choir. It’s not really something you see outside of a high school in a competitive sense. Carmel puts on shows that are just meant to be enjoyable and teach you something, but entertain you is the main thing. I just hope they leave feeling inspired and uplifted and appreciative of music and what we do.”

Kyle Barker, Lead Director of Ambassadors and Allegro

As we head into tonight’s performance, how would you describe what this show choir program has built over the course of this season?

Each of the four groups that are performing have all built their own identity. Getting that sense of team as an overall school has been something that’s been really fun to build throughout the season. The camaraderie between all four groups has been really pretty strong.

The theme of a show can really shape the whole experience — what can the audience expect from the themes you’ve chosen, and how do they come to life on stage tonight?

They can expect a lot of high energy. They can expect moments that are reflective of the past and looking towards the future, both as individuals and as a society. They can expect a lot of positivity.

From the competition floor to the stage tonight, how has this group evolved through the season to get to where they are right now?

With Allegro, they have learned the value of good rehearsal technique and what it’s like to come in every day and work towards a common goal. They’ve just figured out how to be a unit. Ambassadors kind of already had a unit within themselves. They found a lot of success early on, but they used that success to keep motivated and keep getting better. They were always just focused on being better than they were the week before.

What does it take — behind the scenes and in the spotlight — to bring an evening like tonight’s performance together for an audience?

The shows have been going for a while, and we’ve had that kind of practice. Since it’s after the season is over, we have to remind ourselves of what it’s like to get in that performance mode again, and then adjusting to the space of our auditorium, because we just haven’t really been in there very much this season. It’s always a new space, and then figuring out does our performance change when it’s not competitive and it’s just for a fun audience, or do we keep pushing ourselves to be better, because that is what I would hope we would do.

For anyone walking in tonight, whether they’ve followed the competition season or this is their very first show choir experience, what do you hope they leave feeling?

I hope that they have felt a bunch of different human emotions throughout all the different shows. There will be moments that will make them feel really hopeful. There will be moments that will make them reflect. There will hopefully be moments that make them feel joy. What I like about what we do is you get to see kids reflect the human experience through all the shows that they see. I just hope the audience leaves feeling uplifted and positive and excited, but also just more in touch with who they are as people.