PVCC’s Got Talent! First-ever Talent Show April 8

PVCC students and staff are gearing up for the college’s first talent show, scheduled for Friday, April 8. The show will be in the Dickinson Theater and is free and open to the public.

“Our goal for this show is for the performers, the audience and even the ones working behind the scenes to have great memories of a lifetime,” said SGA President Camron Perry.

The show will include between seven and ten acts, about an hour and a half of performances. Martez Anderson plans to rap, a skill he has been honing since he was nine years old. He has performed across Virginia at multiple talent shows and conventions. Ultimately, he hopes to perform on tour, possibly with the help of a label. He aspires to “connect with people, change their lives as well as be innovative to the game,” he said.

Thomas Harton plans to play guitar. He is no stranger to the spotlight: he has played for a crowd of 300 in the past and recently played at Firefly in Charlottesville. “My biggest influence on my original music is anything I generally go through in life,” he explained, including previous romantic relationships, which feature heavily in his songs. He hopes to play professionally in the future, “in front of thousands of people on an almost-daily basis.”

The show is sponsored by The Kroger Company and Pepsi-Cola of Central Virginia. This is the first time an international company has sponsored a PVCC event. “Getting corporate sponsors is extremely difficult,” said Perry, whose efforts were key to securing such prominent support. “Most SGAs at universities cannot pull corporate sponsors for their events…if they do, they usually don’t have two of them,” he said. “As a community college SGA we are extremely proud to push beyond what others say is impossible.”

Kroger supplied money for cash prizes and will have a table outside the theater featuring its products and a hiring table for those interested in employment. Prominent members of the company are expected to attend the event along with regional employees. Up to 500 Pepsi products will be available outside the auditorium, according to Perry.

“We want people to walk away from the theater in awe about the performance,” Perry said. “We also want our sponsors to walk away feeling that it was well wo

rth their time and money to sponsor our event…We want to bring [the students] what they deserve.”