The talent show at Warren County Middle School has returned, the first since COVID, and what a great performance these talented and brave students presented to a standing room only crowd. Student Council hosts, Clara Collier, president and Walker McBride, 8th-grade representative, introduced the show with great humor and poise.
Organizer and teacher Jessica Scott was nothing but proud of these students who worked so hard to put on a good show. She noted this was the first year the Student Council organized it for the student body.
“They came to practices to help set up, get performers on stage when it was time, pass our programs, helped parents sign in and find seats,” she said. “We even had two of our Student Council members host the show. They both did such a fantastic job introducing the acts.”
“Our student members have requested we have a talent show the past few years, but we felt we were in a good place to host it this year,” she explained. “Our performers put in several hours of practice. They were all amazing and worked together to put on an awesome show for their parents, staff and student body. We are so proud of our performers for their dedication and student body for being respectful. We loved every minute of work that went into our show," Scott said.
Ginger Sinks, another teacher who helped coordinate the event, was excited about the students’ performance as well. “The performers auditioned for the talent show and were chosen based on their stage presence, talent, excitement and organization.” There were no prizes for the performances.
First, the WCMS dance team was recognized for its achievements recently in Florida, where the team won the National Championship for Game Day as well as second place for Hip Hop and Pom categories.
Kicking off the fun-filled talent show was “The Hims.” The four-man band of Samson McClain, Samuel Edwards, Burgess Galligan and Rex Miller covered Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So” and rocked the house.
Ruth Jackson sang a moving version of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid.
Caroline McGee performed a flawless monologue from “Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.”
Uma Stefanick gave an energetic interpretive dance to the song “Red” by Taylor Swift.
Colton Jones played “Counting Stars” by One Republic on the keyboard, eliciting thunderous applause. Completely self-taught, he plays by ear and doesn’t use sheet music.
An iconic lightsaber duel was reenacted from a galaxy far, far away by Andres Diego and Adiel Luna. Their theatrical entrance was a highlight of the show as the young men strolled confidently down the auditorium aisles to do battle on stage in front of a life-sized Chewbacca cut-out.
Kailey Dibattista sang a gentle version of Lauren Spencer-Smith’s “Fingers Crossed.”
The grand finale was a joyful group song by Mary Payne’s class on the importance of smiling. SRO Captain Jarvis Johnson hopped on stage with his guitar to accompany the singers.
Today is the last day of school and students have earned a fantastic summer break. One can only hope next year will bring as much passion and inspiration to the stage as this collection of talented performers did.
