By Anna Powers and Megan Downer
This year’s Junior Varieties show of course impressed the Malden community as families and friends joined one another for a fun night full of outstanding talent. This year’s show was filled with singing, dancing, and tribute performances.
The planning process for this year’s show was created by officers for the Class of 2017. Planning started at the end of last year where officers laid out all the different components that contribute to the creation of the show. Auditions were then held in November with rehearsals commencing in January.
Junior class advisor Heather Northrop stated that the show pushed “juniors to step up into leadership roles to put on their biggest fundraiser of their high school career, as well as students developing skills and talents as performers and crew to raise money for the benefit of the entire class.” Another junior class advisor is Amelia Collison who added that “[she] definitely expected for there to be a lot of details to keep track of. But our class officers did a tremendous job taking over many responsibilities.”
Collison mentioned that they experienced “serious technical difficulties with lighting” a few days before the show. But she commends the lighting crew for “working really hard to figure out what was wrong and working even harder to make sure everything was perfect.” Going into the show, Northrop had “no doubts that the show [would] be successful.”
Rehearsals were buzzing with energy and enthusiasm. Collision describes these as some of her favorite memories from the whole JV experience. “[She] had a lot of fun watching all of the acts really transform from auditions to the day of the show. Northrop was touched at the end of practices when “students [were] laughing together and bonding over a common cause.”
JVs always attracts curious audiences eager to see what each year has in store. Audiences raved about junior hosts Erin Mulcahy, Jesse Bouly, and James Mac. The chemistry between all three of them was electric. Everyone was just waiting to see what relatable references, or funny jokes that they had in store.
Mulcahy expressed her gratitude for being apart of this event, stating, “This year’s Junior Varieties was such an amazing experience. Going out on stage to a sold out auditorium was the best feeling. There was so much talent this year [and she is] so grateful to have been a part of such a wonderful event.”
Mac hoped that the crowd would find his jokes funny and his puns were met with laughter and applause from the audience come show night. He described that “having gone through the JVs process, [he] can gladly confirm that hard work does pay off.”
Bouley stated that “both shows exceeded all of his expectations.” “Every seat was filled and every act was amazing in their own way,” expressed Bouley.
Class of 2017 JV Coordinator junior Nicolas Acuna was completely impressed with the way that both shows ended up. Acuna was a little nervous when first elected as he felt he was unprepared. But there was a complete turn around because he had “the right people and the right support to do it.” Acuna’s favorite memories include working with the crew backstage because it included a lot of his good friends. He stresses the fact that the backstage crew deserves recognition “for all the times they had to stay longer, deal with the performers and [himself], and how much work they actually put into it.” Overall Acuna describes this as an experience that brought the members of his class closer together.
Another student thrilled by the JV experience was the Class of 2017 President juinior Vivian Nguyen who explained that “this JV's helped [her] and the other acts and hosts step out of [their] comfort zones to deliver a successful JV's for the community, especially Mr. Brown.” JVs went exceptionally well, especially to Nguyen who gushed that “[they] had amazing acts and hosts and the crew and advisors helped [them] in every step of the way.” Nguyen also revealed that the main blunder experienced during JVs would have to have been the technical difficulties with the hosts’ microphones, which caused for a hard time of hearing for audience members in the back.
Many might be wondering about this year’s storyline since there was a lot of controversy around the name of the show. Hosts Bouley, Mulcahy, and Mac searched in between acts for the person who stole the Key to JVs. This key needed to be passed down to the new principal from Principal Dana Brown in order for there to be more JVs for future years. Throughout the show they used clues to determine who was holding the key captive.
In the end the key thief ended up being Nguyen. She stole the key because she wanted Brown to stay principal due to his memorable years at MHS. The hosts convinced Nguyen that both Brown and Malden High School must start a new chapter in their lives. The 2016 JVs was a tribute to Brown as principal and the legacy that he has left at MHS.
