Hold auditions. If you are mounting a school show, there are bound to be many kids who want to participate, and time will not allow all of them a chance to perform. Even in a small town, you may have too many people wanting to get in on the act. Announce auditions in the school or town paper. Include the place and time, as well as the type of acts that you are looking for.
Pick a variety of acts. You want to include something for everybody to enjoy if you can. You may have a lot of talented singers audition, but a show full of singers may bore the audience. It can be difficult to balance talent and variety if you are heavy in one particular type of act. If you simply can’t bear to cut some talent, keep a few extra acts, and plan on having a slightly longer show. The extra performers and their families will be very grateful, and the audience should be fine sitting a little longer to see some fabulous entertainment.
Limit the length of each act, giving everyone equal stage time. Aunt Sally’s eight minute aria may be beautiful, but after four minutes people may be sleeping. Limiting each act to four minutes gives you the freedom to include more performers as. The more people you include in the show, the smaller the chance of anybody complaining to you about cutting their son's or daughter’s incredible talent.
Consider including friendly judges offering their opinions after each performance like popular TV reality shows, especially if you've got some funny people who do impressions of famous judges. Just be sure to tell the judges to limit their remarks to positive ones. You don't want anyone to feel insulted, after working hard on his act.
Find a witty emcee to run the show. Talent shows often need a jolt of humor because many of the acts, while amazing, tend to be quite serious. If you are unable to find an emcee, do it yourself. Spend time learning about the people in your show by talking to their friends and families. You should be able to glean some funny stories, which can lead into each introduction.
Hire a professional sound person. Even if you have little money to run the show, spend it all on a sound person. Many directors fail to realize how important this is. Sound problems are rampant among amateur shows. Participants practice for weeks or months at a time, and then they come on stage to perform, and experience awful sound issues. Save money by making each performer responsible for all the costs of their own act. Get volunteers to bake, and sell their goods to contribute to the cost of the sound. Do whatever you have to do, because you will hear endless complaints if the performers cannot be heard, and rightly so. Sound is much more difficult to run than many assume. Be sure the sound technician can attend a rehearsal.