Tonight, March 8th, Eastern High School will put on its annual Variety Show. This year’s show will feature a wide range of acts from many different people. This year, some classics will be returning, and others will be appearing for the first time. For some of these acts, myself included, it will be the last time they have the opportunity to perform for Eastern. To commemorate their hard work and give some teasers before the show tonight, I spoke with many of the seniors who are partaking in this show and gained some valuable insight.
Many of the seniors have expressed their excitement about performing tonight. Mars Steenwyk expressed how the Variety Show is “A great way for me to show my talents to the school. I have always looked forward to it.” Nate Kelso added on to his comment and described his experience with the show throughout high school. He has “Performed with Eastern Singers in the variety show every year of high school. This is my last time on the stage, and I’m going to savor it.” When interviewing Quinten Powers later, he shared similar sentiments about this show being his final Variety Show. “Being the last [show], of course I want to make it the best. Over the years, Eastern gets more and more talented.”
The seniors also had personal goals they wanted to hit while performing tonight. Mars explained how “The biggest thing I’m trying to work on is portraying my emotions to the audience through the way I sing and play guitar.” Quinten on the other hand shared his feelings about his slight nervousness. After three years of participating in the Variety Show, Quinten said, “I feel like while I do feel less pressured because I’ve done it a few times before, I also feel more pressured because it’s my last and I want to make it the best.” Regardless of his nerves, Quinten is confident that he will deliver the performance he wants — a show worthy of being his final.
While this is the seniors’ last show, for several acts this will be their first time. Pearl Talukder, a freshman, detailed her excitement for the show saying “I’m not really nervous because I’ve sang a lot over the years. It’s also a little different with it being in high school” Logan Saganski (’27) also shared enthusiasm over the show. “I’m definitely more excited than I am nervous. I’m really thinking about memorizing the notes and the lyrics.” Logan will be performing a song with Kyra Valeros (’26) and described how they were working hard on “thinking about how Kyra and I are correlating with our voices to make the act the best thing ever.”
The Variety Show is an opportunity for Eastern students to show off their unique talents. The whole cast is excited to put on the variety show for you, but the excitement for tonight’s show couldn’t be more depicted than through Brennan Lee’s (’25) voice. He exclaimed, “[I’m] very excited! The fact that I was able to collab with three other people and create something we’ve never done before is something that is super cool to see.” The other two performers in this act, Ben Lee (’26) and Seth Carlson (’26) shared similar enthusiasm. “I’m super excited to give the school what they’ve been looking forward to. I believe this show is better than last year, and it’s good to have Ben back this year too,” Seth said. Ben explained how he was also “pretty excited. The coordination and planning by my brother Brennan was really good.”
Not only is this show a fun way to see and watch exciting acts, but as Nate Kelso says, “Seeing all of the acts is always so eye-opening. [You get to see] all of the talent that goes under the radar on a normal school day. It’s a chance to see something new in someone who you don’t know as well.” Logan Saganski commented, “I’m excited to see what everyone else has in store!”
The variety show doesn’t have just solos, duets, trios, or quartets performing though. Instead, the Variety Show will feature a few different groups that have something planned for you. For starters, the opening act will be the FHE Jazz Band. You’ll have a chance to see them in action as they play a piece with hot samba Miami vice vibes, and a more modern pop song that features 70s disco ideas. Through this performance, many members of the jazz band will experience their first variety show performance. After interviewing Sophia Walter (’27), she shared that “Thinking of playing at the variety show makes me feel a bit nervous, but I know we’ll do great because we work hard every morning. I’m excited to be able to share what we do with our community!” While this is Sophia’s first Variety Show performance, this will be Devin Kozal’s (’24), another Jazz Band member, last time with the Jazz Band at the Variety Show. Devin expressed his excitement, saying, “I’m going to have so much fun performing on stage. I will try to make this as enjoyable as I possibly can. It’s just as fun for the audience to listen to our two songs as it will be for me playing them.” For others, this is neither the first, nor the last time they will perform. Peter Mouw shared his own thoughts about the experience, saying, “While I don’t love that [the songs] are not super well-known, the songs we have sound great. I like the variety in the choices and my instrument’s parts on the songs!”
Another group that will perform at the Variety Show is the FHE Drumline. Hoping to wow the audience with something incredible, they’ve decided to bring in something new for their piece this year. Adam Rhodes (’24) explained they “were looking for new things to do so people won’t get bored of the same performances with cadences that people have heard over and over again. We’re looking to knock the audience’s socks off! We’re looking to make variety show history with this performance so it will be talked about for many generations to come.” The other leader of the drumline, Ty Siemens, also gave some hints about the performance. “We are not going all in on the stereotypical drumline performances that have been seen at assemblies and other performances. We’re looking to create a creative twist on percussion that hasn’t been seen at Eastern High School.”
Finally, the act that closes the show, will be Eastern Singers. This year, they will do a throwback that is similar to last year where they performed songs from the 1970s. This year, they plan to go back even further and highlight one of the most influential rock and roll bands of all time. “It will be super fun! On an excited level, I’m like a 9/10! I’m a little nervous because it’s difficult, but it’ll be awesome,” says Owen Pellegrini (’25). He also mentioned that Singers are “going to dress up.” This will certainly give a new flair to their incredible performance!
Overall, the variety show will have something for everyone to enjoy. So cheer on your fellow peers tonight at 7PM in the auditorium. Tickets for this excitement costs $5. Be sure to check it out!
