Before the doors to the WAUD auditorium opened May 7, members of Whitman’s Best Buddies placed props on stage and arranged metal folding chairs into rows. At 5:30 p.m, parents, students and teachers started trickling in. By 6, the audience filled the room, waiting for the annual Best Buddies Talent Show to begin.  

The show—an end-of-year celebration for Best Buddies, a club that pairs students with intellectual or developmental disabilities with students without disabilities—consisted of 15 acts. Each act had one “buddy” and three to five student helpers.

“It was high energy, as usual,” Stacey Heller, parent of buddy Lily Heller, said.  “It’s great that everyone can participate.”

Performances varied from dancing to singing to magic tricks and even science experiments. One act even involved students using sign language to perform Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow.”  

The talent show is “everyone’s favorite,” Best Buddies president Camerynn Hawke said. “It’s a nice way for the people in our club to showcase their talents.”

During “Single Ladies” by Beyoncé, the audience clapped along to the beat, and for other songs, they waved their phone flashlights with the performers.

“I like doing the Best Buddies talent show,” sophomore Nikhil Niyogi said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Meera Shroff contributed to this article.