Courtesy Photo | Senior Airmen Lisa Weiss of Pennsylvania's 171st Air Refueling Wing is one of two Air...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md., -- Tops in Blue, the Air Force’s premiere musical variety show draws its cast and crew from across the Air Force, selecting the best performers and technicians the Air Force has to offer.
Simply being selected to be a member of the group, which performs at bases throughout the world, is a testament to the musical talents of those who make the cut.
And for the 2010 tour, that includes two members of the Air National Guard.
For Senior Airmen Lisa Weiss of Pennsylvania’s 171st Air Refueling Wing, being a member of the show is a large responsibility, since she is often the first face that the audiences see.
“I have the opening number,” said Weiss, who is a vocalist with the group, which performed here on Nov. 13-14. “So every night I have the responsibility of kicking the show off and getting everybody’s energy going.”
The experience has been humbling and a great honor, said Weiss, who added that it’s also just plain fun.
“Performing with Tops in Blue has definitely been the opportunity of a lifetime,” she said. “I get a chance to not only serve my country, but do what I love, which is singing.”
It’s also quite a bit of work as well.
“The schedule is grueling,” said Weiss. “We work very long hours—16 to 20 hours a day—sometimes we do back-to-back shows. On top of that, we also have to set up our own equipment, do the show, and then tear it all down. Then, it’s on the road to travel [to the next venue].”
For Weiss, trying out for Tops in Blue was something that she had wanted to do for quite awhile.
“The first time I was introduced to Tops in Blue was when I was in tech school,” she said. “We had to go [see them perform], it was one of those mandatory functions. I was really impressed, and I thought to myself back then that I would really be interested in doing something like this.”
Weiss said she also thought it wouldn’t quite fit into other plans she had at the time and ultimately filed away the idea of auditioning.
All of that changed this year when she was urged by several members of her unit to send in an audition tape.
But, it almost didn’t happen.
“At first I thought, well, the deadline is in two days so maybe next year,” she said, adding that she changed her mind after additional urging from those same unit members.
“I took it as a sign that maybe I should audition,” she said. “One of the guys in public affairs helped me put together a video, and I submitted it the day before it was due and I got a call that day saying they were interested in having me come to worldwide [auditions].”
In many ways, preparing for the audition was something Weiss had been doing for much of her life.
“I’ve been studying music probably since I could talk,” she said. “I was involved in school plays. I was involved in band. I played the saxophone, and then I went to college and I studied musical theatre there. I have a degree in musical theatre and a minor in communications.”
And all of that experience coalesces in each night’s performance, said Weiss.
Tech Sgt. Matthew Flowers, who is an ammunition handler for the Iowa Air National Guard’s 132nd Fighter Wing, may not have the same on-stage visibility as Weiss, but his work with the show is heard every night nonetheless.
As the technical director overseeing the show as well as an audio engineer, without him and his crew of technicians, the show, quite literally, doesn’t go on.
In charge of getting the stage, lighting and equipment set up before each show and then broken down afterward, it’s a role that brings with it a variety of challenges.
“The two main challenges that we have is fitting our stage on the venue stage and fitting our front truss in the venue,” he said, adding that within those two broad headings are a myriad of other obstacles to navigate.
For example, said Flowers, changing one thing with the stage layout at one venue has a ripple effect throughout the performance.
“At the most recent venue we had to take 12 feet out of our rear truss,” he said. “So, as you can see, that really shrinks our stage down. But, we still have to fit all the performers, the band and the lights within that area.”
And getting things ready for the show—to include working out changes to fit the venue or location—means wrangling a lot of equipment.
“It’s about 80,000 pounds of equipment,” said Flowers. “We have two, 53 foot tractor-trailers (to haul it all).”
For Flowers, who said that like many in the cast and crew he first got involved with the technical side of stage shows while in high school, wrangling all that equipment is one of the best parts of being a part of the group.
“I love the set up and tear down factor,” he said. “That’s the time when it’s my baby and all 80,000 pounds of it has to go up and come down safely. We spend three to four hours setting it up and tearing it down.”
It’s also something that Flowers doesn’t do alone.
“I have an awesome staff,” he said. “We have a total of four technicians and we all work together to make sure that the venue we’re in will work for us to provide the audience with the best show. We also rely on the technicians from last year and the tech reports they have provided.”
Cast and crew tour with the group for a year, and both Flowers and Weiss said it’s been quite an experience because it is quite different from their normal Air Force jobs.
It also gives them a bit of perspective on things.
“I’m just a girl from Pittsburgh answering phones in the recruiting office and all of a sudden I’m representing the Air Force and signing autographs and attending balls with four-star generals,” said Weiss. “So, knowing that I go back to that after this experience is over is also quite humbling.”
It’s also rewarding. “I think it’s one of the best things in the world,” said Flowers. “Of course, it’s also one of the toughest things as well.”
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 11.17.2010 11:47 |
| Story ID: | 60339 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE ANDREWS, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 91 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Air Guardsmen tour with Tops in Blue show, by SFC Jon Soucy, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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