Not much is more important to Impulse corps director Peter Connel — who is also the lead designer for the southern California Open Class corps — than family. A father of three, he’s spent plenty of time at his home playing various games with his family.
So, when Impulse pieces together a show centered around board games and friendly competition, he’s got plenty of inspiration to pull from.
Impulse’s 2026 production, “Around the Table,” tells the stories of the games played, the competitive conflicts that may arise, and ultimately the shared memories that are formed as a result of interactive community.
“On the surface level, it’s about games,” Connell said. “It centers around some of our favorite games growing up. And then from there, it will be about the things that happen while we’re playing games, whether that be competition, or apologies when competition gets a little bit too intense and there’s some chaos.”
“It’ll also be about community and family,” he added.
According to Connel, “Around the Table” serves a continued intent of Impulse’s show designs to be easily accessible for both members and audiences, to be engaging and entertaining, and to touch heart strings whenever possible.
“I want to find themes that are accessible to the students, accessible to the members, accessible to the staff, and to the audience, that everybody can connect with,” he said “That is always the impetus for our show design and for our concept design.”
With that in mind, Connell said this year’s production will follow a distinct and simple narrative timeline.
“From competition, to fracture and apology, to community and family,” he said. “That’s the sort of flow of it.”
As far as what games Impulse is “playing” this year, drum corps fans will likely recognize visual elements pulled from the likes of Uno, Sorry!, Bop It, potentially Chutes and Ladders, and more.
And as far as what music the corps is playing, Impulse is continuing a recent trend of utilizing cinematic music in its programming. After musical references to “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Up,” and more over the past several seasons, Impulse will utilize music from “Tron: Ares (2025)” and “The Wild Robot (2024)“ in this year’s program.
The music from the former was written by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, while the latter was Kris Bowers. “The Wild Robot” was also an Academy Award nominee for Animated Feature Film.
“A film that really hit me, as a family person having three kids, was ‘The Wild Robot,’” Connell said. “I loved that film. There’s a scene three quarters of the way through, where the robot is helping the duck character to fly. It’s a beautiful scene, beautiful music. We’re going to be using some music from that film to kind of bring the emotion together.”
It’s been a successful last few seasons for Impulse, which has taken competitive steps forward each of the last four years since returning from the COVID-19 shutdown. As Connell described, there’s also been a steady, noticeable growth in participation.
“Two years ago, we were probably at 60 members,” he said. “Last year, at 95. This coming year, we’ll probably be at about 125. So it continues to grow.”
In order to carve out its own niche amidst a region that is heavily saturated with DCI World and Open Class corps, as well as highly-acclaimed independent and scholastic Winter Guard International ensembles, Impulse has pivoted to hosting a single day of offseason auditions in recent years.
It’s been a major success, according to Connell; Impulse’s “One Day” for 2026 took place January 3, and brought in nearly twice as many participants as last year’s event.
“We try to find one day where we can encourage students to show up and experience Impulse and have a drum corps experience together,” Connell said. “Last year, we had about 150 students show up, and this year we had about 250 show up for our one-day event. It’s been a really positive move for us.”
And with another exciting production around which to build the upcoming season, Connell and company are gearing up for another year on their upward trajectory.
“We’re continuing to add administrative pieces and staff pieces that we think will support the members more, as the corps almost doubles in size, it seems, all the time,” Connell said. “It’s important that we grow together.”
Impulse’s summer season, which features five 2026 DCI Tour appearances in California, kicks off July 3 in Sacramento.
