First Posted: 2/4/2015
EXETER — Wyoming Area High School senior Ray Hopkins belted out “Sorry-Grateful” from Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Company” for “judges” in the high school cafeteria this week.
With music amplified through his cell phone, Hopkins sounded like someone in a road production of the show.
He’s really not taking his show on the road, however. Instead, he was trying out for the Wyoming Area Key Club-sponsored talent show that will go on Feb. 21 in the school’s auditorium.
“I’ve been singing since I was a little kid,” he said. “This is just another chance to do it for an audience.”
Hopkins and two dozen of his schoolmates will be on the program, said junior Carrie Poziac, one of the show’s organizers.
“Actually, we aren’t here to eliminate anyone,” she said. “We just wanted to see how many performers we have and what kinds of things they do, so we can arrange the program.”
She and co-chairwoman, junior Kelly Sypulski, have to invent the show biz wheel for this production. During the Key Club meeting that turned into a brain-storming session for fundraisers, organizers hoped to get 20 acts for the show, she said.
“It’s the first time something like this will go on,” Poziac said. “People tried before, but they couldn’t get it off the ground.”
This time around, however, the show will go on. It costs only $5 to get in. Curtain goes up at 7 p.m. and there will be food on sale as well for a reasonable price.
Proceeds from the whole event will support the Key Club’s team in the upcoming Relay for Life to benefit the American Cancer Society.
In addition, the students will hold a basket raffle to benefit a 13-year-old Wyoming Area student currently in treatment for Ewing Sarcoma.
“That is, if we get enough donations,” Kelly said. “We’re trying hard to collect money and raffle items to help make this all possible.”
In the meantime, the girls were willing to spend their after-school hours watching the four-minute performances.
There was sophomore Nina Minnelli, who explored the “Evolution of Dance,” by bopping her way through nearly 20 abbreviated music sound bytes, ranging from Elvis and Chubby Checker, through Michael Jackson and the Village People, through Taylor Swift and into the Chicken Dance, the Macarena and even a bit of twerking.
Eve Urban and Cordell Gresh, looking a bit mismatched – she in a plain sweater and he in a red shirt and Valentine-decked tie – offered “It Takes Two,” from the musical “Into the Woods.”
Senior Matt Bohm said he was more used to playing football and running with the track team, but friends got him into the drama club last November and now he’s a singer. And a pretty good one, as evidenced by his rendition of “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”
He promised to wear something a bit better for the show than his audition-wear of basketball shorts, black socks and sandals. And he said he is not planning to read the lyrics off his cell phone screen either.
Like Bohm, others plugged in their phones to get their music amplified and used those very same phones as karaoke machines to read the lyrics as they sang. Some worked choreography into their duets. Some sang nervous solos.
And the original hope for at least 20 acts might have been a low estimation. There were even more students who wanted to try out. Several still waited outside of the cafeteria doors for their turn in front of the panel. Others hoped there would still be time to get in.
“I’m getting texts from cheerleaders at the basketball game, asking if they can still try out later,” said Key Club advisor Juel Anne Klepadlo, as she monitored the proceedings from a side table. She was there only to make sure the students were coming up with family-friendly acts and serving as a backup if there were questions.
“The Key Club is designed to be a student-run organization,” she said. She gestured toward the table where the organizers watched the auditions and took notes, sometimes huddling to make decisions. “That’s exactly how it works here, as you can see. It’s leadership, it’s commitment, it’s community service at its best.”
