Fairfield resident Carol Logen discovered her love for singing at age 6, when she performed her first solo “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” at school.
On Friday, she’ll use her voice to compete in Fairfield County’s first annual “So You Think You’ve Got Talent” competition, which will be held in the concert Hall in at 7:30 p.m. The Triangle Community Center of Norwalk is presenting the show; Georgetown Subaru is sponsoring it.
Logen and 11 other finalists -- including own all-male acapella group, the Acafellas -- were chosen by a panel of five judges to compete for a $5,000 grand prize in the final round of the competition. The final 12 were picked from a pool of 120 hopefuls.
This time around, the grand-prize winner will be determined not by the judges, but by the audience.
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“This is a talent competition like no other Fairfield County has ever seen.” Chris Titus, the show’s producer and a Norwalk resident, said. “I encourage all Fairfield Country residents to come vote.”
Fairfield has two acts to cheer on. Other finalists hail from Bridgeport, Westport, Danbury, Norwalk and Greenwich.
“I very much look forward to all of Fairfield in the audience rooting me on,” Logen said.
Though she has butterflies as the finale approaches, Logen said her nerves “keep me on my toes. They keep me rehearsing my songs everyday, returning me to the music that is the joy of my life.”
Fairfield Warde senior Johnny Shea said he and three of his fellow Acafellas -- Warde senior Reuben Lehrhaupt, junior Eric Regan, and sophomore Zach Roberge -- look forward to the final round. (Members Tim Veit, Sam Warnick, Zach Parfitt, and Connor Frawley will not be in attendance Friday due to conflicts, according to Shea).
“We hope to excite the audience with our performance. We’ve been working on this for a long time and, while confident, we are definitely going to be nervous as we take the stage,” Shea said.
“Please come out and support us, because the audience picks the winner in this competition!”
The road to the finale wasn’t easy. Before auditions for the show could begin, C.A. Titus Productions -- Chris Titus’ production company -- spread the word through online advertising, painting the county with fliers, and word-of-mouth.
Logen picked up a flier in and “didn’t think twice about it.”
“I’m a big singing reality show fan,” she said. “I watch ‘The Voice,' '[American] Idol,' 'The Sing-Off'…I wanted to be part of my very own reality show so I went home that evening and signed up.”
The Acafellas heard about the competition when Shea’s aunt found the ad in the newspaper.
“It was sort of a spontaneous, last-minute thing, but we got the guys together to audition and we are happy we did,” Shea said.
The Acafellas actually missed the first round of auditions due to conflicting schedules and instead sent in a video from their YouTube page.
“We were lucky enough to be called back for the second audition,” Shea said.
He received an email the following day, declaring the Acafellas finalists. “I remember running into choir rehearsal to tell the other guys,” Shea said. “We were thrilled we were finalists.”
Logen, too, was thrilled when she received word while giving a voice lesson to a student. “My student and I were dancing around my studio together. I told her the next time we would be dancing was when she got accepted into a show.”
Family, friends, fellow arts patrons, or just those looking for something new to do Friday can purchase tickets to the show in advance on the Triangle Community Center’s website. Tickets will be sold at the door the night of the show if there are seats available.
