Evan Allie & Mrs. Spear
This year, the speech department held a Speech Night on Tuesday, March 3rd. The night was a success; the cast did amazing! The night featured productions of individual and large group speech pi
eces.
The Foreigner was this year’s ensemble acting piece. It was performed by Abigail Smith, Nicholas DePue, and Aiden Petersen. It featured the lunch scene, where DePue, as the foreigner, is trying to learn the local customs.
Finn Garrett, Braxton Whitacre, and Noah Wolf demonstrated group improvisation at the Speech Night. In group improv, students are given a few choices of topics and must create a scene that covers the topic and comes to a conclusion in five minutes or less. The students are given two minutes to plan before presenting.
Fiddler on the Roof was this year’s musical theatre piece. The point of musical theatre is to take a musical and convey the point in ten minutes or less. This was performed by Hannah Dose, Karlee Kahler, Grace Luitjens, McKenna VanReese, Korbin Awe, Elijah Garrett, and Finn Garrett.
The Heart and Soul of Thomas Elegie was the one act piece performed by Elijah Garrett, McKenna VanReese, Hannah Dose, Karlee Kahler, Finn Garrett, Grace Luitjen, and Natalie Orban. In this short play, Thomas, played by Elijah Garrett, feels stressed while trying to win scholarships through piano competitions. The competition is fierce, and he feels pressure from everyone around him. By the end of the one act piece, he must figure out what is truly important to him.
Natalie Orban shared her storytelling piece, and McKenna VanReese performed her solo musical theatre piece.
Elijah Garrett and Nick DePue were recognized at the Speech Night as they will be graduating after this year.
Next up for the speech students is individual State speech at Denison on March 14th. Elijah Garrett and Natalie Orban get the chance to compete again after advancing from Districts.