By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
Friday night will be a time to shine as students and teachers take to the stage at Manville High School for their annual Talent Show. The show, which begins at 7 p.m. is about two hours with a 15 minute intermission.
Stephen Sallach, director of the Drama Club, and his assistant Ashley Wollesen are helping host the show this year.
”The Manville High School Band and Drama Club are hosting the talent show this year. Like previous years, the talent show will be performed by the students of Manville High School and the winner of the talent show will get a prize. The idea behind the show was to showcase the talents of the students and to show the community and the entire school district what these students can accomplish,” Mr. Sallach said.
There will be three guest judges for the show Ms. Wollesen, Kevin Caldwell and Michael Lapotasky, all MHS teachers.
Ms. Wollesen said she “wanted to continue the tradition with the teacher judges because as a former judge I thought the students enjoyed being judged by their teachers. Also, it gives the teachers and students a chance to interact on a different level.”
The talent show has been sponsored by other school organizations but this year Mr. Sallach thought it would be good for the Drama Club.
”Ms. Wollesen, (Band Director Ken) Zampella and I decided to sponsor the talent show this year because the school and the kids enjoyed it so much. However, we wanted to change it a little, so we added the Decades of Rock portion. I used to do a similar thing in high school where the students and teachers would put on a concert featuring songs from all the decades,” he said.
Ms. Wollesen, Mr. Zampella and Mr. Sallach have added a little twist to it this year. According to Mr. Sallach, there will be two acts to the night’s performance. The first act is the talent show where the high school students will sing dance, act and play instruments to win first place. The second act is the Decades of Rock concert. About 50 students and teachers will feature songs from various periods of rock music of various artists from the ‘50s up to the ‘90s.
Mr. Zampella will also be a part of the talent show.
”The MHS band program is very excited to be collaborating with the Drama Club for the talent show and Decades of Rock. We share so many gifted and dedicated students between both of our groups that we only thought it appropriate to combine our efforts to put on a spectacular performance for the school and the community,” he said. The cover band will feature Mr. Zampella on piano/guitar; Ian Defalco on drums; Kenny Barney playing guitar along with Brandon Togneri.
Some of the songs include “Ring of Fire” performed by Mr. Sallach; “I Love Rock amd Roll” performed by Lexie Nerger; “At Last” performed by Sarah Nash and Mr. Zampella will be performing “Superstition.”
Anna Isachenko will perform “Call Me,” “One Week” will be performed by Keegan Forke and Nick Kita and a “Doo Wop Medley” will be performed by Lexie Nerger, Megan Nash, Sarah Nash, Lauren Nash, Brittany Bowser, Claire Kondash, Alyssa Silcox, Electa Olmsted and Anna Isachenko.
Tickets are available at the door and are $5 for adults and $3 for students/seniors.
”The idea behind the show was to showcase the talents of the students and to show the community and the entire school district what these students can accomplish,” Mr. Sallach said.

