Huddled around a single desk, each member slaps a cup down in unison trying desperately to follow the leader.
They clap three times and the game begins. They move the cups up, to the right, and down to the table. Then they flip them up and bring them back full circle to the desk.
The Glee Club is playing the “cup game” in which they accompany “You’re ‘Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone” by Anna Kendrick to the beat of the song.
Presidents Savannah Symister and Daniel Kong, both juniors, established the group after realizing that Country Day lacked a music-oriented club.
“In this club we can dance, sing, and play music,” Kong said.
The prospective singers first approached teacher Alan Beamer with the idea.
And Beamer, who minored in opera at UC Santa Barbara, agreed to advise.
Although he admits the club has been disorganized, Beamer says he wants members to “fumble through that and figure it out themselves.
“I’m allowing them to come into their own. I want them to determine what they’re going to be by themselves,” he said.
Beamer is confident that the club will last due to the choir programs in lower and middle school. The choir students’ only option to sing in the high school is the Glee Club, he said.
As the club grows from its current membership of 12 students, Symister wants to participate in singing competitions and school events.
Symister has proposed starting a “serenading” service.
For $5 the club would sing for a person and present them with chocolate and roses.
Utilizing the musical talent in the group, Symister plans to have some of the musicians in the club accompany the singers.
Whether the club is successful or not, “seeing young people interested in singing is a really good thing,” Beamer said.
(video taken by Will Wright)
(Edited by David Myers)
