BY JEFF GRIFFITH

In 2017, it wasn’t hard to tell when O’Fallon Township was on the field. 

That’s because you couldn’t see the field. It was covered — truly covered, from end zone to end zone and sideline to sideline — in a white tarp, that provided the “White Canvas” for which the band’s production was named.

“It’s kind of a winterguard type of thing,” O’Fallon director Melissa Gustafson-Hinds said. “You can have the theme down there — a clean slate, and you put the marching arts on top of it. I’m a risk taker by nature in my life, and I thought, ‘Why not? Just go for it.’”

It was bold. It was unique. 

It’s back.

The 2017 edition of O’Fallon Township took 14th place at the BOA Grand Nationals, finishing just 0.75 points outside the Top 12 with a score of 89.050. In its 2018 competitive debut, the Illinois band topped a field of 27 in Clarksville, Tennessee, earning a score of 82.100 and taking top marks in general effect and visual performance.

O’Fallon Township’s white tarp — which is actually four horizontal white tarps — has been brought back for another year, and is being taken to a new creative level in the southern Illinois band’s 2018 program, “Stretching the Canvas.”

“We’re the tarp town,” Gustafson-Hinds said. “I think it’s cool that we’re riding it, we’re doing something even more with it.”

According to Gustafson-Hinds, the “stretching” motif is portrayed musically and visually throughout the program. 

“Modern art on top of the tarp is really, like, all we were (last year), in the simplest form of that,” she said. “But now we’re doing a lot of things with stretching; the music kind of sounds like it’s winding up and doing different things, a lot of our fabric stretches, the kids are doing things that look like they’re stretching, we have some props that stretch.”

O'Fallon Township at 2018 BOA - Tennessee Regional

But in all reality, the concept of “stretching the Canvas” goes beyond the obvious.

In a way, it can be interpreted as a subliminal nod to the way O’Fallon has taken its innovative image — formed out of the vision of visual designers Mike Anderson and Becca Sullens — and built upon it with this year’s show.

“Obviously, the tarp is our identity, and we thought, ‘Well, what could we kind of add to that?’” Gustafson-Hinds said. “We’ve kind of just taken all of this to another level.”

The show’s repertoire, which was pieced together by music arranger Lewis Norfleet, percussion arranger Brett Kuhn and electronics designer Cooper Ottum, features “Glassworks” by Phillip Glass, “Satiric Dances” by Norman Dello Joio, “The Moment I Said It” by Imogen Heap,” and “Niagara Falls” by Michael Daugherty.

“Each production is kind of a different emotion,” Gustafson-Hinds said. “We definitely show a lot of different emotions throughout the show, which is really entertaining ones.”

Going forward, O’Fallon will make its return to the BOA St. Louis Super Regional (Oct. 26-27) — where it finished third a year ago, not far behind two eventual BOA finalists — before once again competing at the Grand Nationals (Nov. 7-10) in Indianapolis. 

“We hope that we’re giving something to everybody else in this pageantry world that’s just a delight, and just enjoyable, and fun to watch, and fun to be a part of,” Gustafson-Hinds said. “And that’s what we hope that we give to everybody this season, that it just makes them happy and makes their life a little bit better for that eight minutes that we’re out there.”

O'Fallon Township at 2018 BOA - Tennessee Regional