Speech acts advance to all-state

Five group acts made it to State this year. Those acts included short film, radio broadcasting, reader’s theater and ensemble. All 18 students that participated in individuals made it to State. In individual competition, juniors Malina Amjadi and Emma Degroote both made it to All State competing in Prose, Solo Musical Theater and Original Oratory. 

“I’ve participated in speech for three years. This year I participated in team ensemble acting and radio broadcast and individual musical theater and original oratory. My radio broadcast team made it to State, and I made All State in both musical theater, singing ‘This Place is Mine’ from Phantom, and original oratory, which was a written speech about enjoying one’s solitude,” Amjadi said. 

“I competed in both group and individuals. I did both ensemble acting and readers theater for group, and I just did prose for individuals. I made it to State for readers theater in group contest, and I made it to All-State for individuals,” DeGroote said. 

“The experience of speech this year differed from years past by there being less practices, less time spent with coaches and less time spent hanging out with teammates. Although I competed virtually, I still felt supported by my team and school through the kind text messages I received after presenting. Speech team is filled with many positive, supportive individuals who stay by your side, even when they can’t physically be by your side, “Amjadi said

Third year speech coach Catherine Bettag said, “This year with COVID restrictions for school, a lot of things have been different for many extracurriculars including speech, so competitions have had to adapt along with it. Competitions were a lot different than they were in the past. This year, we competed for Large Group fully virtually, with most of our categories being recorded and presented to a judge. In previous years, we were only allowed to compete live. Contest also used to take up an entire Saturday, requiring students to be at school at about 6 a.m. This year, we have actually been able to hold two of our contests in just a few hours after school. While these conveniences have been nice, we have really missed out on the atmosphere and energy of the contest.” 

“We had five groups make it to Large Group State contest, which was about 20 students.” 

The individual’s season began before spring break with 18 participants.

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