Friday, June 05, 2015

Northwood High School Pops Concert

Tonight R2 and some 501st characters helped with an appearance at Northwood High School's Pops Concert in Irvine, CA. The school paid for the rights to play Duel of the Fates as their finale, and the characters were to appear during the performance.

The orchestra and chorale are quite large, with a few hundred students participating. I was told over 90% of the students participate in Fine Arts at the school.

We arrived around 7:00pm and were provided a dressing room. R2 came dressed already, so he hung out int he hallway, where some of the student performers were able to take the occasional picture.



A few of us were also able to sneak backstage and watch some of the performance. I was only able to see a small percentage of the students onstage from my vantage point, but they certainly sounded good.



Around 8:30pm the characters prepared to enter quietly from the back of the music hall. Vader and Yoda were played by the music director and his wife (using non-club costumes).




As the Duel of the Fates started, R2 rolled up the ramp and took his position on the right. Other characters were stationed in other various parts of the theater.



I was told about 700 people were in attendance. It sure looked crowded.



When the students finished playing the piece, they got a standing ovation, and they took a bow.



No sooner did things wrap up on the stage, then people started taking the opportunity to get pictures with R2.




Eventually, I was able to make my way with R2 outside, where he belonged for photo ops with the rest of the characters.



We wrapped it up with a group photo of all of the characters.



It was a really fun night and I'm glad I was able to go.