About 150 MHS students were invited to participate in the 50th annual Super Bowl halftime performance on Sunday, February 7th at the new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. The students were from our music, theatre, dance, and cheer programs and functioned as a part of the crowd for halftime headliners Beyoncé, Coldplay, and Bruno Mars.
The MHS music director, Christopher Kaldy, was contacted by Touchdown Entertainment, according to Assistant Music Director Emily Moore. Moore also added that the
“The people in charge of casting for the halftime show called us trying to figure out if marching band was interesting in being on the field,” Moore said. “They seemed to be calling a lot of schools. We happened to pick up the phone and then Mr. Kaldy talked to them.”
When students found out about the opportunity to participate in the halftime show, they were excited and filling spots was not hard, despite the time crunch, Moore added. Transportation to and from the stadium was smooth though the process was a little rushed, according to Moore.
“We found out that if we had over 100 people, then they would pay for our busses, which is always a good thing. Then, we asked to involve more people, like theatre, dance, and cheer,” said Moore. “We had to get permission slips within two days, but [recruiting people] was pretty easy. A lot of people seemed to be excited to participate.”
The excitement was indeed high for Seniors Cindy Thach and Julie Vinh. According to Thach, the experience was a once in a lifetime event.
“It was the best experience ever because we got to see Beyonce and Coldplay for free,” Thach said. “Everyone was just so excited and everyone was bunching up trying to jump and sing really loudly, and we were running out of breath.”
Theatre Director Kaila Schwartz was one of the teachers that was also a part of fan crowd during the halftime show, according to Schwartz. The entire plan came together very quickly and things moved fast, with only a few rehearsals participants needed to attend, Schwartz added.
“We got the call one day, and the parental consent forms were due two days later. The first rehearsal was not long after that,” Schwartz said. “There were only a couple rehearsals for us cuz we were just fan participants. There was one on Sunday at Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. And there was a dress rehearsal on Thursday at Levis with all the performers.”
According to Junior Noemi Crisanto, the entire rehearsal process was exciting and provided participants with prior knowledge of what was going to air during halftime.
“During rehearsals, they told us [how to jump for a song], how to hold up our hands in the sign of a heart, and how to jog on and jog off. On Thursday, there was an actual dress rehearsal so we got to see Beyonce and Coldplay perform. It was like a private concert,” Crisanto said. “We already knew what was going on and we already knew about the Pepsi commercial that was going to air.”
Crisanto added that seeing the show several times with pyrotechnics was cool every time, and that the day of the show was even more exciting. Crisanto said that her favorite part of the experience was that it was free of cost.
“We had a police escort on the actual day,” Crisanto said. “The best part of the whole experience was that it was free. Everything was free.”