Medicine Hat, AB — As the Medicine Hat Rotary Music Festival is now underway, many students are showing off their vocals.
But as we all know, singing to a crowd can be pretty scary.
Jessica Balfour was one performer who was feeling the nerves before her performance.
Balfour calls herself an introvert. For her, singing live in front of a crowd can help her overcome other scenarios that many find nerve-wracking.
“I’m on stage a lot, it helps with job interviews. It makes it slightly easier to talk to people,” said Balfour.
When she is on stage, Jessica loves the task of becoming someone else.
“I love playing a character. It’s totally different than when you’re being yourself and it’s a challenge,” said Balfour.
Jessica’s newfound confidence has shaped her life today.
“School too, it helps me so much. It kind of made me become the person I am,” said Balfour, “everything in musical theatre you have to be dramatic and you have to get your point across. You bring that into real life and it’s great.”
Balfour was the last performance, the singers before experienced similar nerves.
Loni Nickel has been working on her performance since the school year started. Presenting something that she put countless days working on in the studio was intense, but ulimately rewarding.
“It’s nice to have something to show to other people,” said Nickel.
Nickel says she has learned about the importance of preparing for everything in her time in musical theatre.
Nickel was followed by Tyler Casat, who has been performing in musical theatre for ten years and has grown a liking for performing.
“I love getting up in front of an audience. I think that’s the most exciting thing. You can play of their energy as much as everyone else. To get a super supportive community is super exciting,” said Casat.
Casat performed a song that caught everyone in the Medicine Hat College Theatre off-guard. He performed a non-traditional theatre song called Taylor the Latte Boy.
Dawned in full Starbucks Barista attire, Tyler sang about a girl who would stalk his character, Taylor, and come into the cafe every morning to see him.
Casat went into the performance with the goal of catching the judges and audience members off-guard as he’s learned to explore outside his regular comfort zone throughout performing.
“I think that’s the beauty of musical theatre is that you don’t have to stay within all the walls. You can break the boundaries a little bit,” said Casat.
As a grade 12 student, this will be Casat’s last year performing as a high school student.
The Festival continues until March 17.
