This year, Midtown hosted its second consecutive talent show and battle of the bands competition. The show was hosted by the Midtown Chorus Department and Midtown Votes Club in order to register students to vote and is set to become a yearly tradition.
Midtown’s talent show has been occurring off and on for several years, but former Midtown student James Howard suggested that Midtown Votes lead a battle of the bands and talent show his senior year to encourage eligible students to register for voting.
“[The talent show] was [Howard’s] idea,” Midtown Votes sponsor Jason Slaven said.
“He had this idea about two years ago to emphasize the importance of democracy and why voting is important by showing students who you vote for matters by creating this little microcosm of voting.”
The initial idea for a talent show was to partner with the songwriting workshop organized last year, but when the former president of Midtown Votes, Sierra Pape, approached organizer and chorus director Kevin Hill about combining it with a battle of the bands, the talent show was reintroduced.
“We’ve had the talent show for a number of years, off and on depending on what other conflicts we have with the schedule,” Hill said. “But last year, we were doing the songwriting workshop and a competition with the songwriting. Finding a date for that was a problem with that through the year and then Pape was asking about doing a battle of the bands and asked if we could pair the two together.”
Senior Sloane Crisler has performed in previous talent shows, and this year she performed alongside her sister, freshman Devon Crisler.
“I love to perform and take advantage of any opportunity I get to do so,” Sloane Crisler said. “Also, I did the talent show two years ago and I had a fun time. I think the talent show is important for Midtown students. It gives them a platform to showcase their skills.”
The talent show has already gained a significant number of new performers and audience members since last year. Slaven said he has seen up to 70 new people register to vote through the talent show.
“A lot of times students feel like they don’t understand why they need to vote,” Slaven said. “Showing them the power of their vote was really the entire purpose here. We’re focusing on breaking down barriers and showing students that it’s very easy to vote; you can just press a few buttons. Having them engage and think about candidates and actually vote, you’re building routines that those students can use later whenever they’re voting in actual elections.”
Slaven believes that the talent show not only serves as a way to empower students to vote, but also provides a free venue to Midtown students who want to showcase their musical skills.
“Part of it is democracy, we love democracy, but the other part is that I think it’s important to provide a venue for students to showcase their artistic abilities,” Slaven said. “A lot of times when you’re at school, you may only have a chance to express yourself artistically in chorus class or band or guitar class and not really in a sort of setting where anybody can come. I personally just love seeing students expressing themselves through their artforms in this sort of venue.”
Hill expects more people to participate in upcoming years, as the show provides more opportunities to other students who want to perform with a non-music act, which Sloane Crisler thinks is perfect for the talent show.
“I hope the talent show reaches a bigger audience in the future,” Sloane Crisler said. “It could be a great fundraiser for Midtown’s performing arts department if there was a bigger audience. I also think it would be cool if there were more non-singing acts, such as dancing, poetry, etc.”
Hill also believes that it would be great to see more diverse acts in future talent shows.
“With it being a talent show, I know we have some hidden talent out there in the school, people doing random things like juggling or whatever,” Hill said. “I don’t think it necessarily has to be a vocal and band competition. I think it could expand to be more, but we’ll see.”
