By Bruce Karnick

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A common thought process going around the area is trying to get things back to normal for students. When sports were resumed, it gave some hope, then classes slowly started returning to in person and now, finally, the arts are able to express their talents live and in front of real people, not just through streaming.

Hastings Choir Director, Luke Warren, gave The Journal a quick interview talking about the Variety Show.

“It was terrific to do something live that the kids could participate in and put out into the world. There are a ton of challenges with live performances during COVID because safety has to be, and certainly should be, at the forefront. Wearing masks might be an obstacle, but our students are entirely unfazed by singing, dancing performing in a mask despite its remarkable challenges. We were so happy to have a small audience of the performer’s families (two audience members per performer) so as to at least give the kids a little bit of that feel of a live audience again.”

Students sang, played, and danced their hearts out for a limited size audience on February 9th, the rest of us watched via HCTV’s live stream. Bok Choy, a band made up of four HHS students and one alumni, Adam Iverson, Tommy Jensen, Aiden Endres, Jonah Walt and Dylan Borash were on the stage as the house band and Iverson provided the MC services for the night.

The lineup of students for the show was as follows: Mckensie Clemons (feat. Bok Choy) – “She Used to be Mine” Megan Rein – “The Setting of Two Suns” Amber Keller – “Crazy Days” Alex Shofner, David Spinks, Parker Thompson “Take it Easy” Alexis Carlson – “Gavotte in G Minor” Leah Holmes – Dance Vocal Jazz – ”The Bones” Lauren Reuter (feat. Bok Choy) – “You Say” Nate Schindler and Eliana Lawrence – “The Next Ten Minutes” See Live Event Page 8

Bok Choy, a local band made up of four current HHS students and one alumni, perform the opening song for the Variety Show. Left to right Dylan Borash on keyboard, Jonah Walt on saxophone, Aiden Endres on the drums, Tommy Jensen on lead guitar and vocals, and on bass/emcee, Adam Iverson. Photo Courtesy of Hastings Community Television. Live Event

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Kyra Smallidge – “Being a Teenager” Karl Warner (feat. Bok Choy) – “Pontoon” Molly Barker – “Dance” Alli Wenztler (feat. Tommy Jensen) – “The House that Built Me” Nate Schindler – “Change the Tune” Jonah Walt (feat. Bok Choy) – “Hello” How were the kids leading up to the show? Warren explained, “I’d say we were all nervous since we really haven’t done live performances since last March. However, it was a thrill and I think certainly provided a great show for our live audience and streaming audience. I was just so proud of all of the kids that made it work!”

Reviews of the show around social media were all positive. Parents of performers and just fans of the arts were all raving about the great job done by all, how fun it was to see live performances again and the work done by HCTV bringing the show to people that could not be there in person due to limitations.

It gets stated repeatedly in articles about this kind of stuff and it will continually be repeated. How lucky are we as a community to have not one, not two, but three different media outlets covering our awesome community and amazing kids? Not only does the community have three various media outlets, but each one genuinely cares to bring you as much coverage as possible for these kids.

The staff at HCTV deserves so much praise for the work they put in to help the school bring the arts and sports to us weekly is incredible and during this last year, invaluable. Hats off to the staff at HCTV and hats off to all the performers and behind the scenes folks that brought the variety show to life!