While most seniors around this time are looking ahead for the next few months, letting their last college days slip by without too much stress, and taking the last couple classes they need to graduate, two musical theater majors have been working hard to create one last memory here at Creighton.

Arts & Sciences seniors Ariel Talacko and Veronica Benton will be showcasing their amazing talents in one culminating performance on Saturday in the Lied Center for the Performing Arts. There will be selections from their individual portfolios that they will later use for auditions.

Talacko and Benton are the only two graduating B.F.A. Musical Theatre students this year and the girls’ voice teacher, Diane Owens, suggested they do a senior showcase as a way to display their talents before they graduate.

Talacko has been a part of both choral groups offered here at Creighton (University Chorus and Chamber Choir) and is a member of the Creighton dance team. She is also Vice President of fundraising for the theater fraternity, Alpha Psi Omega, and has been in countless musicals, including “Funny Girl,” where she played Fanny Brice this past fall.

Upon graduation, Talacko said she will continue to pursue performing in all forms, while following her dream to work for Disney in their musical performances. However, she said that any opportunity to perform would

be amazing.

“I would be so grateful to be able to earn

a living doing what I love, wherever that is,” Talacko said.

Veronica Benton is also a member of Alpha Psi Omega, and is a recipient of the Grace Keenan Endowed Scholarship. She was most recently seen as Ruby, the lead in “Dames at Sea.” Benton has interned with the Broadway Dreams Foundation in both Omaha and New York City on the “Express Yourself Tour”

“It has been a wonderful learning experience and has really challenged us beyond the music people will hear the night of our showcase,” Talacko said. “I think that having had that opportunity to put on a show like this has been a very valuable experience and has definitely provided me with the opportunity to use a number of skills that are sure to be useful beyond my Creighton career.”

Talacko and Benton have been planning this showcase for a year now. They solidified it by the beginning of last semester, and final choices for music were made over the holidays.

“The structure of the recital is going to be interactive between the Ariel and Veronica, rather than them and the audience, which is a little different,” Stephen Sheftz, said conductor and musical director here at Creighton University.

He said the best things about working with the girls has been their enthusiasm for their selections of literature and the passion behind the pieces.

“They feel like they connect well with the pieces and that makes a huge difference in their singing,” Sheftz said.

The showcase promises wonderful talent and the spectacular demonstration of various styles of vocal technique. It will be a great cross section of musical theater literature. There will be music from relatively new musicals, as well as some classics and even some Disney selections.