Sisters Act talent enchants audience

For its 16th year, the Sisters Act Talent Show provided an entertaining evening with a full array of song, dance, comedic skits, music, recitations - and a couple of surprises to boot.

The show was sponsored by Good Samaritan Ministries (GSM), a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities for kids in developing countries. The Sisters Act program will benefit the Uganda GSM Masaka School and Orphanage, which is located in a remote location of southern Uganda (see story, page 28).

As a special guest during the talent show, Osborn Muyanja, educational director of the Masaka orphanage and school and the Uganda director for GSM, spoke from his heart to a nearly full house.

"I want to convey our deep appreciation to the Sisters community," he said.

Muyanja had been hearing about the Sisters Act Talent Show for 20 years. He finally took a furlough and flew all the way from Uganda to watch the show that has benefited the Masaka orphanage and school all these years.

The youngest performer of the show was 5-year-old Allison Moreno, who showed promise as a pianist. She performed an Appalachian love song, "Love Somebody," with her piano teacher, Rebecca French, sitting next to her on the piano bench seat.

A comic highlight of the evening was Paul Bennett, Lisa Fetrow, and Carolyn Platt performing "The Triplets," from the musical "Band Wagon." Dressed in baby garb, complete with dangling legs for effect, they kept the audience in stitches.

Joan Song, a talented 11-year-old pianist who has been playing since age 5, wowed the audience by playing "Impromptu in E flat Major," a 19th century solo composition.

After a 15-minute intermission, the Crook County High School National Junior ROTC took the stage. The Navy junior ROTC drill team performed with dancing rifles and twirling batons that looked like balls of fire as they twirled to an array of music in semi-darkness.

Sisters Dance Academy Director Lonnie Liddell choreographed the contemporary dance ballet, "Somewhere Only We Know."

Joan Song, her younger sister Hannah who plays flute, and her parents took the stage and became a musical family band as they performed a Cuban dance song, "Rumballade."

A real crowd-cheering highlight for the last act of the evening was Rick Slavkovsky reciting the poem "The Mountain Whippoorwill" (or, "How Hill-Billy Jim Won the Great Fiddlers' Prize") by Stephen Vincent Benet. He was accompanied by Raman Ellis and Doug Williams on the banjo and fiddle.

The surprise ending, or the grand finale, had the entire cast and crew on stage dancing to Julie Andrews singing "Do Re Mi" from "The Sound of Music."