Despite the difficulties COVID-19 has presented, Bear River Starlite Express has managed to stay above water and members hope to have a fantastic show of “River Song” in May.
Junior Ryan Potts shared how Starlite has been going this year amidst COVID-19 and social distancing protocols.
“It’s going great and we plan on having a socially distanced performance at the end of the year,” he said. “It has definitely been a challenge during Covid to learn songs and dances. However, since returning to distanced practices, it’s been a really good experience for what we are handed.”
Sophomore Olivia DesAutels elaborated on plans for an outdoor show at the end of the year.
“All we’re doing right now is practicing and hoping for a possible outdoor performance at the end of this year,” she said. “I think it’s gonna be out on the field and we’ll perform on the track and people can sit out on the field.”
Bruins are hopeful that things will stay on track to have a performance and Bear River Band teacher, David Ahrens, talked about the different groups that have been working towards a show at the end of the year and what the show will consist of.
“We’ve been going all year long with our music classes: Jazz Band, Symphonic Band, and Choir (BR Voices). We have two other performing groups that are not classes, but are meeting outside of school time and will perform with the others. They are our Jazz Choir (Jazz Unlimited) and show choir / stage band (Starlite Express),” Ahrens said.
“While we normally shoot for a 10-15 song set for our March show “Fantasy of Stars”, this year we will have a smaller 3-4 song set which will be performed at our May show “River Song” (tentatively scheduled for May 21). This show will feature all five of our groups and possibly even have guest performers from Magnolia.”
Starlite members explained the hardships they have faced and the challenges the program faced this year. Senior Suzie Louden talked about the effect COVID-19 had on the group.
“It’s been really stressful mainly because we kind of started later than usual so it’s like are we gonna have enough time but it’s also really fun,” she said. “I guess one of the cons is us not having as many people as we usually have so it’s a little bit different. And with Covid and everything people just quit.”
DesAutels explained one of the challenges the program faced this year but was able to find the silver lining in it.
“The biggest [problem] I guess is dancing in a mask, that’s really difficult and it’s pretty rough,” she said. “We’ve also had a lot of people quit and so we have very very low numbers now like only three or four people coming to practice. If everybody quits then the program is at risk so we kinda have to keep it going. But it’s fun we get more done when we have less people and we kind of get to visit our stuff from last year that we didn’t get to do anything with so that’s fun too.”
Although COVID-19 has presented many challenges and obstacles Starlite has been able to work around them and make a memorable experience out of a difficult year.
“Covid has made it very difficult because of the restrictions on working together,” said Ahrens. “But we are choosing to have positive attitudes and focus on our successes, however small.”
