Achi news desk-
The spotlight was on around 40 students and staff who took part in John Rennie High School’s annual Black and Gold variety show.
From singers and dancers to stand-up poetry, thrilling bands and talented musicians, lack and Aur is a platform for the next generation of talent.
Held annually since the school was created in the 1950s, the talent show shines a light on students who are brave enough to step on stage and share their passion.
Students and staff who put the show together say it took almost a whole year to plan.
“This group (of students) created a PowerPoint presentation of all the things they thought were right and wrong with the last show and they put it together in April,” said Huntley Addie, teacher and show director at John Rennie High School. “Then we meet more or less once a week from September to February and then it gets a bit more intense until show time.”
The variety show is held in the school’s auditorium every March.
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This year’s show had three performances, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and students put their hearts and souls into their acts.
Furthermore, most of the production and crew who work behind the scenes to help make the show happen, are also students.
“I think it’s an opportunity,” Addie said. “One of the great things about the Black and Gold show – I’m sure it’s true of most schools, most variety shows – is that the kids own it. But they really come to own it here because it’s our style. We let them run it – it’s their decision everything you see there and I go, ‘Oh, okay, that sounds good.'”
Addie says another thing that makes the show so unique is that it’s always changing and evolving, based on which students step up to run it. The talent and acts vary from year to year, and Addie, who has been helping to run the show for 14 years, says that Black and Gold is one of the school’s main staples.
“We have the drama department, the music department and the people in the variety show – all the arts connect with each other – and altogether we try to put this on, for the children, ” he said.
John Rennie, part of the Lester B Pearson School Board (LBPSB), highlighted the performance as part of the board’s 25th anniversary celebrations.
LBPSB director general Cindy Finn and the honorary co-chairs of the 25th celebrations: Felicia Parrillo of Global Montreal and alumnus Rennie Bradley Heaven, were present at the Friday night show.
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
