Closing out the summer of 2022, Troopers, for the first time in more than a decade, returned to the Top 12 pool of DCI World Championship finalists.
Such a competitive accomplishment is often accompanied by accolades, deservingly so.
In the same vein, though, it’s also often accompanied by questions.
How are they going to top that next year?
To provide a resounding answer, Troopers have plenty of ideas up their sleeve.
The Casper, Wyoming corps has its sights set higher. Fresh off of a breakout competitive season, Troopers’ goals are made abundantly clear with the name of its 2023 production: “To Lasso the Sun.”
“How do you capture something bigger than yourself?” Troopers program coordinator Tim Snyder said. “That's the genesis of all of it.”
“A lot of it kind of stems off of last year’s success, believing in the impossible dream, and those types of things,” added corps director Michael Gough. “It really flows right and picks up right from where we left off.”
According to Snyder and Gough, the production is equal parts exciting story — set to depict characters reaching high into the sky to achieve a distant goal — and apt metaphor.
“Having a show like this that's about striving for something great gives us the messaging to talk with the kids and keep them motivated through the summer,” Gough said. “I think that's what's exciting about these programs, is it gives us the template to deliver on our mission.”
Troopers, with “To Lasso The Sun” — both figuratively and, potentially, literally — hope to reach far higher than even the corps’ 2022 campaign.
“Last year, we had an oil derrick, and it was pretty big,” Snyder said, referring to the corps’ 25-foot-tall prop from the 2022 season. “We’re already working with our prop-builder (on 2023’s set design) ... and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in the activity.”
According to Snyder, Troopers’ 2023 production takes some of its inspiration from “Once Upon a Time in the West,” a 1968 Spaghetti Western directed by Sergio Leone, with music written by Ennio Morricone.
The late Morricone’s work was prominently featured at multiple points in the Casper corps’ popular 2022 production, “VorAcious.” His work, through multiple themes from “Once Upon a Time in the West,” will return to Troopers’ programming in the summer of 2023.
“The music is incredible — I mean, epic Ennio Morricone,” Snyder said. “Everything about it is just awesome.”
And to help weave the story of “Once Upon a Time in the West” into the fabric of Troopers’ 2023 program, the corps has plans to include unique instrumentation, similar to its utilization of an electric cello in 2022.
Aptly connected to a prominent character from the film who garners his nickname from his instrument itself, the Casper corps plans to utilize a harmonica soloist in its 2023 production.
“We decided to start adding that throughout the show, and then we have this beautiful harmonica solo in the ballad … it's gorgeous, and it fits so well,” Snyder said. “When you listen to it, it's just Troopers — every part of it is Troopers.”
Snyder noted several other pieces of music the corps plans to include in its 2023 production, including Oliver Waespi’s brass band piece, “As if a Voice Were in Them,” Morricone’s “L’Ultima Diligenza Di Red Rock (from “The Hateful Eight”), and Peter Graham’s “Harrison’s Dream.”
“Last year, we said we had something for everybody,” Snyder said. “And this year, I think it's the same thing. When I listen to the music, I get excited.”
In a big picture sense, Troopers’ goal in piecing together their 2023 production is a continued effort to synthesize the corps’ historical characteristics with a modern drum corps activity and community. Their past two years of on-field productions, according to Gough and Snyder, have been the first two years in that direction.
“How do you update the Troopers? It's not like your grandpa's Troopers,” Gough said. “You have the big thematic stuff that we're talking about, but it's Trooper-ized, it fits within our environment. (Snyder) has done a really good job in the last couple of years putting together programs that really get people excited that the Troopers are coming.”
“These programs are getting more sophisticated,” Gough added. “But still, I think, epic and engaging to the audience. We've kind of created this universe of the modern Troopers, and we're continuing down that journey.”
According to Gough, excitement surrounding Troopers has been through the roof during the 2022-23 drum corps offseason.
Gough noted all-time high membership interest levels for the Troopers, and he spoke highly of the talent from those auditioning for the corps ahead of the 2023 DCI Tour.
“We have an incredible drum corps being assembled,” Gough said. “We have the talent, and the amount of kids that have been interested in joining the Troopers this year has been historic for us.”
The heights to be reached by the 2023 Troopers are, of course, yet to be seen.
But for now, the Casper corps’ eyes are set squarely on the sky.
“For anybody that loved us last year, I think that they can expect the same kind of energy and excitement, but with a drum corps that is even more talented and even more amazing, because of what came up last year,” Gough said.” It's just exciting to be with the corps in a time like this, when we're on the rise.”
View TROOPERS' 2023 SUMMER TOUR SCHEDULE