Miami Palmetto Senior High’s Interact Talent Show took place on Nov. 14, leaving awe and inspiration in the room. Many roles helped bring the show to life, including contributions from the Interact club and board members such as President Brooke Wilensky — spearheading the event —, as well as the performers themselves. Given that the club leadership was required to help out, many of them truly enjoyed themselves in the process. Despite ups and downs for the performers and staff, bringing a pre-COVID tradition back to the halls of the MPSH auditorium lifted spirits and created community.
Students who participated could perform acts that may have had meaning to them. Though it may have been a struggle for some to find the confidence to perform, many found joy in performing what they loved.
For the senior and pianist in the show, Anna Medina’s performance meant much more to her than just sharing her talent with her schoolmates.
“I used to take piano classes before COVID, since I was five years old. And every time I had a recital, I was so nervous and I would blank out. I would make mistakes and I felt like this talent show was a way to redeem myself and heal my inner child,” Medina said.
For Medina, the performance was not only a major accomplishment but something she had been working on since the Summer of 2023. She was proud to be able to share one of her favorite songs with the school.
“It was something that I’d been learning for a year, and it came from a video game called ‘Final Fantasy Seven’ that I really loved dearly, and I felt like it helped me so much throughout high school. The song impacted me, I was so obsessed with it, that I needed to learn it. And so I might as well have just performed it for the talent show,” Medina said.
Beyond the performers in the show, countless preparations and backstage actions needed to occur for the show to happen. The Interact Club took on these rehearsals and set-ups.
“In the end, I helped coordinate when the actors and performers were going to show up and worked for the talent show, and then I also helped set up decorations the day before with the rest of the board,” senior and Interact Historian Maddie Sakalo said.
Besides what Sakalo ran, other members of Interact, like senior Savannah Rodriguez, helped with different aspects of the show.
“I planned the event and helped design the merch, and also come up with the prize and find contestants,” Rodriguez said.
As a member of the Interact Club, as well as being on the Talent Show Committee board, Rodriguez felt as if it was not only a responsibility of hers but something good to do for her community.
Many people might be afraid to perform their talents out of fear of being judged, but the Interact team ensured support and encouragement for every act, no matter what or how unique their performance might have been.
“So basically, we were telling the performers that it’s a good way to get involved in the school, especially for kids who don’t typically get involved, and we wanted to get a good diversity of acts on stage. We really reached out to a lot of different groups around the school to get them involved,” Sakalo said.
Getting involved in the community allows others to gain both respect for their peers and broaden their perception of things they can do to get involved, too. Bringing the Interact talent show back to the halls of MPSH created opportunities to encourage all kinds of artistic expression and brought the community together for a good cause.
