At 5:00pm on a Thursday, the Harris center was peppered with lower school students, Parker PM teachers, school administrators, faculty/staff-parents, and George Drury. Anticipation brimmed as the first ever Faculty, Staff, and Child Talent Show was about to begin.  Principal Dan Frank sat with Drury, Assistant-Principal Ruth Jurgenson sat with her son third grader Penn Jurgensen, and Upper School Head Justin Brandon and Middle School Science Teacher Angela Miclavcic Brandon sat watching their JK daughter Jozi.

Acts included, senior kindergartner Benny Laufer eating cereal of his sister, second grader Josie Laufer’s stomach while she was in a backbend, Jozie Brandon singing and dancing, and third grader Owen and his sister first grader Sloane Zeller wheeling each other around in a wheelbarrow position while their mother, Upper School English teacher Cory Zeller, read a poem.

The show was geared toward younger children. “Many kids in the school have a lot of talent, and this is a time for the elementary kids to show their talents,” Zeller said.  “Having a space to put a spotlight on younger kids with talent and to to celebrate it is super important.”

The idea for the show came from Upper School English teacher Cory Zeller’s 3rd grade son, Owen Zeller. “My son Owen is in third grade,” Zeller said, “and they get to attend some of the talent shows, but they don’t get to perform in them.”

Zeller discussed talent shows often with her son. “My mom always brought up the talent show MX,” Owen said, “but unfortunately as third graders we didn’t always get to go.”

Owen decided to take the situation into his own hands.  He said, “I thought it would be fun for everyone to have the chance to perform and have fun.”

The idea continued to develop as Zeller thought, “There are lots of faculty and staff in the building who have kids.”  

This is the first time this type of talent show has taken place, according to institutional memory, so the Zellers were unsure how it would go. “If this ends up being super fun,” Zeller said before the show, “then doing it with the whole school in the future would be great.”

There were procedures to follow in order to set up the show. Zeller sent an email to Assistant Principal Ruth Jurgensen to determine the logistics.  Who would perform? Where? For whom? And when?

“Owen originally came up with the idea in the fall, but the timing was not right, and winter is busy with mid-semesters,”  Zeller said. “March 29 seemed perfect. Fall seems endless, and it would be nice to have something to look forward to.”

Leading up to the show, a lot of the energy was driven by student interest. “The show was a great example of student initiative,” Jurgensen said, “which can come at any age at a progressive school.”

Owen said, “The talent show went really well.”

For Brandon, the show had an interesting collection of performance. Brandon said, “I was very impressed with the diversity of talent and the courage displayed to perform in front of an audience.”

In the future the Zellers hope to make this a larger event, possibly as part of an MX and open to everyone.  

Brandon said, “I am looking forward to the next show almost as much as my daughter.”