On Friday, April 5, Parkway North hosted its first talent show since 2019. The event took place at 7 p.m. in the theater, with around eleven acts participating.
The acts included a cellist, a brass band, singers covering songs and performing their original pieces, dances, and more. It was student-run, with the main organizer being senior Stephen Harrold.
“I kind of came up with the idea… it can be the senior project that I have to kind of leave a legacy,” said Stephen Harrold.
Auditions were administered by Harrold on Feb. 7 and 8, with a second round taking place on March 27 and 28. They had two rehearsals: one during ac lab and a dress rehearsal the night before on April 4.
The talent show was a chance for students to showcase their talents in an individualized way.
Junior Alex Beck, a cellist, said, “As a cello player in orchestra, I feel like how I want to express myself through my playing kind of gets thrown to the wayside for the purpose of our overall objective. So when I heard about the talent show, I was like ‘this is a great opportunity to show what I can do individually as a cellist.’”
Besides organizing the entire show, Harrold also took the stage with Valhalla as well as individually to perform the song “I’m Here” from The Color Purple. Harrold was inspired after seeing the movie.
“Hearing [Fantasia] sing that song, I felt it,“ Harrold said. “[It was my] final solo performance in high school.”
While some people prefer solo acts, others prefer group acts. Valhalla, the North acapella group, performed their competition set, consisting of three songs.
“It feels like a community,” sophomore Kara Niemeyer, a member of Valhalla, said. “If you mess up, then there are other people to help you out.”
Before COVID-19, talent shows were an annual occurrence. “There were a lot of individual things [then]… there was a variety,” said Chad Little, who acted as a supervisor for the event.
The return of the event unfortunately didn’t draw the same audience it did years ago, with the show having a crowd of around 40 people.
“The attendance was not great,” Niemeyer said, “but I’m hoping that next year, it will be better.”
Despite the many challenges it took to organize and execute it, the talent show turned out to be a successful event.
“I want people in the whole school to feel this sort of spotlight for once,” Harrold said.
