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Student council hosts annual talent show Hoscars in Patil Theater
Anika Banga (12) sings Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” as Akshaya Vemuri (12), Sumi Wadhwa (12), Satchi Thockchom (12) and Megan Huynh (12) accompany her on various instruments. The group is planning on performing another song at the upcoming Quadchella talent show on May 2.
March 23, 2018
Upper school students and faculty attended the return of talent show Hoscars today in the Patil Theater of the Rothschild Performing Arts Center.
Due to limited seating in the venue, two showings of Hoscars were held for underclassmen to watch the first round of performances and the upperclassmen the second. Hoscars was not held last year due to ongoing construction on campus and inadequate space for the event in the auxiliary gym.
“It’s a really fun event for everybody,” ASB vice president Neil Ramaswamy (11), who performed in a jazz group, said. “We hadn’t done it last year and it was really successful [two years ago], so we thought [ASB] should host it again.”
This year’s Hoscars included 15 acts, ranging from Korean pop dances to acapella. Sarah Raymond (9) and Alissa Gao (9) opened the show with a ukulele song, both performers on vocals and Sarah on the ukulele. Susan He (11) and Annabelle Perng (11) followed with an instrumental mashup of modern music. Sohenee Banerjee (12) sang a mashup of her favorite songs while playing the guitar for the show’s third act. AP U.S. History teacher Julie Wheeler then introduced her second period class before they danced to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off.”
Senior class council spirit coordinator Dolan Dworak (12) emceed the show and made appearances between every few acts, often telling jokes to keep the audience engaged. After the fourth act, he and Andrew Semenza (12) depicted a version of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” as a tableau vivant featuring 12 students.
After this segment, Karan Bhasin (9) played an instrumental mix on the piano. The 14 members of Guys’ Gig performed Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time,” with Austin Killam (9) as the lead singer.
“It was really fun, and I was incredibly nervous going on stage both times, but actually being out there and actually being able to perform on the new stage for the first time, it was incredible,” Austin said.
D2, a group formed by 11 students, presented a lively dance to a K-pop song. Jared Anderson (11) and Kelsey Wu (11) then sang Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly’s “True Colors” while Connie Xu (11) Constance Horng (11) accompanied them on double bass and violin. Instrumental music teacher Chris Florio joined the group on guitar. Kalyan Narayanan (10) both sang and played piano to “Let it Be” by The Beatles. Many students in the audience turned on their phones’ flashlights, swaying them side to side to match the beat of the song.
For the second MC segment, Dolan and chemistry teacher Andrew Irvine ridiculed mathematics teacher Victor Adler in a parody of talk show “Between Two Ferns.”
Chloe Chen (10) performed a routine to Zach Wong (11) contemporary mix on the electric violin. The mood of their act dramatically changed when the duo switched from playing and dancing to lyrical music to performing Camila Cabello’s “Havana.” Meilin Yen (9) impersonated Disney princess Anastasia as she sang “Journey To The Past.” Performing to the “TRNDSTTR” Lucian remix, Vance Hirota (10) and Chris Gong (11) combined hip-hop and dubstep elements into their routine, which included difficult and entertaining moves executed perfectly in time with the music. Anika Banga (12) sang Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” while Satchi Thockchom (12), Sumi Wadhwa (12), Akshaya Vemuri (12) and Megan Huynh (12) jammed out on various instruments.
Neil, along with Bobby Schick (12), William Rainow (10), Thomas Rainow (10), Joshua Valluru (10), Leon Lu (11) and Alejandro Osorio of the upper school’s tech help desk performed an instrumental version of Kendrick Lamar’s “Pray For Me.”
“I find performing kind of the same as practicing, but I really like those people who come up to me and say, ‘Oh wow, you were doing these really cool facial expressions,’” Neil said. “That’s really entertaining to listen to.”
A panel of six students, three male and three female, and a teacher representing each grade ranked the acts based on originality, cleanliness and audience response. Results and awards will be given out after spring break.
