Written by
Beth Farrah, SMT Writer
Essex, Missouri - Last Friday was the third annual Talent Show for the Richland School District after many years without having one. The Talent Show was a yearly tradition that ended a decade ago and was recently brought back by the music and band director, Amber Duley. Duley used to attend Richland and participated in the Talent Show when she was young, so in 2011, she brought back the tradition and it looks like it is here to stay again.
The Talent Show was ran by the music department with help from the band students who helped set up the stage, stayed late after school to practice, and helped direct traffic backstage while the show was going on. The show had a professional sound and lighting system with managers helping everything run smoothly. The show was held in the gymnasium and was practically sold out by the time seven o’clock hit.
There were a total of twenty-one performances, including singing, dancing, group talent, comedy, and a few videos here and there. Students of all ages participated, from elementary to high school. The third graders performed “Oh Won’t You Sit Down?” as a class after learning the song and routine in their music class. The Kindergarten through third grade cheerleaders did their routine to “I Want Candy” and the fourth through sixth grade cheerleaders danced to “Roar”. Both cheerleading groups learned the routines earlier in the year and performed them at the high school games.
As usual, there were many singing acts, including: fifth grader Shelby Mayabb who sang “Free to Be Me”, eighth grader Riley Thornton “Where Have You Been”, third grader Logan Holman “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Steal My Man”, third grader Rylee Taylor “Roar”, seventh grader Kate Wyman played piano while singing “Stay”, eighth grader Megan Cullum sang “Emotional Girl”, and Jamie Smith and Alicia Meeker played guitar and piano while singing “Iris”.
There were also many dancing acts that followed along with the singing. A group of fifth grade girls showed off their dance moves with the “Flo-cabulary Parts of Speech” and siblings Alexia Kemp and Hunter Sanders showcased their hilarious and adorable dance routine to “Wop”. The Rebel Swag Dance Crew, made up of the elementary’s best dancers, took the stage again and performed to a mash up of hip-hop songs from the 1990s. Lily Morrison, a fifth grader, was in more than five acts and also danced to a solo called “Step Up”.
Though there were songs and dances, just like at every talent show, Richland decided to twist things up with their various videos throughout the night. The first video to play was the Richland Beta Club’s “Happy” video, which they filmed earlier this year in just one day as they prepared to head to Branson in early March for State Convention. Since Richland is home to a State Beta Officer, the club created a video that would introduce Kannon Qualls at the convention, so they chose the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams and reenacted the music video. Another video was produced by Duley, Adam Lane, Tyler Maddox, Kannon Qualls, and Preston Tilley called “Celebrity Jeopardy”. The parody was a crowd pleaser and was definitely one of the funniest acts.
The grand finale was “Mrs. Bruno Mars” herself (Duley), Adam Touchette, and the junior high band performing “Treasure”. The junior high band members learned “Treasure” a few weeks prior to the Talent Show and were excited to perform with dance moves and all. Duley is a proud believer in grand finales and in previous years she has done “Thriller” and “A Dance Through the Ages”, but this final act was probably the greatest performance yet.
