Grasshopper Night came alive during Family Weekend this fall, representing the collective effort of over 100 students and faculty.
“In some aspects, [Grasshopper] is a talent show, but like anything at Andover, our talent is so amazing that what [we] really work on doing is making it a real show from beginning to end,” said Erin Strong, Chair and Instructor in Theater and Dance and Faculty Coordinator for Grasshopper Night. “It’s everything. It’s a cohesive show [that] has a level of professionalism, and that I think is really unique to the ability of our students.”
While in years past Grasshopper Night has had definitive overarching themes, this year’s acts were instead loosely inspired by varying works of art and literature. Students were encouraged to find, interpret and represent forms of art in their performances.
“We went with a very general theme this year, rather than narrowing the show down to one central theme. Therefore, this year’s show [was] going to be a bit more abstract and diverse than other years. The things that acts have come up with out of such a simple theme are truly astonishing,” said Esther Cohen ’14, Theater Director for Grasshopper Night.
The five MCs of Grasshopper Night, Rob Irvin ’15, Sophia Lloyd Thomas ’14, Vincent Mocco ’15, Ellie Simon ’15 and Lane Unsworth ’15, worked to keep the show coherent by entertaining the audience between some of the acts.
Hypnotiq, Andover’s hip-hop dance group, performed theirpiece, “Snow White, Girl!” The dance performance was accompanied by a mash-up of the classic Walt Disney song “Hi-Ho,” “White Girl” by E-40 and “Gold Digger” by Kanye West.
Other acts included Footnotes’ tap dance inspired by “Mission:Impossible” and an a capella version of Toto’s “Africa” by the Yorkies, Andover’s all-male a capella group.