Huntsville High’s got some amazing talent

Huntsville High School students have some serious talent. For proof, you needed to look no further than the Algonquin Theatre on May 1 when Huntsville High’s Got Talent returned after a four-year hiatus.

Hosted by the school’s WE Impact group, formerly ME to WE, the event saw 17 student acts – some solo, some groups – take to the stage to try to win both bragging rights and cash prizes. It’s the highest number of students the event has attracted, and it showcased a diverse group of talents from students in grades nine through 12. If you missed it, you missed an amazing night of performances that included song, dance, improv and even a robotics demonstration.

The participating students, in order, were: Meeda Berg (vocals/piano), Luke Murphy (vocals), Katia Inwood and Tayler Horton (dance), Cole Stevens (vocals/guitar), Sawyer Lance (vocals/guitar with an original song), Cara Brown, Alexus Banks and Ocea Harris (dance), Tayler Horton (vocals/guitar), four members of the HHS senior improv team SNO Storm, Olivia Crozier and Nathan DeNardis (dance), Dylan Marshall (vocals/guitar), Katia Inwood (dance), James Crawford (electric guitar), Grace Murphy (vocals), Jordan Taylor (dance), Nicola DeRoode (vocals), and Millie Cassie-Batchelor (vocals/piano). (Scroll down for video clips from most of the performers. We regret that we weren’t able to capture them all.)

It would have been a difficult task for the judges, who also sponsored the show. “We have community judges who are not only coming to judge, they are the providers of the prizes,” said teacher Vanessa Taylor prior to the performance. Three $100 prizes were provided by the Mensour family, Anthony’s Hair Design and Jacob Barkey of Sawmill Creative. The $300 grand prize was sponsored by the Huntsville Festival of the Arts.

At the end of the night, Grace Murphy walked away with the top spot, along with Sawyer Lance, Cole Stevens and Jordan Taylor who received the remaining prizes.

Half of the proceeds from ticket sales will support Simcoe Muskoka Family Connexions, formerly Muskoka Family Youth and Child Services. “They are in our community and they support a lot of our families and our student families. We’ve got a lot of kids struggling with mental health issues and home life issues and we thought this would be a good opportunity to give back to an organization that is so strong and supportive of students,” said Taylor. The other half of ticket sale proceeds will go to WE (formerly Free the Children).

Congratulations to all of the performers for a stellar evening of entertainment and kudos to the backstage student crew who ran the show seamlessly. If you missed Huntsville High’s Got Talent this year, you won’t want to miss it in 2018.

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