ONE AMONG MANY—Katherine Reaves participated in the Thousand Oaks High School talent show last Friday night. She sang “The Wizard and I” from the musical “Wicked.” Thousand Oaks High School had its own version of “American Idol” last Friday night when its Associated Student Body offered its annual talent show at the school’s performing arts center. If you want a window into what kinds of entertainment high school kids are interested in, it’s enlightening to attend one of these events. What you see may surprise you.

Unlike “American Idol,” the talent show includes performers other than singers, although only six of the 21 acts chose the nonsinging route.

With so much talent evident, it’s a shame that there have to be “winners” and “losers.” And it’s puzzling how the three-teacher panel of judges could gauge the varying merits of singers, dancers, a drum solo and a comedy improv routine.

Anyone who has the nerve to get up in front of an audience of their peers and entertain deserves an award, so maybe a better title for future events like this should be “Talent Showcase.”

The show was emceed by Corey Crandall, Bobby Mullaney and Austin DeBiekes, who entertained the audience during between-act stage changes with brief, often funny blackouts, often related to the name or nature of the next performer.

Ballads predominated in the vocal offerings, almost entirely featuring guitar or piano accompaniment. The vocals featured a nice mixture of recent hits balanced by students’ original compositions.

Two of the more polished numbers were Brook Bowers’ sweet rendition of Bob Dylan’s torch song “Make You Feel My Love” and a show-stopping version of “The Wizard and I” (from “Wicked”) by Katherine Reaves, which attracted a rousing ovation from the audience.

Two renditions of older songs included Andy Walker and Lillian Wiley’s duet on Cat Stevens’ “Maybe You’re Right” and Vanessa Orr’s version of the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” sung as a ballad as in the film “Across the Universe.”

Cover versions of more recent hits included Taylor Blaine (“Superwoman” by Alicia Keys), Malissa Marlow (“Glitter in the Air” by Pink) and Summer Shafer (“Stolen” by Dashboard Confessional).

Dance numbers included the school’s Ballet Folklorico traditional Mexican dance to “El Rascapetate” and Samantha Pierce and Lucas Bertini’s passionate acrobatic ballet of Chris Brown’s “Superhuman.” (The latter act finished runner-up in the judges’ voting.) The most unusual was Ruchi Thukral’s stunning Indian fusion dance to Owl City’s “Fireflies.” Thukral tied for third in the voting with singer/guitarist Sam Cooley.

The performer who was voted the best by the judges was Aubrey Caswell, who sang her own composition “Ready for Goodbye,” a poignant, self-aware song that she dedicated to her fellow graduating seniors. The bittersweet number touched a nerve as many of the performers will be moving on to college in a few months.

The most surprising factor about the performances is that there were no electric or amplified instruments, no heavy metal or grunge, and no hip-hop, rap or punk music, genres that are thought by many to be pervasive with today’s teens.

Admittedly, there is a screening process that performers must go through, so material deemed offensive is filtered out. Still, it is heartening to see so many songs and styles that were honest and meaningful to the students, performed with musicianship and quality in mind.

It is impossible to mention all of the entries in the talent show, so my apologies to those who I left out, but suffice it to say that the impressive array of talent represented by the TOHS student body made for a highly entertaining evening.