Hawthorne's Very Own Greatest Show

Attending the 2nd annual Hawthorne Variety Show the evening of Thursday, March 15 was like catching our very own greatest show on earth. A full house of over 350 was entertained by a wide variety of talents ranging from Eva Viterello’s endearing rendition of Rise Up by Andra Day to Ben Turek’s board-breaking taekwondo to kindergarteners Kai Ostermann and Will Roubitchek’s glow-in-the-dark performance of Pancake Robots.

Eighty children performed in 39 acts in Elmhurst, Illinois’ Hawthorne Elementary School gym, taking the stage in front of family, peers and Hawthorne staff. While Sparkling Singers group Olivia Epstein, Hannah LaFaire and Luke Walega said they felt a little nervous about transitioning from singing together over FaceTime to singing in front of an audience, they said feeling brave and happy to be themselves is why they chose the song “This Is Me.” According to Luke Walega, “We picked this song because it’s about expressing yourself.”

The audience was graced with a variety of types of performances.

• Singers: Margot Bresnahan, who opened with The Show accompanied by her mom on guitar; Rafael Boutin; Michael Dorko; Lola and Nolee Torson; the Sparkling Singers Julianna Hickey, Luke Peterson, Eva Vitellaro; and Alexa Klein and Josephine Roubitchek singing “For Good” from WICKED.
• Instrumentalists: Lilly Coffey, Megan Greiwe, Avery O’Connor and Natalie Short on piano; Danny Casey, as the Purple Dragon, on trumpet; and violin trio, Peanut Butter and Celli, Addison Blawat, Madeline Mauck and Natalie Tuleja wearing shirts designed by Addison.
• Bands: Anderson Roth sang accompanied by Maggie Casey on ukulele; The Flaming Tangerines JD Passarelli and Jackson Pierce sang and played electric guitar; and 21st Century Jazz, consisting of Harrison Gonzalez on piano, Landon McQuade on guitar and George Redfearn on drums, performed Funk You Up.
• Dancers: Sisters in a friendly dance-off Aubrey and Vivian Carson; Pancake Robots Kai Osterman and Will Roubitchek; Classy with a Side of Sassy group Kate Evers, Avery O’Brien and Riley Raible; Just Dance group Becklin Abernethy, Charlotte Berry, Ashlyn Chiu and Sophie Hummel; 3rd grade group Griffin Hanna, Connor MacLeod, Jacob Roubiteck, Jaiden Shah and Jadon Szala; Olivia Allen; and Dance Crew Libby and Elise Donaldson, Anna Filosa, Ava D’Alessandro, Norah Ballman, Gia Keller, Annie Plummer and Natalie Tuerk.
• Artist: Allison Wick shared a time-lapse video of the creation of her drawing “Fox in Winter.”
• Actors: ventriloquist Ryan Enright; Gravity Falls skit by Vinnie Carbone, Eleanor Cleary and Julian Dominguez.
• Performers: Maya Ostermann and Mia Radke had the audience laughing with their performance of dancing babies with baby pjs tied to strings on their arms, reminiscent of a traditional and charming camp skit.
• Gymnasts and dancers: Clara and Charlotte Fitzer, Gabby Quagliana and Hayley Schlitz; The Wonderful Onesies Grace Downey, Maeve Gibbs and Kaitlin Tiedeman, who included a ukulele performance with their gymnastics; Isabella Piper; Angelina Garcia and Ada Duell; Avery Brauneis, Lyla Rae Crowley, Evie Messacar and Danielle Kuchnia; and The Pretty Flyers Ava Stockard, Harlow Fitzgerald, Laina Drabic, Olivia Moore, and Ava Radke.
• Taekwondo: Ben Tuerk; the Blue Ninjas Ian Donaldson and Grayson McQuade.

Before the finale, CHAMP, the Hawthorne mascot, teased the Crowd with Watch Me. The jam-packed show wrapped with a rousing lip sync battle of Disney songs from Hawthorne staff in costume as Minions, Moana and Frozen characters. Hawthorne staff brought down the house, engaging the crowd to sing along in their battle.

The Hawthorne PTA’s variety show committee, led by Hawthorne parent Shawna Roubitchek, kept the talent organized and the audience entertained. Twenty-two parent volunteers and three Hawthorne alum teens helped out with many tasks ranging from managing props to crowd control to taking photographs.

The PTA is especially grateful to Hawthorne General Music Teacher/Choir Director Samantha Cunanan for being an integral part of the Variety Show. Beyond running music and tech, Ms. Cunanan was one performer’s hero this evening. Upon learning that 3rd grade trumpet player Danny Casey had left his music at home, she grabbed a Sharpie and paper and jotted down the notes to his song, saving the day for this young musician.

Kids and parents alike are already excited about next year’s variety show. Third grader Griffin Hanna told us he already has a plan for what he and his friends would like to do next year. We’re not going to spill the beans, but if you know a song about ducks and lemonade, well, you’re definitely in for an entertaining performance. We can’t wait to see what Griffin and his friends and all the other kids at Hawthorne come up with for next year’s greatest show on earth - or at least at Hawthorne Elementary School.