Speech Follow-Up (It's Kind Of Like A Stalker)

What comes after a super awesome speech video? An even more super awesome speech written story, of course! See, speech stories are kind of like the stalkers of speech videos. And I, Danielle Hernandez, will be bringing you the first installment of this stalking extravaganza.

Several weeks ago, Kelsey and I did a video covering the aspects and results of the Districts for Large Group Speech at Clarinda. In case you didn't watch it (or just don't seem to remember) here are some of the highlights: Speech kids are insanely loud and admittedly obnoxious, six students from Harlan participated, and the ensemble acting force of Chris Schaben and Ellen Klitgaard advanced to State. Way to go, team!

At State competition in Ankeny on February 6th, Ellen and Chris once again performed their piece "Open to Interpretation" and receive two "1's" and one "2". Speech has a scoring system much like Band and Vocal competitions. A 'one' is the best score you can get, ranging down to a 'four' (which is disqualified). To advance to the All-State festival, students must receive a recommendation from two of the three judges. Which the two representatives from Harlan just happened to receive!Ellen and Chris were nominated for non-performing awards at The All-State Festival held on February 20th at The Iowa State Center in Ames. An All-State nomination is the highest honor there is in the Speech world. We should all be very proud of them, and I, for one, totally am. That, and I must say, they both look stylin' in their new All-State t-shirts purchased at the competition.

Well, with All-State over, Large Group is in the past. So now, it's time to look at the present. Neigh, look towards the future! This Saturday, the Districts for Individual Speech will be held at Logan-Magnolia High School. For the first since I can remember, contest is less than an hour away, people. Do you know what that means? You should all come out and support. Because not only will our acts be heart-wrenching, hilarious, and/or musical, they won't drain your gas tank to come and see.

So, while you're planning your wicked road trip to Lo-Ma, I'm thinking you should probably know what you have to look forward to. Your fellow Harlan Cyclones will be performing in such events as... Improvisational Acting, where he or she will draw characters and situations from a hat, and typically it's quite hilarious... Storytelling, in which he or she will tell a story to the audience, while treating them like they are small children, also typically quite hilarious... Prose, in which he or she will read sections of a book or other published material... After-Dinner, Poetry, Solo-Musical Theatre, and so much more! Us speech kids are down on our knees, begging you, come support us in entertaining you!

So, there you have it, one spiffy little speech follow-up (or stalker, depending on who you're talking to...). Expect yet another follow up somewhere in the very near future with results on Districts, State, and hopefully All-STATE! for the Individual division. This has been Danielle Hernandez, reporting live from my computer desk in my pajamas, for School News. Please let me know, do you plan on attending Speech districts since they are so close this year? What do you think of Speech as a whole? Comments are always welcome :)