In the spring of 2014, the Knights social club won best show at Spring Sing under the direction of then director, Harrison Waldron. He and the club captivated the audience with its patriotic theme and performance.
Since then, Waldron has taken a paid position at the side of show producer Cindy Stockstill as an office aid, but Stockstill also had other opportunities for Waldron.
“The position I got hired for was to be Stockstill’s office aid, but they sort of created a new position for me as a creative consultant,” Waldron said. “The idea was to give peer advising of creative aspects.”
Waldron said this practice has given him a great educational experience as well as taken some of the load off of both Stockstill and Steve Frye.
The job of creative consultant had Waldron observing shows on Saturday’s or any day the producers needed him, and allowing clubs to pick his brain on what could be tweaked to make their performance even better.
“I am here as a resource and to give advice,” Waldron said. “Some people took the advice and the help, but some didn’t at all.”
Waldron said for those clubs that did seek him out for help and assistance, he would like to think he gave them good advice and helped clubs become more creative in the way they present their shows.
Stockstill and Frye are using Waldron as a tool to help guide clubs in the right direction. This position is something that is on a “try it out” basis to see if clubs really take interest in it and use the resource that Waldron is.
Waldron said it has been great working with Fyre and Stockstill as an up and coming professional in the real world. He said they look to him for opinions on clubs performances. Waldron said he has enjoyed the experience of producing and being on the production side of things.
“We are all theatrically minded and so it’s really fun to work with people like that,” Waldron said. “We are all on the same page and come up all sorts of crazy ideas and hash it out and figure out what can work.”
Knight’s performance last year was driven by a story-based script. These types of shows are what Waldron thinks judges and people in the audience are looking for.
“Steve and Cindy made a big point this year to push story line as they always do, but this year they would reference our show a lot in Tuesday meetings and said if you look at the winning show from last year it was all story driven, and that’s what wins,” Waldron said.
Waldron said a lot of clubs are worried about dancing and making sure they have their eight counts, but shows with stories are the wow factor and a standard for a good performance.
Performance’s Waldron said we should have our eye on this year are: TNT and Zeta Rho, Delta Nu, and Ko Jo Kai and Ju Go Ju. He said these shows have had a story from day one.
