Day 1 - Tuesday 29th September 2009

Tonight was the first of the heats in the MK’s Top Talent competition! This was an amazing opportunity for MK’s talent to shine to the audience of Milton Keynes Theatre. The first auditions took place back in July where hundreds of acts tried out, however only forty made it through to this week’s heats. All these acts are hoping for the winning opportunity to appear in this year’s pantomime, ‘Cinderella’, this being a professional paid contract, and for many of the acts, a hopeful starting point for a profession in performing. Each night this week ten acts will perform to an audience and a panel of 5 judges, these ranging from; Mk Citizen Editors, theatre producers and some celebrity guests. Out of these ten, two acts will get through to Saturday nights grand final by the judges choice.

The evening hosted by Heart Breakfast’s Wes and Ros, was a thoroughly enjoyable event. The standard of all the acts was so high; every single one of them brought their own special something to the stage and all really enjoyed the opportunity. The acts that ranged from 10 to 40 years of age all had something different to offer, there were singers, actors, dancers and comedians. On first tonight was 14 year old Katie Wright from Northamptonshire who gave a charismatic performance of Hairsprays’s ‘I can hear the bells’. ‘A great song choice and very brave to come on first’ commented one of the judges. Second up was a local dance group comprising of four girls all aged 14 who performed a well executed street dance piece to The Black Eyed Peas ‘Boom Boom Pow’. These girls used masks to enhance the effect of their dance however; the judges did have mixed opinions about whether it was better to see their faces. We then had Chris Boylan, who gave an energetic comedy sketch which had a great response from the audience and the judges described it as ‘a very original piece’.  Next was the youngest contestant, at only 10 years old Rebecca Woolley delivered an amazing vocal performance of ‘On My Own’ from the hit musical Les Miserables. The judges were very impressed with her song choice and ‘enormous voice’. Then was a very interesting performance from 24year old Charlotte Tomkinson, who sung Peggy Lee’s ‘Fever’ beautifully, however ‘I think you could have chosen a more challenging song for your lovely voice’ mentions one of the panel.

As we moved into the second half, we were opened with Izzy Griffith’s performance of ‘Hopelessly devoted to you’ from Grease. The panel was shocked by the maturity of her voice, being only 11 years old and were impressed with her originality and stage presence. The next dance act was that of Emma Rice, who performed a very moving piece to Enrique Inglesias ‘Hero’. ‘You made the hard moves look so easy and fluent, with a great song choice’, were just some of the judge’s comments. We then had 11year old Freyia Grace Allen, who delivered a good performance of ‘Tomorrow’ from Annie. The panel was impressed by her use of props and costume as well as the great delivery.

A spectacular amount of talent was shown tonight however the judges could only pick two acts to go through to Saturday’s final. And tonight they chose 16 and 14 year old duo, Joe and Adam who performed a song they had written themselves and playing their own acoustic guitar as accompaniment. Both love music and attend ‘Stagecoach’ together, they have always loved performing to an audience and decided to ‘go for it’ as they wanted to show MK what they can do. The panel tonight thought they had a great image and had a lot of respect in the fact they had written their own song, which was really catchy. ‘ I think you both have real star potential’ mentions one of the judges. Second was 20 year old, sales advisor Nathaniel Remy who gave an emotional performance of ‘I need you now’, a fabulous gospel ballad that was described by the panel as ‘a phenomenal and remarkable performance’ and Nathaniel was also asked ‘can you get me a free ticket for when you’re performing in the O2 arena’.

Tonight was defiantly an evening full of talent. Congratulations to those who got through. And with 4 more heat’s this week I am now so expectant of what is to come, tonight has really set a high standard and I can’t wait for the rest of the week’s acts. Get down to the theatre and support the talent of MK!

By Esther Pandya