By Emily Ward
Robin Williams brought joy, laughter, humor, relatability, and high energy into the households of many throughout his life. To honor his memory and the legacy he built, Shenendehowa High School from Clifton Park, New York, brought a stunning show entitled ” Robin” to audience members for the 2024 winter guard season.
When selecting what the athletes would perform for their upcoming season, Scott Snell, the team’s director, along with the rest of the program’s staff, realized they had the perfect group of athletes to create an unforgettable show that had been in the works for years.
“We actually discussed the Robin Williams Tribute about five years ago, but felt we needed to have the right balance of not only technical skills within the guard, but a group of performers who could convey the many emotions that would be tasked to them to convey during the show,” said Snell. “We would revisit the show idea every couple of years and see where we were, and this year, we finally felt we had the right combination with our performers.”
Once the staff began the design process for their show, they had to figure out what parts of Williams’ story to tell in their allotted six minutes of performance time. To start, the team reflected on the many art forms Williams created, including the beginnings of his stand-up comedy career and his film work. The film Good Morning Vietnam was their main inspiration to celebrate Williams’ use of adding comedy to dramatic filmwork.
The performers then reflected on the struggles Williams faced in his day-to-day life while he ensured that his audience could continue to enjoy the well-known version of him: a happy comedian who loved making people laugh. The performances concluded with the team paying homage to all that Williams was and the immense joy he brought into the world. They even had a moment of silence to honor the late comedian.
To create the beautiful soundtrack, the staff spent time watching interviews, documentaries, movies and more, to establish a library of Robin Williams’ content. One of the pieces of dialogue they used was from the movie Jack. The selected portion from the film represented Williams’ desire to have people remember him for the good he brought into the world and not the sadness that came with his passing. The staff then combined multiple voice overs from Williams with music. The team selected a piano piece called “Divenire” by Ludovico Einaudi to create the mood of the story, and the song “I Feel Good,” by James Brown to mirror Williams’ life and personality that was shown to the public.
“It took many hours of putting together the resource material and then many more hours by our designer creating the final soundtrack,” said Snell. He went on to say that it was easily one of the most intricate and challenging soundtracks the staff has ever created to date.
Throughout the show, the team used wooden desks with televisions inside of them, showing videos from different memorable pieces Williams was a part of. On top of the intricate construction used to fit televisions inside of the props, they also had wheels installed to the bottom to enhance the effect of the show and allow performers to dance and spin atop the props.
“We had to be very strategic about when we moved the props, how many performers we needed to move them, and to make sure that whatever else was happening during the move was interesting and dynamic enough to allow those sections to shine and not cause the audience to focus on the movement of the props,” said Snell. “We redesigned many sections of the show that included the props to make sure we were allowing the performers to shine.”
From the beginning, Snell knew that they had to include the iconic rainbow suspenders worn by Williams into the team’s 2024 uniforms. Adding onto that central design of the program’s costuming, the staff took inspiration from the outfit worn by Williams’ character “Mork” from Mork and Mindy.
Williams’ attire in the television show included, “Two different colored sleeves and a different colored body, so we used that to do the three different shades and materials of blue in the uniform,” said Snell.
As for the team’s floor and flag silks, the staff had to make a conscious effort to ensure the uniforms did not blend into the surroundings. The staff selected a pale yellow floor to highlight the blue uniforms and added the titles of Williams’ work to create a nostalgic environment for the audience. When it came to the flag silks, the team drew back on the lines spoken by Williams in the film Jack.
“The ending flag was built all around the line from the Jack speech where Williams speaks of looking to the night sky to see a shooting star and to think of him,” said Snell.
Combining all the details of the show–from props to costuming to voice overs and music–the team had one goal in mind for their 2024 program.
“We wished to create a show to honor Williams and show how important Robin was in many people’s lives,” Snell stated. “You could see our performers pour their own emotions into the show each time they took the floor.”
Shenendehowa High School wants to thank the WGI community for their support to their athletes all season and they look forward to the many years to come within the sport and WGI.
About the Author:
Emily Ward works as a content creator for OneTouch Direct in Tampa, Florida. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications with a concentration in broadcast programming and production. She also minored in psychology. She began colorguard her junior year of high school, and was a captain of Sunlake High School’s Open Class team and has since spun for the University of South Florida.
