WGHS kicked off Spring Break by hosting "Grove's Got Talent"

Walnut Grove kicked off Spring Break by hosting Grove's Got Talent on March 30 in the auditorium​; an opportunity for students to show off their skills while raising money for SkillsUSA.
by Annabelle Adams, Lauren Brandt, and Brayden Downey

Walnut Grove kicked off Spring Break by hosting Grove's Got Talent on March 30 in the auditorium​; an opportunity for students to show off their skills while raising money for SkillsUSA.

With twelve acts, the Talent Show kicked off with a performance from Maddox Balsamo, Felix Menendez, and Jake Polsama. Although their performance was a little last minute due to one of their members leaving the band beforehand, the group recalled that they still went out and had fun performing. Balsamo says that if he were to perform in the next show, “I would be a mime, or I would do a cartwheel. I can do a mean cartwheel.”

Abby Spruell, the first place winner, performed a dance routine to “You Lost Me” by Christina Aguilera. To prepare beforehand, she said she did “a lot of stretching, running over the dance, and listening to the music.” Spruell notes that although she still did have some jitters, she has had many performances on stage, so she was not extremely nervous. Spruell revealed her secret to calming her nerves by saying, “[I] just listened to my music, [along with] jumping jacks.”

Second place winner, Chazz Hayes, performed a solo to “River” by Leon Bridges. He recalls his prep for the show by saying, “I had to find an instrumental version to sing to, and then, I practiced singing whenever.” The WGHS Choir member mentioned that he was in fact nervous, however “it got better as [he] sang.” With many great reviews of Hayes’s performance, like one from Sheldon Shaw saying, “My favorite act was when Chazz sang, I thought he did really good.” Hayes notes that he “wouldn’t change a thing about his performance.”


The third place winning band, Futon, performed an original song. The band is made-up of Alex Clark, Jacob Oates, and Daniel McCormack. Since this was reportedly their first gig, the band prepared by having, “a decent amount of rehearsals at the main singer's house. We just worked on things and thought about things that we want to add,” which Jacob Oates, lead guitarist of the band, noted. McCormack recalled back to when “in [their] song, there was a small moment where [they] stopped playing, and everyone started applauding already… [They] kept going, and at the end, [they] got a standing ovation.”

With so many different performances, each act had their own reason for performing. Alex Clark, lead singer of Futon, recalls wanting to perform in the show because, “[he’s] always wanted to be a rockstar, ever since [he] was little.” Destiny Brown, recalled her reason for wanting to perform by noting, “it seemed fun and I could showcase [my dance] to everyone.”

Although they did not place in the top three, a dance group, consisting of Destiny Brown, Gabby Daniel, and Jayla Lewis, was a favorite of the audience. The girls performed a dance to a song called “Pandora” by Mave. Brown revealed, “We switched from a seven person dance to a four person dance, and then, when [the fourth girl] left, we had to figure out how to do it with three people, two days before the show.” If there is another Grove’s Got Talent, Lewis stated that “[the] group is actually planning on doing another dance... except this time [they’re] trying to have more people.” The girls definitely wowed the crowd.
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Elena Welch performed a cover of “Stronger” by Britney Spears. She explains, “[My favorite part was] when it was over. Not just because it was hard, but because I felt so happy that I did it and accomplished it.”

While most of what the audience saw was happening on the big stage, a lot went down behind the scenes that kept the show running.

​The collection of crew members backstage were the integral cogs of the show due to the fact that they were keeping it all moving smoothly. Crew member, Tony Bullon-Everardo, recalled his work for the show by saying, “I was a stage hand and a coordinator. I helped move all the things that needed to be moved like the pianos and the band stuff."

Even the event crew members were anxious. Bullon-Everado confessed “[he] was nervous about who would and wouldn't come because this is the first time the AV club has ever done something like this.”

Even though the talent show proved to be a success, some mishaps seemed to happen behind the scenes that almost majorly affected the show. “The mics went out a couple of times throughout the show, so we had to fix that backstage. The people working in the booth came down and switched out our mics, so then, it was all good,” described crew member, Sheldon Shaw. 
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With hopes of doing another talent show in the future, performers of this year’s show offered words of advice and encouragement to those who wish to also perform. The advice Destiny Brown had to give was: “Just do it, try it once, and it will help with your confidence.” Daniel McCormack mentioned that the audience is nothing to be scared of due to the fact that, “The audience was really nice to everyone performing, and they had great energy throughout the whole talent show.”