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Behind the Scenes club to host annual talent show

By Steven Chen
<stevenchen@hilite.org>

The audience applauded after the final act finished in the talent show last year. That performer, sophomore Jingxuan Zhang, won the first prize of $100.

This year Zhang said he plans to participate again in the show, which is scheduled for next Friday. This year’s event begins 7:30 p.m. in the Dale E. Graham Auditorium.

Talent show chairperson Susan Smith has coordinated the show for the past two years. She serves on the board of directors of the Behind the Scenes Club and on the Board of directors of Footlite Musicals Inc. “(The) Behind the Scenes Club sponsors the Talent show as a fund-raiser for our club whose mission is to support the CHS drama, technical theater and film department,” Smith said.

SHOW TIME: Juniors Sarah Yarling (left) and Morgan Brown practice during SRT for their song and dance audition. This year’s second annual talent show will give away three $100 prizes. KATE GRUMME / PHOTO

Zhang practices piano up to three hours each weekday and six hours on Saturday and Sunday, and he has played at Carnegie Hall. Zhang started his music career when has was five and half years old. For last year’s competition, Zhang played Etude Op. 10 No. 4 by Chopin only because the piece was under the time limit. “It was fast, difficult and exciting, and I really like fast pieces,” he said. Zhang said he practiced the classical song for three months, but wished he had more time to polish it.

According to Smith, the talent show will be similar to the one last year because of the positive feedback received.

“We are changing the voting and prize structure because we were so overwhelmed with the talent level we witnessed last year. Many of the performers were ready for prime time TV, Vegas, Broadway and Carnegie Hall,” she said. This year there will be three cash prizes of $100.

When people buy their admission tickets, they will also get a voting slip. During the intermission, people can cast their vote for their favorite act. The act with the most votes wins “The People’s Choice Award,” according to Smith. “So it is advantageous for the performer to pack the house with their friends and relatives,” she said. There remains the “Judge’s Choice Award” given to the most talented performer and the “Behind the Scenes Choice Award” given to the most entertaining act. Both these awards are arbitrated by a panel of judges.

Sophomore Jessamyn Anderson also participated in the talent show last year. She sang “Everything’s Coming up Roses” from the musical “Gypsy.” Although Anderson did not rank last year, she said she had a great time and accredited her loss to being a freshman.

“It’s all cool being older than someone and a little better this year,” she said. Anderson said she plans to audition again this year and sing “I’m a Star” from a review called “Dreaming Wide Awake,” a song that she won State with.

Auditions for the show will be in Room P123 after school on Tuesday and Wednesday. Information and signup sheets are already posted on the Theater Callboard located in the performing arts hallway.

According to Smith, each act only gets around three minutes to perform, but the acts are all extremely varied.

“Last year we had musicians, singers, dancers, jugglers, magicians and comedians,” Smith said. The acts will be selected and notified on Thursday, and rehearsal will be after school the following day.

Zhang said, “I was the final performer in the show, so it was a pretty new experience watching all the shows backstage. The dancers were beautiful and the singers and bands all practiced really well. It was really a challenge to play after all these well done performances.”

Although Zhang said he is still not sure if he wants to participate again, if he does enter the show, he would prefer to win again this year.

Smith said, “This is an opportunity for CHS students to show us how entertaining they can be in a manner similar to the popular TV show “America’s Got Talent. We know that CHS students ‘got talent,’ and we want to see it.”

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