Students show their unknown skill at WA’s Got Talent
March 24, 2018
On Friday, March 23, students got to reveal talents that they have put time into learning. The PAC filled with teachers, students, friends, and family, all wanting to see these talents. The crowd got quiet as the lights dimmed, and the 2018 WA’s Got Talent event started.
The judges were left with the hard choice of picking a winner, it was clearly a tough decision due to the amount of time it took for them to decide. The two runner-ups included junior Matthew Bugos with his original piece “Dinosaur Hat” and junior Joseph Shen with his performance of “Liebestraum” by Liszt. The winners were juniors Richard Davis and Jessica Wong with their performance of “Passacaglia” by Handel-Halvorssen.
Judges for the event were English teacher Michael Estabrook, Science Curriculum Coordinator Jenny Kravitz, Dean Betsy Murphy and guidance counselor Wendy Pechacek.
Starting off the event were junior Marcos Acosta, senior Brian Carr, senior Damon Godfroy, and junior Eunice Pak performing a jazz number called “Brian” by Alpha Mist. The act included the piano, saxophone, drums, and guitar. The following performance was done by senior Madison Wiser who sang “Short Change Hero” by The Heavy. This was a solo performance with nothing other than Wiser and her acoustic guitar. At the end of this performance the audience was filled with loud cheering and excitement.
The third act went on to hit audience members with a curve ball as seniors Ryan Bowen and Alex Charlton performed a tango. This was no standard tango however, the two came out in black and white skin tight body suits on unicycles, and they danced doing various spin tricks. The crowd was filled with laughter at the performance which managed to be hilarious and impressive at the same time.
The fifth performance continued this excitement with senior Anthony Cammalleri performing “Why Do We Build a Wall”. It was started with a bit of comedy, with Cammalleri making a few jokes and stating that the song has nothing to do with politics and that he just doesn’t like walls. Cammalleri then went on to perform the song, while still adding humor by telling the audience to sing along since it is a repetitive song.
The audience went on to receive multiple types of entertainment, from Davis and Wong’s rendition of “Passacaglia” by Handel-Halvorssen on viola and violin to freshman Alessio Battezzato’s electric guitar solo cover of “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd.
Before the intermission, junior Marcos Acosta performed an original piano piece called “Dissonance”. Acosta created a unique and humorous atmosphere by making a song that is made to disappoint by building up the crowd to believe that the next note would be something specific, before veering into a completely different direction. The crowd was filled with energy by the end of the performance, exciting them for the second act after the intermission.
The second act began with senior Cam Bortolussi who performed “Alphabet Aerobics” by Blackalicious. It included drums and an alphabet rap which increased in speed as the performance went on eventually becoming incredibly fast, which was met by a large amount of applause. This was followed by Bugos’ original composition “Dinosaur Hat”, which he played on the drums to a pre-recorded track.
The third performance of the second act was a dance by seniors Will Doherty and Kerry Lynch to “Zoot Suit Riot” by The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. It filled the crowd with tapping feet and claps to the jazz-like beat of the song.
The next few performances continued to show the audience a variety of instrumental and singing talents for piano, band, and voice.
After this, junior Amanda Brown, senior Karen Corbett, and junior Sara Lane switched up the acts with a performance to “LA Devotee” by Panic! At the Disco. It was a color guard performance filled with twirling batons, flags, and march moves.
The audience was then treated to a Bollywood dance by freshman Anika Burli, senior Keerthana Dutta, senior Abigayle Lunsford, senior Meghana Nair, freshman Himani Patel, freshman Jazmin Rodriguez, and senior Bhoomi Soni. It was a synchronized dance that swapped between multiple songs and rhythms. The audience was filled with massive applause and cheering.
Ending the event were seniors Ian Kim, Aaron Mathew, Steven Okuhara, Jack Sarkisian, and Ryan Wasylyshyn. They performed “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys which was filled with beat audience clapping and laughs as the group of students sang. The performance continued with the performers running to the audience to give high fives. The end of the performance had one of the students asking a girl to prom, which filled the audience with clapping and cheers at her saying yes.
