Last Saturday, January 21, was a successful District Large Group Speech Contest in Lake Mills. Three groups of students earned a division one ranking and will advance to upcoming State Large Group Speech Contest on February 4th at Dubuque Senior High School. These groups consisted of a Readers Theatre Group’ performing The Audition, and starring Sarah Dodd, Anna Godfrey, Mia Godfrey, Haley Hart, Maddi McChesney, and Ben Siglin. Noah Mclaughlin, Randy Davenport, Caleb Lillquist, and Jayden Smith performed in Group Improvisation and qualified for State as well. Last but not least, the Ensemble Acting group performing Crushed Petunias advanced to State, featuring Randy Davenport and Keira Nobis.
Other performances include a Musical Theatre group starring Jenna Lovic and Ben Siglin and performing Let Me Be Your Star from the musical drama Smash. There was also a second Group Improvisation Team featuring Daniel Stephenson, Margaret Kruse, Erin Foss, and Courtney Smith. Next was a Short Film Group featuring Jenna Lovic, Skyler Lee, Noah Mclaughlin, Emily Huckins, Noah Fredericks, and Henry Klatt. Finally, there was a Choral Reading group performing The Tell Tale Heart, featuring Mia Godfrey, Marcus Buttweiler, Hannah Brown, Bryce Kleven, Caleb Lillquist, Keira Nobis, Jayden Smith, and Brianna Sullivan. The team is coached by Mary Alexander and Rebecca Rother who, despite not every group advancing to state, are proud of the work and dedication from all the participating students. A contest for individual speech events is also coming up soon. Although not every group made it to State, everyone performed extremely well, and many of the students who didn’t advance will be heading to Dubuque to support their peers’ state performances.