Can we give it up for all the prop parents?

Clear Brook HS performed at Percussion World Championships on an immaculately detailed garden set filled with dozens of individually crafted flowers, trees, bushes, and walls, all handmade by parents at the school. The craftsmanship on display was just one example of the dedication prop crews all across the activity put in to make their group’s shows happen.

At the center of the floor sat a wind phone, where most of the show’s narration took place.

The first wind phone was built in Otsuchi, Japan by a grieving gardener named Itaru Sasaki. Looking for a way to navigate the loss of his cousin, he put a phone booth in his garden with a disconnected rotary phone. It was a place for him to express the things he had left to say to his late cousin.

Following a tsunami in 2011, Sasaki opened the garden for grieving families in his community to speak with their lost loved ones, too. As word spread, communities all over the world began building their own wind phones.

This story is what served as the inspiration for Clear Brook’s production “Whispers in the Wind,” which saw performers all throughout the show having conversations with their loved ones. Videographer Jackson Arnold was with the group at Percussion Scholastic World Class Finals to learn about what it takes to perform a show with such significant emotional weight, as well as about the creation of the group’s garden.