The talent show returned to GHS right before break with a number of students performing for their classmates during an assembly. Besides the performers, many other people helped with the preparations for the show, as well as the lighting and set up.
The talent show has not been around since pre-covid and having it back is a breath of fresh air for many students and staff. There were a lot of different talents in the show from singing, to piano playing, to a whole band.
Junior Maximus Vitrano enjoyed the show, especially the band who played “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix. “The last act was one of the most unique ones and my favorite for that reason because it is the music I listen to so I enjoyed hearing them play it,” he said.
There were many people in the talent show from singers to a live band
Senior Bram Van Roo was part of the live band, which also included Gio Adamavich and Ben Fons. “Me, Gio, and Ben love music and wanted to showcase how we love music by showing what we can do,” Van Roo said.
Junior Kaiden Anderson-Saidler played the piano. “Me and my friend, Aiden Warwick, performed in the show. I played the piano while he sang. I started to play the intro to ‘Runaway’ by Kanye West, but just before the beat drop Aiden said ‘Wipeout’ as I then proceeded to play ‘Wipeout’ by The Surfaris. It was very fun and I knew that we would throw everyone off at the school making them think we would do ‘Runaway’.” Anderson-Saidler said. “As soon as I heard about the talent show, it caught my eye immediately and I knew I wanted to do it.”
Senior Lucas LaBeau also played the piano. “I performed my arrangement of ‘Golden Hour’ by JVKE on the piano,” he said. “I wanted to do the talent show because it is my last year in high school and I wanted to do things I’ve never done or had too many nerves to do.”
There was a lot of set up for the talent show as choir teacher Michael Jones produced it.“There’s actually much more planning outside of who is going to perform and when. Once we’re in the auditorium, the crew needs to figure out what each act needs. Where will they be on the stage? What lights need to be used and focused on the performer? Do they need microphones? What instruments need to be placed on stage? Is the curtain open or closed?” he said. “Then the crew of students has to use the light board, the sound board, and physically move items on the stage to transition to the next performer. The crazy part is, nobody notices this is happening because they’re really good at what they do!”
Another eye behind the scene is the hosts seniors Bryn Richards, Kate Lindblom, and Lauryn Sheasley. “I wanted to be a host because I thought it would be fun and why not since it is our senior year. And it was so much fun seeing all the acts,” Sheasley said.
“I wanted to be a part of the talent show but did not want to perform so I became a host. I also wanted to be the emcee in the middle school show and since covid I could not. So being there watching everyone from backstage and being one of the hosts was so much fun and something I have been waiting so long to do,” Richards said.
Junior Quinn Steinman talks about how it was working behind the curtains “Working backstage for the talent show was especially fun because you can see all of the acts before they go on stage and during rehearsals. A hard thing is that we only go through the show one time before it’s performed so there’s a lot of pressure to do things right the first time, but the experience is always fun in the end.”
The talent show is a great addition to the school year and many hope for it to be there next year and Jones hopes for everyone to try next year “ANYTHING! Juggling, comedy, skits, poetry reading, riding a unicycle, dance, playing an instrument, magic tricks, singing, and other things I can’t even think of. We’re looking to build an entertaining show – what would you bring?”
