Woodside’s 2021 Annual Talent Show demonstrated that the Woodside Drama department is back and just as great as ever.
Even with the COVID-19 regulations allowing for only a 50 percent capacity, the talent show was able to pull in a large crowd, many of whom watched enthusiastically. A full video of the talent show can be found on youtube. A fair amount of the students received a standing ovation from friends and family.
Every single performer was able to not only carry a tune but impress me. By the end, the judges did not have an easy time deliberating on the winner after all of the impressive performances.
I found that there were many different genres represented within the performances. The director was able to vary the music, keeping the show from being the same song sung over and over again. The music varied from pop songs to classical music to musical theatre. While the type of music performed varied, the sorts of talents weren’t as varied. All of the performances were either singers, or instrument players, or both. I do wish that there were more non-musical performers to change the line up.
The performances were all well planned and did not drag on too long. The wins were very well deserved. The two first place winners, while both singing, were two very different performances. One was a group performance of four senior girls, Elise Haddi, Lois “Lola” Pistilli, Virginia “Gigi” Pistilli, and Diana McGrory, singing an a capella rendition of “Yesterday” by the Beatles. The other first place performance was from Amanda Marcos, a junior, singing Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”
Along with the many of the other performances, I felt like I was watching Marcos having her “main character moment.” The same could be said about one of the second place winners, Bianka Zelaya, a freshman’s performance of “Fall In Line.” It was clear from her performance that she had put her whole heart into it.
The other second place winner, Brandon Palfreeman, struggled with tech issues, but was still able to give a great performance of “Bark at the Moon.” For the first half of his performance, we were unable to hear his electric guitar, but with some fiddling of the amp, he was able to get it working, just in time for the guitar solo, really allowing him to show off his playing.
The special effects from the lights really helped elevate the performance. The crew was able to use the array of different stage lights to distinguish each act as its own genre. The most notable effect would have to be the single blue overhead light that, from the audience’s perspective, looked like moonlight. It was able to match some of the performances very well, such as brother-sister duo Lukash Hodges and Kate Chernyk’s rendition of “Far From Home” by Sam Tinesz. This simple but effective lighting was able to uplift these great acts.
Even with the added difficulty of COVID-19 regulations, the 2021 Woodside Annual Talent Show was able to make a strong comeback from online learning. One thing was for certain, I left the talent show reminded of how unmusically talented I was.
