‘Tis the season for the Holiday Spectacular, the second annual Christmas show put together by the fine arts department. Samford University hosted the two-hour event Dec. 11, highlighting Homewood High School’s elaborate display of fine arts excellence.
Since including the entire fine arts department requires extensive planning, head band director Chris Cooper, navigates incorporating both “standard” and innovative content.
“The Star Spangled girls have been doing Sleigh Ride and Parade of the Wooden Soldiers for 45 years,” Cooper said. “They’re all just standards. But I’ve added, when I took over, I loved the show, but it was just band and dance. That was one of my thoughts, why don’t we make this everybody? So we’ve added something every year.”
With the complexity of the show, all the fine arts teachers meet together and collaborate on ideas and logistics. The band performed 17 pieces for the show alone, with 100 members working to help the show run smoothly.
“We probably started in late September on Christmas music, just because they have so many [songs] to learn,” Cooper said.
This production has been coming together since May. With the help of upperclassmen already familiar with traditional dances and songs, the practices go more smoothly. Head show choir director Byron Mosquera explains the process of preparing between 160 to 180 members.
“The good thing about doing songs over and over from year to year is that the upper class will always know them,” Mosquera said.
The show is a massive undertaking featuring theater, show choir, band, spangles, dance, and color guard. Even amidst such a production, there are still moments for individuals to shine.
“We always have a senior girl that does ‘Once Upon a December,’” Mosquera said.
With many students participating in multiple fine arts groups, switching between scenes can be far more complicated than they seem on stage. Senior Reese Chaiprakob, Star Spangle Girls captain and Network member comments on the chaos behind the scenes.
“Sometimes the [songs] are spaced out, especially with 30 Spangles where it’s mass chaos and in between that’s stressful,” Chaiprakob said. “And getting your costume on, making sure your shoes are on [in] about seven minutes.”
It is truly impressive changing from one elaborate costume to another. Despite the stress and long practices, for some the Holiday Spectacular is more than just a production.
“I just love the holiday season as a whole,” Chaiprakob said. “And this is, this is just the only time in the entire year that we as a fine arts department, just get to all come together and put it all together. And I think that that’s something that’s very unique to Homewood.”
