we are having a variety show in May. Our school has 1200 kids, and I am sure a lot of kids with talent! We plan on having a lottery for the show. Depending on the type of applications we recieve is what we will base on what variety we will have. We will group the variety acts by type of performance and then draw a lottery to see who is in the show. It is easy, feeling can't get hurt, and we don't have to judge anyone. Although, kids will be disappointed.... we will have to turn kids away because of our size...
This is a timely subject for me because I just had a meeting yesterday with the principal and the music teacher trying to get a talent show "moving". I did an internet search using the words "talent show" & "rules" or "talent show" and "permission slip" and I got TONS of good info. I don't have it in front of me but it involved rules such as
1) time limits--usually 3 minutes.
2) you can only perform in one act
3) some schools don't allow lip synching-we will
allow it
4) bring a hard copy of any words to songs you will be using (there are websites that give you lyrics to songs). Also, bring your costume or give us a good idea of what it will look like
5) you must turn in a permission slip before you can audition. The permission slip includes all the info about the act, etc.
Our talent show will be in mid-March and we're going to have try-outs in February. I'm not sure what the music teacher has in mind...I think she just wants to make sure a child doesn't embarass himself.
As it happens, my kids brought home the fliers for our school's talent show just yesterday. It seems to be very popular with most of the student body, but I've heard from parents it drags on VERY long--I've always been relieved my older son didn't care to go! LOL
I know acts are limited to 4 minutes--you might want to keep it shorter than that!--and have to use some actual ability of the student, i.e. no lip synching, although karioke is allowed. I do know the history of one of our rules, and I recommend it to you: no child is allowed to be in more than one performance, with an exception only for a performance by an entire class together. Apparently we had a problem with a few little "stars" who would put together one thing with a few friends and another with a different group of friends and basically spend the entire show onstage. (AAACK!)
We have an annual variety show. It has nothing to do with real talent and all the kids are welcome to perform. They sing, dance, lip sync, tell jokes, do karate, read poems, do magic, & gymnastics (they can basically do whatever they want). They can perform alone or in a group. This is just about performing and there are no prizes or winners.
Each act is approximately 1 minute long. This seems short, but we get in the ballpark of 75 acts a year with about 1/2 the school participating and if the acts were any longer we would be there all day.
They perform their dress rehearsal during the day as an assembly for the rest of the kids who are not in the show. Then that night they put on the real show for their families. We do not charge admission, but we do have a donation bucket bu the door and make about $300.
I must tell you that this is one of the nicest events! The kids love it and the parents adore it.
We've had the Talent Show since way before my time. The year I was pres. I had two mom's doing it. I told them there was no way I could tell a child he/she could not be in it. They shared my sentiments. Fortunately we are a small school. LOL! We made a list of guidelines (for example appropiateness of lyrics, dress, etc) and sent home with the info and permission slips. I think I may still have a few notes from that but I do remember thinking one little thing should have been done a little different. It was not a biggie but something that would help us better organize.
We were a K-5 school also but we divided up primary and intermediate grades so each grade could get 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places. Best I remember. The trophies were very confusing as I was facing major burn out. Those mom's probably thought I was on something. We tried to get judges from outside the school. Everyone got a participation certificate. I didn't see any kids with hurt feelings but there was one parent that wasn't too happy. Imagine that! You can't please everyone.
My son was in it last year. He was in 2nd grade and he didn't place. He had fun in the process and that is what I think matters.
