Last weekend Rexburg witnessed the first round of Rexburg’s Got Talent! Coming up March 8 and 9 are the semifinals with the finals to follow on March 16.
“Ninety percent of our contestants this year are actually college students,” said Jackie Rawlins, the cultural arts director for the city of Rexburg.
This annual competition started out as Upper Valley Idol. When Rawlins started as the director of cultural arts, she decided it would be good to have a competition that included all different kinds of talents, not just singing.
This year the competition has been tough. Bands, dance troops, magicians, and even an electric violinist are showing off their abilities.
“In fact it was such hard competition the first night of round one,” Rawlins remarked, “between the person that didn’t get to move on and the next person that got to move on was one vote and that was from the audience.”
A unique aspect to Rexburg’s Got Talent is the audience participation. The ticket audience members’ purchase also doubles as their vote.
The performances are held at the Romance Theater. Each ticket is $5 per person and the shows start at 7 p.m.
Hot on the heels of the community’s talent show will be a family friendly movie night on March 18. This will also be at the Romance Theater. The movie will be “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.” It starts at 6:30 p.m. and costs $1.50.
If family movie nights aren’t your thing, there will be a “Lamb of God” performance at the end of the month.
“The Witness of Music” group will put on the show at the tabernacle March 29 and 30. Not only is the music of the “Lamb of God” beautiful, haunting and moving, the performing group represents much more than musical talent. All of the singers come from different religious backgrounds.
If you have younger children and want them to participate in this summer’s theater camp signups for the “Lion King Junior” start March 15. Those who want to audition for lead roles will need to write down April 12 and 13.
The camp runs all through the month of June, Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The performances will be July 5, 6, 8, 9 in the Tabernacle. Expect full costumes of African animals!
“We don’t do anything you know kind of on the low end of stuff around here we do it full out,” Rawlins said.
If college students are wondering what events they should keep an eye out for, “Foreign Figures” will perform at the end of April. Tickets for that concert are already on sale.
“We’re really trying to do things for different audiences,” said Rawlins. “We’re trying to do variety all the time.”
At the end of the summer, sometime in August there will be the Storytelling Festival!
“We bring in national story tellers that come in and they are amazing,” Rawlins teased.
Rawlins further assured that this festival is for everyone of all ages, from nine to 99. There won’t just be one kind of story being read. There are lots of different genres represented.
Vendors will also be present selling their wares.
“We want people, college students included, that do home crafts or are artists we want them to contact us and be a part of it,” Rawlins said.
It’s a great opportunity to get your product out there. If you are interested in being a vendor contact Rawlins through The Venues on Facebook, call City Hall and ask for Jackie or email her directly at jackie.rawlins@rexburg.org.