Talent Showcase

Song and Dance Revue Celebrates Tech’s 100-year History and Raises Funds for After School Tutoring Program 

All are invited to a truly unique event– an intergenerational performance by remarkably talented Oakland Tech students, past and present, ages 90 to 15, to celebrate our school’s centennial year!

An old-fashioned revue featuring song, dance, music and drama, the “Technites Past and Present Talent Showcase” has something for everyone!  Former bandleader Marv Tripp (OT 1943) will sing. Former performer at the famed Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco’s Chinatown Estelle Jung Kelley (1949) will dance. Michael Grbich (1950), who tap-danced across the Golden Gate Bridge a few years ago, will tap dance.  Former ballet dancer with the Oakland Ballet Omar Shabazz (1989) will perform a piece he choreographed with current Tech student Deon Oddone (2015), his pupil at Oakland Ballet School.

Tech’s Acrobatics Club will spin and twirl, its dance class will dance to Afro-Haitian drumming, and its Polynesian Club will dance to island rhythms. Among the current Technite performers are pianist Omar Abdul-Rahim, cellist Akiro Duey, and bass baritone singer Edward Nunoo. The showcase also features two music groups of Tech students– member of Tech’s Jazz Band and an alternate rock band called The Empty Minded. And there’s more too– a scene from the original “verbatim” play 99 Years about Oakland Tech created by Tech’s drama students based on their interviews with alumni. The play was a huge hit 2 years ago and we are lucky to get a chance to see part of it again!

The entire showcase is a vivid display of the talent and passion that Tech has nurtured in its students for a century. You won’t want to miss it!

The Song and Dance Revue is a fundraiser for Tech’s after school peer tutoring program, Boost, which was started twenty years ago by alumni from the 1950s who wanted to mark their 25th reunion by helping their school. Those alumni are turning over sponsorship of the program to the Tech Parent Emeritus Club, a group of parents of recent Tech graduates who want to continue to support the school.

The show is from 2-4 pm, Sunday, February 8th in the auditorium (entrance from 42nd Street). Tickets will be available the day of the show ($10/adult, $5/student) or online via Brown Paper Tickets (800-838-3006) (http://technitesshowcase.brownpapertickets.com/).

Questions: TechnitesShowcase@gmail.com.