Students tuned their guitars, adjusted their dress shoes and cleared their throats backstage before the talent show on March 19.

Co-chairs junior Luke Dent and senior Tad Lambert began planning the show in February with student leadership teacher Sarah Dent.

According to Sarah, the focus of the event was to showcase student talent, in that there was no competition like there has been in years past.

After designing flyers and social media posts, and collaborating with orchestra teacher Brittaney Wasko to reserve the room for auditions, the organization process ran relatively smoothly.

There were open auditions this year, meaning there were no sign-ups for a specific time slot. Initially, this made Sarah anxious.

“We just wanted people to show up and audition,” Sarah said. “I was a little nervous about that process thinking, ‘What if nobody does show up?’” 

“Thankfully,” they had six auditions on Wednesday March 6 and four on Thursday March 7. All ten acts that auditioned made the show with little to no concerns. There was a panel of around 5 students judging the auditions, including Dent, Sarah and Lambert, who judged through a rubric consisting of stage presence, originality, skill and effort, each worth five points, 20 total. 

“It worked better than I thought,” Sarah said. “The control freak in me would really like to back to sign ups next year because that feels more orderly. It’s hard for me to take a step back and , ‘I’m not running this, It’s their vision.’”

For the first time ever the talent show had no entry fee. In years past it was $2, two hygiene/canned food items or other donations. The reason for this was to attract a larger audience which is reported to have substantially downsized post COVID. 

Around 100 students, teachers, parents and other guests attended, which, according to Lambert, is slightly more than the previous year.

“Obviously we would love to have a full house,” Lambert said. “And we’ll see next year how we can get more people.” 

Lambert and Dent plan to take a more hands on approach in terms of advertising the talent show next year. This includes emailing audition information to art and music teachers, utilizing social media or sending StuCo representatives to speak directly to the students in those classes. 

“I think this year was an improvement on last year,” Lambert said. “And next year will be an improvement on this year. It’s exciting to bring this event back after COVID and see it grow.”