Page 12 • March 14, 2018 • Home Town News • Zone 17 • Like us on facebook www.facebook.com/mypaperonline.com
MHS Sophomore Tips Off Game With National Anthem Solo
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By Stefanie Sears n Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m., spectators settled into the Prudential Center to watch the Seton Hall Pirates basketball team battle it out with the Providence Friars. Before the game they were treated to a National Anthem sung by Montville Township High School’s own, sophomore Jeffrey Gallup. Though bass singer Gallup loves that particular art, he also appreciates acting as well, calling acting “the route of everything.” Gallup’s mother Davia signed him up for All Children’s Theatre in Parsippany when he was a child, thus instilling his interest in the performing arts ever since. Gallup’s father Jeff is a huge Seton Hall Pirates fan; through a friend there he was able to put Gallup in the rotation to sing the National Anthem at one of the games. A spot opened up and Gallup was able to step up to the plate. The vast crowds of the Prudential Center did not daunt Gallup for he has experience singing in that kind of setting. He has performed in the Paper Mill Playhouse Show Choir and at MetLife Stadium and the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown, to name a few. However, this was his first time performing as a soloist in a large stadium venue and with that he faced some new challenges. “The challenging part of the stadium experience is that in order for the cameras and the audio to match up, the audio comes out of the speakers about a second and a half after you say it, so the reverb is terrible. It makes you want to slow down and drag the tempo out
of the song, so the challenge to just tone that out and keep going with it,” explains Gallup. Gallup was given four VIP passes for the event, for himself, his parents, and his father’s friend Jerry Barry. They arrived at the Prudential Center two hours prior to the game and entered through the staff entrance. “It was cool because my dad knew everyone there,” explains Gallup, “Before he retired he was a member of IBEW Local 164, so his electrical union helped build the Prudential Center.” Gallup was taken to the court to practice before anyone arrived to sync up the microphone and such. He had to time his singing to about one minute and 30 seconds and after initially timing it for about three minutes during rehearsal, for the actual performance he finally made it to 1:41, which is a solid time. “When you’re singing with such bad reverb in a stadium like that, when you keep singing, your previous notes are still there lingering in your ear, so it clashes with what you’re singing and it makes you think you’re wrong, but you just can’t second guess yourself and you have to just keep plowing through, keeping the inner pulse in your head, keeping the time going, and trying to stay in tempo and keep the sound moving along,” explains Gallup on how to measure one’s singing timing. Gallup hopes to pursue musical theater in college and professionally, and he is well on his way to doing so. In March, Gallup will be starring as the hilarious villain Lord Farquaad in his school’s spring musical, “Shrek
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the Musical.” Some dream roles of his are Elder Price from “The Book of Mormon” and the psychiatrist Mendel in the musical “Falsettos.” “He’s just a really funny part,” Gallup says of Mendel.
“It’s my style of humor, heavy sarcasm.” Gallup also has experience with dance, film, playing the saxophone and was even featured in commercials.
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