MHS Marching Band competes with cartoonish theme
Taylor Murray | Managing Editor
Be very very quiet…the marching band is hunting rabbits!
The William Mason High School (WMHS) Marching Band debuted their full competition show for the 2024-25 season on October 12, where bands from the local area were invited to compete on Mason’s own football field. The WMHS Marching Band performed in exhibition, getting the opportunity to showcase their work without competing for points as they do at every year’s Mason Invitational.
However, this year’s show is different from those of the recent past. Rather than swirling shades of blue and gold or sparkling magenta skirts, the Dwire field was populated with large props in the shape of colorful rabbit heads.
The 2024 WMHS Marching Band show, officially dubbed “SHHHHH…..It’s Rabbit Season”, is loosely based off of the popular American animated franchise Looney Tunes. The band members wear costumes resembling the character Elmer Fudd, an old and fumbling hunter who has a hatred for Bugs Bunny. The color guard is adorned with rabbit masks and ears, and the show portrays a playful back-and-forth between the rabbits and the hunters.
Jason Sleppy, the director of the WMHS Marching Band, said this show is a stark contrast from Odyssey and Enchanted Promises (the 2022 and 2023 shows, respectively). The two most recent shows have been more abstract, whereas this one, much like the 2021 Top Gun marching band performance, is rooted in a literal character or idea.
“The last two years, we haven’t had many character based [shows],” Sleppy said. “It’s been concept-based things where we’re trying to portray a mood, beautiful music or pretty choreography. With this one, we’re trying to portray two characters; we’ve got our Elmer character and we’ve got a rabbit character, and they’re eternally locked in a battle until the end.”
The marching band has not used large, mobile visual aids for a show since 2020, meaning even the current seniors have not used a prop like this. The props, though, have more than just a visual impact. Their existence provides for more openings on the field, so less experienced members without a spot in the show can help by moving the props rather than sitting on the sidelines.
“I think [using props is] a great way to have people involved in the production,” Sleppy said. “Everybody you know will be out there for every single show from here on out, which is a cool thing.”
Manny Mamacos, one of the two color guard captains, said he thinks the props, along with the bright costumes and whimsical music, make it very easy to recognize and remember the theme of the show. Every competitive marching band show is split into “parts” with different musical motifs and emotions. “SHHHHH…..It’s Rabbit Season” has five very distinctive parts that seem to run in chronological order, telling the story of the hunter chasing the ever-wily rabbit.
“I think the props really just emphasize the theme, and we’re going to stand out,” Mamacos said. “[People will] look at us and be like, ‘Oh yeah, there you go. There are the rabbits’. It’s definitely going to be memorable.”
Center drum major and senior Hannah Knuth said the show’s theme allows for a lot more silliness than the romantic theme of last year. There are cartoonish sound effects throughout the performance, along with voice overs that narrate the story and bright colors all over the field that were well-received by the audience.
“I think, if anything, our show will be a fan favorite,” Knuth said. “At our [first] competition we got a lot of laughs, and I think people really enjoyed the fun aspect of it.”
According to Knuth, the band is having more fun than ever at both practices and competitions. WMHS Marching Band members commit upwards of 20 hours a week to perfecting the ten minutes of performance, but Knuth said it is rewarding to share all of that time with friends, enjoying the rehearsal together.
“We all put a ton of hours into [the show],” Knuth said. “Obviously, it’d be nice to [score] well, but I think most of [the positive impact] is just the enjoyment of the show. And this show is much more fun to rehearse than past years have been.”
Mamacos, like Knuth, said that the cartoon theme has been exciting to present. As a senior who has performed mostly lyrical and abstract shows, he is happy to have the opportunity to try something new with the whimsical and bright theme of “SHHHHH…..It’s Rabbit Season”.
“I really love how in this show you really get to get out there,” Mamacos said. “The point of the show is to be so, so, so energetic and goofy that it makes it so obvious to the audience what the show is about. We’ve never had something like that before. I think that’s what gets me through the practices — being able to have fun and being goofy on the field with my friends.”