Yes, Harlan Has a Speech Team!! by Chris Schaben

On Saturday, February 20th, I had the privilege of attending the IHSSA All-State Festival. Now, I know that you have no idea what I’m talking about, so let me explain. IHSSA stands for Iowa High School Speech Association. Every year in the months of January – March, students prepare their speech material and perform at contests.

Now, don’t assume that speech contest is a boring festival where students give long, boring speeches. It’s not like that at all! Speech students can perform in a variety of categories such as acting, improvisation, musical theater, mime, storytelling, prose, broadcasting, and more! There are two kinds of speech contests you can participate in: Large Group and Individual. In Large Group, you perform with another person or a group of people. In individual, you perform by yourself. At these contests, you perform in front of a judge or judges and receive a I, II, III, or IV rating (with “I” being the best.)

Ellen Klitgaard and I performed in ensemble acting this year for Large Group contests. Our piece was called “Open to Interpretation,” and it featured us performing “Hansel and Gretel” in various styles including murder mystery, Shakespeare, Vaudeville, British comedy, and soap opera. We got a “I” rating at districts, so we got to move onto state. At state there were three judges. We received two I’s and one II from the judges there. But the biggest surprise came when we found out that two of those judges nominated us for All-State! We were non-performers at the All-State festival, but I went to accept medals for our achievement and to watch other great performances.

With Large Group being over, it is now time for our Individual Speech contests. I am performing improv and prose for these contests. Districts were held in Logan on February 27. All of our Harlan participants did an awesome job, and many of us are moving onto state! Here are the results (with participant name, speech category, and rating):

Chris Schaben – Improv – I
Danielle Hernandez – Poetry – I
Trey Nielsen – Poetry – I
Kelsey McDaniel – Lit Program – I
Allison Hanson – Prose – I
Allisha Anderson – Storytelling – II
Becka Rodgers – Prose – II
Danielle Hernandez – After Dinner Speech – I
Katy Todd – Storytelling – II
Chris Schaben – Prose – I
Kelsey McDaniel – Storytelling – I
Justice Gessert – Poetry – I
Allison Hanson – Musical Theater – I
Hannah Early – Acting – II

So, all of you Harlan people should support the speech participants and maybe come to a contest some time! Did you even know we have a speech team? And now that you do, would you like to see us perform some time? Leave a comment! If you want to learn more about IHSSA, visit the IHSSA website.

Before I sign off, I would like to say congratulations to all those participants at district individual speech and good luck at state! Who knows? Maybe we’ll have an individual speech All-Stater this year!