Every morning when walking in to the school building all gloomy, the voice of the energetic senior Samuel (Sam for short) Arencibia boosts the sad moods of adolescent teens while he shouts, “PTV FUN FACT OF THE DAY…” with co-announcer Jess Mocci.
Live to Spin
Color Guard is a group of young people that create visuals for the music of the Marching Band by waiving colorful flags, scarves, swing flags, rifles, sabers, batons, and dancing. It originated in the Civil War where a band would be required to accompany the soldiers while someone would have to hold the American flag in different angles. The Color Guard of today started getting more popular in the 70s and 80s.
Arencibia was able to start Color Guard in the 8th grade since his older brother Juan Carlos Arencibia (JC for short) was in the band so he’s been in it for five years (sadly this is his last). He joined because he wanted to be in Marching Band but wasn’t able to play an instrument. It’s a good thing he picked Color Guard since he was given the opportunity to be captain of the team for his sophomore year when he was just a freshman because of his wonderful leadership skills. Arencibia believes being captain was “…one of the greatest and funniest and weirdest experiences of my life.”
Being the captain of a Color Guard team of 20 is not as easy as it seems. From learning new techniques and learning how to march, it is especially hard to master since more than half of the team is new and have to learn everything they can in a matter of 5 weeks. They had to learn how to body slide, forward march, backwards march, and have good postures instead of their lazy slouchy ones. This included forty long, hot hours of band camp and plenty of late night practices. But with the help of the talented Sam Arencibia the process was easier.
He must have done an ostentatious job since the Color Guard got awarded ‘Best Color Guard’ on Saturday, September 27th at the Marching Patriots Marching Band competition in Piscataway, NJ. At competitions Color Guard is given individual judges that are only for guard and not the rest of the band. The team was even recognized by the judges that were meant only for the instrumental part of the show.
Arencibia stated, “ Last year we had no new people so it’s like we had to teach everything from the beginning and sometime I forget to teach the things that I thought was just common knowledge but they have no idea about it.”
If you examine a color guard practices, faces of joy and the sound of laughter fills the air. The relationship between these teammates is like no other. There’s inside jokes, foolishness, and obnoxious singing of an overplayed Nicki Minaj song. Arencibia voiced, “I consider them my best friends… we learned to love and hate each other.”
Color Guard practice October 9th, with members Claudia T. , Melissa Tito, captain Samuel Arencibia, and Sarah Gregory.
A great deal of the team doesn’t know what they would do without him. Arencibia keeps them in line and the team would probably fall apart if he was not around. Some consider him a “big brother figure”, as freshman Hannah Corpuz declared. They could go to him for advice about anything and he’ll always be there for them.
Freshman Destiny Davis said, “Even though we may annoy him, he’s really nice and an all-around great person and I’m honestly going to miss him when he graduates.”
In the winter Arencibia goes over to Metuchen High School and joins in on their color guard fun.
Footloose
Not only does Sam twirl flags and toss rifles but he also used to dance at NJ Dancin’ in The Spotlight on St. Georges Avenue in Rahway since the 3rd grade but stopped after 8 years. Sam performed tap, jazz, ballet, and lyrical dance in that span of eight years. Lyrical dance is just a mixture of ballet and jazz. “I like, just dancing it’s a hard thing to describe but it’s just the thrill of being able to rehearse and perform,” Arencibia explained.
He still dances on his own time and in parts of Colonia High School’s Marching Band’s show, “Billy Joel, And So It Goes” a production directed by Kevin Perdoni. Sam has a solo in this show where he dances in between the players of instruments and somehow manages not to hit them. Looking at him is like watching a majestic bird soar through the sky.
Davis also thinks, “He’s very into his movements and doesn’t care whose looking.” People envy his extensive dancing skills. When seeing him dance it appears as if what he is doing is easy but in reality it’s not.
Of course Arencibia thinks he’s good at what he does but he believes, “…there’s always steps where I can improve my technique.”
The Show Must Go On
Theatrical production would not run right without the help of a stage manager and crew. Stage managers work with the director by organizing all the things to be done for the show like planning rehearsals and making sure props and costumes are there for the actors.
Arencibia does stage managing and assistant stage managing for tons of plays throughout the year. He mostly works with Theater Arts teacher Stephanie Platko in Colonia High School’s productions. She considers him her “right hand” and believes that he is “the most determined student I’ve worked with in my 16 years of teaching.” Recently Arencibia stage managed for a production of Peter Pan and he was an assistant stage manager for Maplewood and Spamalot. Arencibia was given a professional internship this summer. His internship allowed him to be a stage manage intern at Muhlenberg, Pennsylvania.
