Authors: Karen Chen, Rishab Jain
Date: March 17, 2022
Source: EVHS Instagram (@evhspride)
Returning to our campus, BOTC is coming up this Saturday. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors are all preparing and finalizing their performances and creations to showcase by the end of the week.
Each year, battle is split into many different performances for each class including a skit and ADC’s dance followed by other club performances. This year, each performance will be centered around Marvel. The freshmen will be representing Hulk, the sophomores will be representing Thanos, the juniors will be sporting Dr. Strange, and the seniors will be playing Spiderman.
To begin each performance, each class typically has a skit prepared by writers that’s centered around a theme. Sofia Peralta, one of the ADC heads for juniors, is in charge of coordinating the dance around the skit for Dr. Strange. After receiving the script and skit for BOTC, the ADC heads are able to then choreograph and coordinate dance breaks into different scenes.
“For the class of 2023, I’m one of the adc heads! Along with Kate Tseng, our responsibilities are planning out choreographers, practice times and days, and overall just overlooking the dances and skits that will be performed during battle,” said Sofia Peralta.
Students can see a preview of these dances on Instagram @evhspride.
In addition to dances, BOTC also has a Deco committee that prepares many of the decorations, props, and posters to fully immerse students in battle. Jenna Vu, the freshman head of deco, is in charge of coordinating all the posters that will represent the freshman class. This is a long and extensive process that takes an army of people to complete, but for many of the participants, the end product is always worth it.
“There are many steps that go into it. First, we cut panels that eventually join together to make one large poster. We sketch different parts of the image onto each panel. In the end, we color and join everything together to make one cohesive image. For battle this year we are making two posters, one is a sign for deco and the other is a poster for battle,” explained Jenna.
“It’s hard trying to organize the best meeting places and times that work for everyone. There are really just a bunch of parts to deco, not just different parts of the poster but different parts of knowing when and where to meet up, and how to keep others happy while they’re here,” stated Jenna. “It’s also difficult to organize all the materials. Lastly, since deco is off-campus it’s harder to coordinate.”
Despite the difficulties in coordinating and planning the posters, students have a great time at the meetups. Various attendees are able to hang out with friends outside of school and meet new people at Deco through working together, collaborating, drawing, and painting.
Additionally, Deco also covers different props for the performances based on the scripts they receive. This often means that members of the team will also need to learn different skills such as woodwork to work with different materials. They also require creativity to tackle unique projects for this year’s theme. They are always welcome to students joining in throughout the process due to the large amount of hands needed on deck in order to create a project on such a large scale.
“All of our committees have been working extremely hard to make this battle amazing, especially coming back from distance learning!” said Sofia. “People can look forward to our beautiful Deco and costumes and watching our adc and actors bring our dances and skit to life!!”
This year, the Judges have prepared their own rubric for each of the performances. Ms. Kuch is one of the judges for BOTC this year and has set her expectations high for the upcoming performances. Ms. Kuch is looking forward to the storylines that each class prepared and getting to see how each class has grown over the years as a judge for a previous year. Seeing the amount of practice, the creativity that goes into planning, and the designs of the decorations created by each class is what draws Ms. Kuch to being a judge. However, it is important to her to emphasize that although BOTC is a competition, the most important part of the event is having fun.
“I’ve seen the kids since when they were freshman and now that they are seniors it’s like WOW. So I just sit back and enjoy and I am just in awe.” said Ms. Kuch. “And I have fun doing it.”
If you have not purchased tickets yet, be sure to stop by A-building this Friday during lunch to buy a ticket! For more information, check out EVHS’s official instagram page @evhspride.
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