As February comes and goes, so does the Heart and Soul Talent Show here at Hutchison. Each year, girls in Middle School and Upper School have the opportunity to audition and participate in the talent show, which is organized by the Fine Arts, Service Learning, and Tech Councils. While this is a fun event for people to watch or join, it also serves a purpose. Tracey Ford, Director of Arts and Community Engagement, says, “The money raised by ticket sales and the bake sale before, during and after the show all goes towards Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital Heart Institute.”

Usually, people would donate ten dollars and gather in the theater to watch the show. This year, in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, viewers payed ten dollars to be sent a virtual link to watch the show. Ford explains, “Instead of a one night two-hour long production, we videotaped acts and they were edited together for a pre-recorded show hosted on a private YouTube channel. All the acts were videotaped in the theater under lights and sound.”

However, with doing this talent show virtually, there were some disadvantages. “We have not had as many girls get together to create acts like in the past for obvious reasons,” Ford mentions, “We also did not have acts from other regional competitions like the MidSouth Fair due to the pandemic. We did not sing as much as we have on campus in the past, and that has really hampered girls performing this year.”

While there were disadvantages, there were many new things that students and faculty learned how to do while putting together this talent show. “We are still running some dance activities and the musical,” Ford said, “We could not wait to share some of the talented students here at Hutchison.”