On March 7-8, Red & Gold, our beloved school tradition since 1971, will be taking place at the Servite Theater. The Red & Gold production consists of performances on Friday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. and on Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m, for a total of four shows. A common question asked during this season is: What is Red & Gold? For someone not familiar with Rosary’s traditions this may be something hard to explain, so, I have taken it upon myself to explain Red & Gold to the best of my abilities in this article.
The process begins in October when students are given a sheet of paper that asks them to choose their three top categories, and at least one of the categories chosen must be an off-stage category. The categories a student can choose from consist of: choral, dance, drama, drill, stage tech and props. On the sheet, it also asks the student if they would like to be considered to be a captain. Captains are basically the leaders of their designated category. The extra categories available for captains are Co-Producer, Fashion, Historian, House Manager, Media Specialist, Publicity and Script.
Now, what are these categories and what do they do?
Choral consists of those who will be singing two songs throughout their team’s production and there are four captains for this category per team.
Dance includes the girls who will be performing dances on stage throughout the production. Drill includes both dance moves and stunts, similar to a cheer routine. Dance and Drill captains are also responsible for choreographing their routines as well as choosing the music. There are three captains on each team for both the dance and drill categories.
Drama are the stars of the show! Drama is everyone who will be on stage playing characters who advance the plot. For this category, there are two captains on each team.
Props is responsible for preparing and moving props on and off the stage for their aligning scenes; there are two captains for this category.
What about the behind the scenes aspects of the show? There are a few captain-only categories that have their teams covered:
Fashion is in charge of the costumes for all categories and is responsible for collecting sizes, making costumes, and ordering costumes. This is a captain-only category consisting of around 16 captains and one head of fashion on each team.
Historians are in charge of capturing the whole show with their cameras! This category consists of four captains and is another captain-only category.
House Managers are in charge of promoting raffle tickets and opportunity drawings. There is one house manager for each color.
Media Specialists are in charge of the videos that play throughout the show as well as social media! There are two Media Specialists for each color.
Publicity is in charge of making posters to cover the school, decorating school bathrooms for their designated color, publicizing their color, and more. There is one head of the pub and five captains. Pub also chooses a theme for their posters. This year, Gold’s theme is circus and Red’s theme is games. 2025 Gold publicity head Parker Yee ‘26 states, “I love doing pub! This is my first year being a captain and being head of pub is so much fun. I’ve had a great experience with my other pub members, making posters and our main banner. My favorite moment was definitely seeing all of our hard work pay off at kickoff!”
Script captains are in charge of writing each color’s show scripts. There are two captains for each color. Scripts are very important to each color and should not be shared with the other team. 2025 Red script captain, senior Rebecca Nassar states, “Although it’s a hard job, I love collaborating with another person on creating such a great show and I love watching it get put together!”
The producer is the main representative for their color who ensures that their show is perfect and preserves the beloved tradition properly; the producer is also usually the Co-Producer from the year before. The Co-producer is basically the assistant to the producer who also keeps track of receipts for any purchases made by their team. 2025 Gold producer, Ava Barretto ‘25 exclaims, “I love being producer because it allows me to overlook the show, make the show, and make new friendships!”
Now, once captains are chosen, they are announced in an awesome video made by the White Team, the team that counts Red & Gold points and ensures rules are being followed throughout Red & Gold. White Team includes ASB executive officers and junior and senior representatives. This year’s White Team member, Senior Nikki Green states, “My favorite thing about being on White Team is seeing all of the behind-the-scenes of Red & Gold from start to finish, but I also enjoy getting to help make all of the decisions to help the whole show come together. But, overall my favorite part of Red & Gold is that we get super close as White Team members!”
Red & Gold Kick Off
The next step in the Red & Gold process is Red & Gold Kick Off! This is the day the campus opens at 6 a.m. exclusively for captains to cover the school with their designated color’s posters. Once the school day starts, the rest of the students report to their period one class where they are told their category and color.
Afterward, a skit is put on to reveal the theme and mascots. The theme is sort of a prompt that both colors must incorporate into their show. This year’s theme is “The Silver Lining” and the mascots are the Red Racers, the Gold Pilots, and the White Sailors. To read more in depth on Red & Gold Kick Off, you can read my article linked here: https://royalreporter.org/46315/student-life/what-is-red-gold-kick-off/
The preparation
Then, after Red & Gold Kick Off, Flex schedule begins. For around six weeks before performance weekend, we have 45 minutes each day before lunch to practice for the big performance! Each category meets, practices their performances or works on their category. You may see drill practicing on the lawn, dance practicing in the gym, pub walking around fixing posters, choral singing in the classrooms, or fashion taking measurements. For two Saturdays before performance weekend, Red & Gold rehearsals take place at the Servite theater.
The show is also judged by points throughout the whole season, from Red & Gold Kick Off to performance weekend. After Red & Gold Kick Off, throughout Flex it is judged by teachers based on behavior, cleanliness, deadlines, and the team as a whole. Every show on performance weekend is judged by an alumni panel of judges and every category is judged. There are point opportunities for each color, for example, food drives, blood drives, clothing drives, and more!
Performance weekend
Finally, the weekend all Royals have been waiting for. With four shows in two days, this weekend is definitely a chaotic one. For Royals, this is a weekend full of hairspray, makeup, curlers and all that good stuff. On Friday, Royals arrive at the Servite campus extra early to get ready for the day and perform their production for the first time for their peers on the other color since scripts are confidential to each team.
Senior Daleah Cardenas exclaims, “During performance weekend, I really enjoy seeing the other team revealing their show all put together and getting to cheer on my friends. I also like when White Team starts the show by doing a short remix of all the dances from both teams.” Then, Royals do practice performances and wait for the matinee performance, the first show of the weekend.
The shows work like this: one color will perform and then at intermission, the opposite color will enter the theater pit and prepare to put on their show. At the end of each show, colors will put on their “finale performance.” This is when each color will storm the stage dressed in their designated color: red or gold.
Each color will choose a finale song that every one of their members will perform at finale. On Saturday night, after the last production, that color will move to Servite’s gym, where they will be greeted by the opposite team cheering them on! Everyone in the Servite theater will be able to see this through live video that is projected in the theater. They will soon wait for White Team to walk into the gym where they will announce commendations for each category. The best overall show will be announced by the winning color’s confetti shooting out of cannons!
Best of luck this year, Royals, and let’s make sure we preserve this tradition properly and follow all of the rules. The Royal Reporter can’t wait to see all of the amazing performances on Red & Gold weekend!
