First ever Spotlight: New Hyde Park
set to kick off on January 10
On Thursday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m., the first resident will kick off Spotlight: New Hyde Park, a four-day, two-week contest akin to America’s Got Talent. And while the William Gill Theatre at New Hyde Park Village Hall is not Newark’s New Jersey Performing Arts Center or L.A.’s CBS Television City studio and Trustee Donald Barbieri may not be Simon Cowell, there’s no less amount of pride in the potential of the contestants that will be participating in the village’s inaugural talent competition. Particularly when the aim is to get many of the community’s young people involved.
“The head of the music department from New Hyde Park Memorial High School [Mr. Tarantola] is helping me out,” Barbieri explained. “We’re hoping that we’ll end up getting a few of the teachers and a couple of guys from the village board to work it on those nights.”
Starting at 7 p.m on that Thursday, Jan. 10 and continuing at the same start time on Friday, Jan. 11, seniors (age 13 to 21), perform in the inaugural stages of the competition. Juniors (participants up to the age of 12), get their crack at impressing the judges on Sunday, Jan. 13 at 2 p.m. Contestants can sing, dance or just play an instrument. For now, Barbieri is looking at this contest as being a matter of build it and hopefully they will come.
“I’ve made announcements and I hope the superintendent of music is making announcements at school,” the trustee said. “He said he made mention of it to various music teachers, hoping that they’ll be getting some of the kids that would be so inclined to participate. We mentioned it in the newsletter that gets sent to everyone and also handed out fliers in the elementary schools, so that they could bring them home to show their parents.”
Prizes are still being determined but by the time the finals wrap up on Friday night,
Jan. 18, the spotlight will indeed be on one of New Hyde Park’s best and brightest.
Spotlight: New Hyde Park Rules
1. Entry and photo waiver forms available for download at vnhp.org must be completed and signed.
2. Members of performance groups must each complete an entry and waiver form.
3. Minors must have a parental consent form filled out, signed and brought to village hall.
There will be two categories of contestants determined by their age on January 1.
Juniors will be for entrants up to and including 12 years of age.
Seniors will be for entrants between 13 and 21 years of age.
Each entrant will perform their talent for the judges in any of the following formats:
Singing
Dancing
Instrumental
The New Hyde Park Cultural Committee must approve all songs. Songs with inappropriate content will not be permitted in the competition.
There will be three rounds of competition.
Additional rounds will be added based on the number of entries received.
The winner of each round will be asked to perform in the finals.
There will be three judges for each round of competition. Additionally, the audience will be voting for their winner. The entrant that gets the majority of judges and audience votes will be the winner.
All judges’ decisions are final.
