Senior Planning annually showcases the talents that students have to offer with Thursday Night Live (TNL) in the auditorium. This year, they decided to switch it up and rebrand as Wootton’s Got Talent (WGT) which took place on Feb. 26.
The show consisted of original songs and dances that captivated audience members such as junior Justin Heller. “Going into the performances, I didn’t have much expectations because I’ve never attended an event like this, but it was pretty entertaining overall,” Heller said.
The first half of the show kicked off with an original song from junior Max Nguyen and sophomore Sreeyan Nampally as they drew a large applause from the crowd. Following that, junior Zion Allen performed one of his own songs under the name Laida. Allen also shared a moment as he brought his mom on stage and sang directly to her.
During the intermission, a video from Senior Planning was displayed on the big screen and featured students such as seniors Thomas Mehler and Shayan Kurup competing for the title of “Mr. Wootton.” This included challenges like naming geographical locations on a map and dances like a model runway walk. Eventually, the vote was left up to the audience and they chose senior Cheta Greg-Ohi, who later said he was “exuberant” to win the award.
The second half action resumed with a song and dance from the girls’ basketball team as they performed a rendition from the movie “High School Musical” and danced along with other fun tunes. This performance was followed up by two stunning musical duets with sophomore Benedict Santos and senior Rayna Panikulam keeping the audience on the edge of their seats, and juniors Jilli Nailbotsky and Megan Lomotan bringing the crowd to their feet.
These songs even wowed class planning members like junior Ryan Shin who said, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a performance quite like this and as good as this.”
Lastly, the show finished off with the much anticipated masked singer performance from one of the school’s faculty members. The teacher sang the lyrics from “Defying Gravity,” in the movie “WIcked” before they were joined by another masked singer in what became a duet that left the audience stunned. Junior Vikram Mishra said, “I was already interested in the one masked singer, but when the second one came out, I couldn’t believe it.”
The mystery singers were revealed to be physics teacher Gavin Kramar and English teacher Melissa Kaplan. Kramar, who has a background in theater and a capella. Kramar said that he was approached by junior Max Nguyen about the opportunity and he was glad to perform at such an event. “I was so impressed by all the talent on display and I could imagine myself coming back in the future for a cameo,” Kramar said.
The event ended with the audience scanning a QR code and voting for which act was the best. This led to Santos and Panikulam winning the competition, followed by Nalibotsky and Lomotan who placed second.
