POINT PLEASANT BEACH — Students at G. Harold Antrim Elementary School took to the stage last Thursday night, April 25, for their annual talent show.
The show, made up of 24 acts, gave dozens of students the opportunity to perform in front of a packed house while displaying a variety of talents, including singing, instrumentals and choreography.
Third-grade teacher Joanna Douglas, who has spearheaded the event at the school every year since the early 2000s, said that the talent show helps to support activities and programs for the middle school-aged kids.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time; I’ve been doing it for 21 years,” said Douglas. “It’s a fundraiser for the middle school kids…It pays for their end-of-the-year dance; it pays for their gowns, flowers for their parents. This is to benefit sixth- and seventh-grades this year.”
She connected the importance of the talent show to the students with how significant it was for her as a student.
“I wasn’t an athlete, but I could sing; so things like this gave me an opportunity,” she said. “It gives kids who sometimes don’t have a chance to shine, a chance to shine…I think they did great.”
Several of the night’s performances were versions of numbers that appeared in productions for this year’s school musicals in Point Beach; “Little Shop of Horrors” from Point Beach High School and “The SpongeBob Musical” from Antrim.
“It was inspired by the high schoolers; we took inspiration from Blake Miles (Seymour) and Olivia Kutcher (Audrey), because they did amazing. They are two spectacular people; and me and Braden thought, ‘why don’t we try that,’” said eighth-grader Kai Conde-Velez, who sang “Suddenly, Seymour” alongside fellow eighth-grader Braden Miles — also the younger brother of Blake. She also performed a solo rendition of “Maybe This Time” from the Broadway musical “Cabaret.”
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