Singing, dancing and even bird calls. These are just a few of what the WCHS community saw at the WCHS class of 2024 talent show. Being a school filled with talent, WCHS hosts multiple shows throughout the year, mainly consisting of singers, dancers and actors. However, this year the class of 2024 SGA called all WCHS students to share their talent with the rest of the school through the WCHS talent show. WCHS junior, Sydney Barrett shares her story and performance along with WCHS senior Joey Kaplan who hosted the entire talent show.
“I will be singing ‘Waving Through a Window’ from my favorite musical ‘Dear Evan Hansen’. I saw it with my dad in New York two years ago.” Barrett said. “I wanted to spread the true meaning of the song to WCHS. It’s an amazing song and it works on so many levels. In the play, Evan Hansen doesn’t feel seen and sings this song. I think this song shows people they aren’t alone.”
To Barrett, performing this song isn’t just about showing off her voice, but also to give people who feel alone a voice. Standing alone on a stage can be very intimidating, especially for someone who hasn’t performed before. However, she wanted to share her talent with the rest of her peers but also spread a message that was important to her. While scared to sign up at first, Barrett had unwavering support from her peers who encouraged her to go out and perform the song she chose.
“I was excited and nervous to perform since I haven’t performed in a bit, but everyone at the talent show is so supportive and my friends have been super helpful,” Barrett said. “My favorite part of the talent show was hearing all of the other talented performers on stage and watching them succeed.”
While the show was filled with talented students, a show can’t happen without a host. WCHS seniors Joey Kaplan and Eric Bomfim hosted the talent show this year, introducing acts and causing laughter among the audience. Kaplan and Bomfim collaborated before the show to plan out their monologue but also were able to improve a lot of their jokes throughout the show. Their monologues allowed the audience to stay engaged and also provided entertainment in between acts.
“Eric and I have been meeting during eighth period for the past few weeks to plan and think of the jokes,” Kaplan said. “We can bounce really well off each other which made the jokes easy to come around.”
The nature of the talent show was nothing but support amongst the performers. The process of practicing, getting up on stage and performing can be jarring for any performer. Even being a host for the talent show can be a bit intimidating in front of the crowd of people which is why instead of just one, there were two hosts. This allowed both Kaplan and Bomfim to have ample support from each other so they didn’t feel alone.
“I will be co-hosting the talent show with Eric Bomfim. We’re going between acts and cracking a few jokes here and there.” Kaplan said. “Eric got the opportunity to host from Ms. Wilson. He reached out to me and asked me to do the talent show and I said yes.”
It takes a lot of confidence for someone to be able to perform alone or even with a partner. The performers did incredible, showing off their talent despite how scary going up on stage can be to those who aren’t used to performing. The talent show was an amazing representation of the talent at WCHS. It provided students who normally would not show off their skills with an outlet and an opportunity to express themselves.
“This is a very courageous act for everyone who is performing,” Barrett said. “To everyone who is coming to watch please know that everyone is nervous so be respectful in the audience to the people performing.”
