As the academic school year comes to an end, so does the first successful year of Artists Ink’s supporting classes, TXO and YOLI Music, within the Gonzales School District. To celebrate this accomplishment, our staff wanted to celebrate our students with the idea of creating a Variety Show to display all the talent that their students have been working on.

Our first TXO & YOLI Music Variety Show & Open Mic was a huge success! We saw overwhelming support from the community which really brought the right energy to our performance. In the weeks leading up to this exciting event, many members of the TXO and YOLI Music had been working with their students to piece together the variety show. I had the opportunity to interview both Diana Carasco, Program Coordinator and Jocelyn Ramirez, TXO Mentor who supported putting this production together.

Coming up with the idea of creating a variety show was an attempt to get the news out to the public of what had been happening in the school district regarding the arts. The staff pitched the idea of a variety show to offer a comforting space where students didn’t feel the need to follow a certain guideline, and could simply share their talent with other youth and have a space just for them.

When it came time to choose what the students wanted to perform, our mentors stepped back and allowed the students to have full creative freedom over their talent. Since it was a crossover between the Fairview Middle School and Gonzales High School, students from different grades supported one another with the decision of what they would be performing at the Variety Show. Ramirez described it as a collaboration in deciding how they wanted to portray themselves with their performance. Many of the students had written original pieces as a creative outlet to express their feelings and experience of everyday life through teatro performances, and playing instruments, such as the guitar. 

Of course, with every performance there are the pre-show jitters. Carasco and Ramirez share that they were a little nervous to see how the kids would do under the stage light and pressure, because for some it was their first time on stage. Ramirez had shared that throughout the experience being a mentor to these students was “beautiful, by putting together the variety show they realized how important they are to their community” and that is something she will treasure for life. Thankfully, there were no major flukes and each student had little to no trouble adjusting to the attention and spotlight (Great job future performers!). 

Due to TXO and YOLI Music being new to the Gonzales School District, I wanted to know if they had felt nervous about the outcome leading up to the event. Carasco had stated that “No, I knew there were people who would show up, I just didn’t expect a huge response from the community”. Which was true, the variety show had seen an overwhelming amount of support from the community and had even filled up the space that the event was held. 

With the help and support from not only our TXO and YOLI mentors, the Gonzales Community, and bright young talented artists, was the only way the Gonzales Variety Show was able to be successfully put together. We applaud all those who helped make the show a success and for our performers for taking the time to master their craft.

Stay tuned as this is the beginning of a new chapter for the arts in South County.