A SPEECH ABOUT SPEECH

SPEECH MEMBERS TESSA MULDER, HENRY DAVIDSON, HAYDEN MILLER, KARLEY GRIFFIN, AND ADRIAN BRANDT; PHOTO BY LILI NANDELL

Solo Musical Theater (Karley)

For the category solo musical theater, junior Karley Griffin performed Screw Loose from the musical Crybaby. All the speech kids would be in the gym while performances were in the classrooms. Karley would practice in the gym and when she would, she would catch the attention of everyone with her volume. Throughout her performance she had excellent projection and was completely in character. It was energetic and contained the crazed and erratic personality of the character she was playing. I also listened to the original song, and I personally feel like Karley portrayed the insanity of the character in her voice better than the original. 

In the solo improvisation category, sophomore Henry Davidson and junior Hayden Miller performed hilarious acts both during districts and during state. In this category, a short skit is made with one situation for 2 characters to be in. Details from both Henry and Hayden’s performances and practices became inside jokes within the speech team. 

Solo Improv (Henry)

For Henry’s state performance, his characters were a mad scientist and a lawn mower, they were missing the last piece of a puzzle. We begin with the scientist manically working on a new invention- The Omega Mower. He’s hired the help of a lawnmower to test his project, who has no idea what exactly he’s gotten himself into. The mad scientist demands the lawnmower to hand him a part from the drawer, the part being: the Pocket Nuclear Reactor. The lawnmower shrugs giving a nonchalant okay as the scientist manically laughs. However, the part wasn’t in the drawer? A panic strikes the scientist as he looks for it in a frenzy and the lawnmower looks for it cause, well, money is money. After searching, the scientist finds it under something and plugs it into the machine. Finally, the lawnmower gets in to test it out with the scientists supervision. Once turned on, the machine blasts off, racing by and even flying. The lawnmower which had seemed bored the whole time, was ecstatic, saying it was the best lawnmower he’s even used. 

And scene.

Henry’s characters have great personalities that are distinct to each other. The way they interact is hilarious and interesting. The jokes made in his performances are funny while also adding to the story. His movements and expressions were lively in a way that just made the story and the way the character’s felt easy to understand. I can also say he mastered the evil scientist laugh. 

Solo Improv (Hayden)

In his State performance Hayden received the characters of a bird and a snake handler, with the scene first day mowing the lawn. With a strong aussie accent the snake handler began introducing the job to the bird. Curiously, there was a box in the back of the snake handlers mower. When questioned, he explained that they were his pet snakes, his family, and introduced all of them. This caught the birds attention. They mow the lawn for a little before the snakes were discovered missing! The snake handler panics, and goes in search of his dear family, however, the bird does the opposite. The bird continues mowing, intentionally driving though the grass erratically, killing the snakes. The snake handler takes his manual stick shift and drifts across the properties to save his snakes, chasing after the bird who had been so hungry for the snakes. But, he doesn’t make it in time. The snake handler sees the heads and pieces of the snakes scattered across the lawn, and is extremely distraught. And scene.

Hayden’s performances are really funny with great sound effects and visuals. He really acts/sounds out the scene which makes it really easy to see what’s happening. Hayden’s performances have a dark twist that is always hysterical.

Storytelling is sort of like read aloud from elementary, but the contestants have to memorize the book. It can be a children’s book or a more adult one. Evan Streit and Mackenzie Burnett moved on in this category while Tessa Mulder moved on for their great performance in original oratory, which will be talked about later in this article.

Storytelling (Evan)

Evan’s book for storytelling was “I’ll Love You Forever” by Robert Munsch. The book itself follows a mother watching her son grow up. It shows this with a lullaby she sings to her son each night, throughout all the stages of his life. His movements were expressive and really portrayed exactly what the book was describing. The smaller things he did also added to the performance, like the small laugh as the mother told the lullaby to the son, or the heave in his voice as the mother picked the son up when he was a teen and adult. It was overall a gentle performance which was very fitting, yet it also had humorous points that really put the piece together. Toward the end when the son is holding the mom and singing to her, there was a gentleness that I feel really brought that sentiment in. I also think the musical bit at the end when the son is singing the lullaby to his child as it had a really nice touch. 

Storytelling (Mackenzie)

Mackenzie did her performance on the book Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. Her performance truly felt like being told a story as a kid. She not only told the story but acted it out in a way that was clear and fun. 

The tone of her voice and her movements were really fitting, and I loved the voice of the dragon versus the princess. I think the drama in her movements is what really brought that imaginative nature to it. I got to see her perform and practice a couple times and it was just as amazing every single time.

Reviewing (Henry)

Generally reviewing is as it sounds- a review of a media (Movies, books, games, music etc.). Henry’s review was on The Frost, a sci-fi movie made entirely with AI. The movie starts out showing an arctic wasteland, with a hopeless tone before an alarm goes off. Then, it’s explained how the world ended up as this wasteland… The review was quite informative, with statistics provided in a non-essay format. His humor gave the review personality rather than it being a cut and dry topic. I also feel his delivery was illustrative of his feelings on the topic: AI is hurting the creative industries. It’s a recently relevant topic that needs more attention. I really enjoyed helping out with brainstorming process and getting to see what he came up with. 

Original Oratory (Tessa)

Original oratory, though sounds complicated, is just a speech given by a speaker. However, Tessa’s speech was much more than just a speech. Their piece was called “Obviously A Girl” written by themself. It was about how gender identity is something that need to be spoken about, and was strongly based on their own experiences in life. It provided a inside point of view, while also responding to the fear people have about these topics that are new to them. It had a fantastic message and gave a real sense of urgency with their emphasis on the unfortunate consequences if the topic remains unspoken about. The piece really carried the emotion with it and it was portray in a way that made the audience feel that emotion. I was about to hear the progression in the speech, from the first draft to their state performance and it was really cool to notice the changes they made and how it improved the speech. 

Extras

The way the speech kids all interacted was also a highlight for me. Instantly people were able to connect and laugh with each other both at districts and state. At state there was a moment where at least a hundred kids were all singing karaoke together. The environment was welcoming and everyone was really nice. There was also the anticipation of waiting for the results, which was nerve racking, and I wasn’t even on the speech team!

I’d like to give a big thank you to the speech team (Olivia Roling, Adrian Brandt, Mackenzie Burnett, Karley Griffin, Henry Davidson, Hayden Miller, and Evan Streit) and their coaches (Mrs. Berlin, Mr. Halter, Mr. Petrzelka, and Mr. Elsbern) for letting me come along to the speech events. It was a wonderful and exciting experience. From each of the performances I have moments that truly stuck in my head in the best way possible. Everyone did amazingly to say the least and I hope that this shared at least half of that. I can’t wait to see what else the speech team does next year!