On Feb. 24 and 25, Tarleton Activities Board, otherwise known as T.A.B hosted auditions for Tarleton’s Got Talent in the Barry B. Thompson Student Center.
Tarleton’s Got Talent is a new talent show that will hopefully become an annual event. The auditions began at 11 a.m. and ended at 1 p.m. and showcased singers and dancers from all colleges on campus.
Day one of the Tarleton’s Got Talent auditions kicked off with singing duo, sophomore mathematics major, Katherine Pizer and sophomore musical theater major, John David Dvorak. For their audition Dvorak played the guitar while they sang The Blessing by Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes. Their performance was so good that after their audition they were asked to sing two more songs to fill up the empty spaces before the next audition. Pizer and Dvorak we’re actually strangers before their audition.
“I wasn’t going to audition but yesterday while I was chilling in my dorm, I heard a knock on the door. It was my neighbor across the hall, who I had never heard before and she asked me if I wanted to audition with her,” Dvorak said.
Dvorak also performed an original song called Ceramic Heart which you can find on Spotify under the musician name Dvorak.
For Pizer, participating in events like Tarleton’s Got Talent is a way to get involved on campus in a fun way.
“We’re both musical theater people so doing something like this was just a fun way to get more involved on campus,” Pizer said.
Later, freshman digital media major, Autumn Jordan performed a captivating color guard routine. Following Jordan, senior education major, Kendall York sang an acoustic cover of Jolene by Dolly Parton and Evan Reyes a sophomore music business major sang an original song that he named Trouble right before his audition.
Throughout the talent show auditions, there was a wide variety of talents that were performed by the contestants.

We heard there would be many more people signed up to perform for the second day of the Tarleton’s Got Talent Auditions, and the audition coordinators did not lie.
Kicking off day two of the auditions we watched singers from all corners of campus perform their favorite songs. Freshman music education major, Regina Wright performed a stunning cover of Don’t Rain on My Parade by Barbra Streisand and later Stevie Pilgrim a freshman computer science major sang Evermore from the Beauty and The Beast Live Action. This along with many other great covers of songs such as, She Used to Be Mine by Jessie Muller, All I Ask by Adele and Don’t Stop the Music by Rihanna were sang for the audition .
Sophomore biomedical science major, Tracy Rangel and Junior electrical engineering and computer science double major Jayce Thedford performed a fun dance to a mashup of current pop songs. Rangel and Thedford both knew each other from their involvement in their T-week talent show.
“We both participated in the T-week talent show last year individually, so this year we decided to audition together,” Thedford said.
Concluding Tarleton’s Got Talent, it was hard not to wonder what kind of work went into putting on an event like this. Daniel Mendoza the coordinator of the talent show and a staff member of T.A.B explained the complex process of organizing an event like Tarleton’s Got Talent.
“Making sure we’re allowed to do the event, creating COVID-19 safety plans and insuring we actually have attendance are just some things we have to do before creating an event. We also made QR codes and put them out on the tables, so you can actually scan them and tell us what you thought about the auditions just so we can get students feedback and see if they actually enjoyed watching it,” Mendoza said.
The hard work is worth it for Mendoza though. He says his favorite part of Tarleton’s Got Talent is seeing the students doing what they love the most.
“My favorite part of Tarleton’s Got Talent is seeing the students do what they enjoy and really showing off their talents,” Mendoza said.
In the future Mendoza hopes that enrollment in Tarleton’s Got Talent increases. The event has some great benefits such as the chance to win money and the opportunity to meet great new people. The turn out this year was amazing, there were people of all classifications that came out to audition. We are hopeful that there will be even more auditions at the next Tarleton’s Got Talent audition.
“We would love for Tarleton’s Got Talent to be annual. We want to build it up and get more students involved. We’ve had 15 students sign up, not including the people who showed up and just wanted to get involved we’re hoping to get that number up next year. I think students should audition next year, one because it gives students a chance to win some money and two just so you get to meet some new people,” Mendoza said.
Tarleton’s Got Talent Show is scheduled for April 7, but a time has not been announced. If you’d like to stay up to date with Tarleton’s Got Talent you can check Tarleton’s Got Talent on Texan Sync or follow T.A.B. on Instagram @tarleton_tab. Make sure to keep an eye out for how to audition next year.