All consuming

A village.

A dragon.

Destruction.

A hero.

An epic battle.

It all seems a likely scenario for an epic novel destined to become a major motion picture.

The Marching Patriots are bringing those elements to the track.

Jay County High School’s marching band, which will play host to the annual Jay County Lions Band Contest on Friday at Jay County Fairgrounds, will look to wow its home crowd with its “Consumed.”

JCHS band director Chuck Roesch points out that the story is not conceptual or topical like many previous shows, but is about telling tale to the audience.

“For what we’re doing this year, there’s a story line that’s in there that we’re getting to experience,” said Roesch, whose group will perform at 8:14 p.m. Friday following an intermission. “Essentially, you have a village that comes under siege from a dragon. You have, in the ashes of all the debris, a hero has to rise to meet the adversity. Then you have the final conflict of the hero confronting the threat.”

The story — the thematic inspiration is based on Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick” — is told through three musical movements, with the first including an introduction to the village and villagers followed by the sudden attack of the dragon. The second, traditionally the ballad, portrays the rise of the hero. The final movement is the conflict, the battle of good versus evil.

“Consumed” is meant to have multiple meanings, up to the interpretation of the viewer.

“A lot of times when we face conflict in our lives, we get consumed with justice, we get consumed with fairness, we get consumed with doing what’s right …” Roesch said.

To help tell the story, the band is utilizing an alternate uniform this year along with the traditional panels, props and flags.

Rather than their standard uniform jackets and hats, the band members are dressed in alternate attire with a medieval tunic look to portray peasant villagers. Ivey Godfrey of Band Today designed the uniforms as well as the panels.

“When we settled on the storyline, when we settled on the theme, the traditional uniform is a big disconnect,” said Roesch, noting that plans are to return to the traditional uniform in 2026. “If you’ve got a medieval setting that you’re trying to take your audience into, then there’s certain things that will help to enhance the story and help to enhance the setting, or detract from it. …

“We maintained the school colors as best we could because we still want to have a Jay County identity even though we’re going with an alternate uniform this year. (Godfrey has) done a really great job of taking our vision for the show and helping to bring it to life through the colors, through the uniform look, through tying in color themes across the visual panels.”

The color guard flags feature a dragon’s eye for the opening movement, flames symbolizing the destruction of the village and the hero’s sword.

Pulling the band more into the storytelling aspect of the show and utilizing alternate uniforms follows a recent trend of some of the state’s most successful bands, including Kokomo and Muncie Central.

“If you look at the groups that are competitive in the circuit, alternate uniforms is kind of the new thing,” said Roesch, adding that he believes the look is unique and will help the Marching Patriots stand out.

“Ordinarily through the years, you let the guard tell the story and the band was just a component that from a vision standpoint you weren’t expecting too much of the telling of the story to come from them,” he continued. “But more recent trends in the marching arts are full, comprehensive storytelling from the group, and you want to see the theme really as the thread through every single thing that you do.”

The band has competed with Consumed once already, finishing third behind the host Bulldogs and Richmond in Saturday’s Centerville Archway Classic.

Roesch’s goal is to have the full show ready to go — many bands perform partial shows early in the season as they build toward the state fair — for Friday’s contest at Jay County Fairgrounds ahead of band camp the following week.

“I think thematically we’ve got a lot of the show’s loose ends tied together,” he said. “I think from start to finish it’s easy to follow.”

“It’s a fun show,” he added. “The music sounds amazing. Alex Yoder’s done an incredible job with the score. The kids really enjoy playing it. 

“So, hopefully we do a really good job of helping the audience follow the storyline.”