By Laura Le, Business Manager
Last Friday night, Friday Night Live (FNL) presented their annual talent show in the gym at Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) to showcase the talent that students had to offer and to further their club’s goal of informing people of the risks involved with drug use. They also accepted donations for Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
“FNL is a club dedicated to preventing drug abuse in children from all walks of life. We promote a healthy lifestyle and aim to enrich and educate people about the dangers of drug use, including but not limited to, alcohol, tobacco and narcotics,” said President Cody Do.
There are many steps that the FNL board members have to take in order to make sure that everything goes according to plan, as it takes around two months to organize the talent show.
First, they plan potential dates to hold auditions for the show with their club advisor, Todd Yarnton. Then, they release a flyer made by their club historian to the school about auditions. After all potential acts have auditioned, the board members pick the acts that they believe will work best in the show.
From then on, all the acts are then contacted and a meeting is established to explain the rehearsal times, promotional pictures that all the acts will take and the day-of expectations. As all of this is happening, FNL members pick out the theme of the talent show, advertise and sell pre-sale tickets to the school.
Principal Dr. Morgan Smith, Ronda Piepmeyer, the first FNL advisor at FVHS and math teacher Ryan McKernan were all more than happy to help out with the show by serving as the judges.
“Once we had all the basics set, then we contacted our production company to explain to them our vision for the talent show. The night before the event, we had a rehearsal to finalize the last details of each act, and on the day-of, FNL and ASB came to the gym to set down tarps, unload equipment and set up the stage,” said Do.
However, putting on the talent show also requires some spending. “Every year, we hire a professional production company to help us with lighting and audio. Additionally, there are other smaller costs for things such as the pamphlets and posters. The money that we spend every year for the talent show comes out of the Friday Night Live club account in which funds from the previous years are used for the current talent show,” said treasurer and emcee Michael Piepmeyer.
An hour before the show was set to start, each FNL member got into position to begin preparations such as backstage management, snack booth or ticket sales.
With any performance-based event, FNL found themselves facing some technical difficulties throughout the night. “There were inevitably moments when a microphone cut out for a second or the stand took a little longer than expected to set up. Luckily, we had an amazing group of FNL club members working backstage to ensure that everything ran as smoothly as possible,” said Piepmeyer.
However, the event turned out to be a success. “I think that the show went extremely well! There was a balance between the number of acts, the time that the talent show should last and the overall enjoyment that the crowd had from the show,” said Do. “I feel that this year, we had a great combination of all three.”
