The Beginning of the Speech Season

By Kaylee K.

On January 25th, Roland-Story entered four events into the district speech competition. District speech is the first of any of the speech competitions. The events entered were three short films and a readers' theater. There were 21 participating members and everyone one of them did a phenomenal job. 

On the surface, speech sounds like a competition about just that: giving speeches. Speech certainly helps with public speaking, but there is a large variety of different events to participate in. Short film and radio broadcasting are recorded before the competition; it is simply a matter of presenting the material. One act and readers’ theater are often long, acted pieces with a large number of people. Speech is a great place to express yourself and meet new, interesting people.

The day, like every speech competition, starts bright and early on a bus. District speech this year was at Des Moines East, so that is where the bus headed. When the group arrived at the competition, the readers’ theater got to practicing and the short films started setting up.

The first event of the day—and the two events after that—was a short film. Mad Dash is a short film about a group of burglars and the comical events surrounding their most recent adventure. The second short film, A Touch of Jazz, was about someone rediscovering a love for playing jazz music. The final short film of the day, Drifting, was about a group of friends dealing with death and grief. Short films are written, directed, edited, and acted by the students themselves. This makes each film personal and emotional, and a perfect way to express oneself.

Readers’ theater is a short performance read from a script. This year’s readers theater, called “Just a Stage He’s Going Through,” consisted of nine members. It is about a man navigating his life as he realizes that he is inside a play (or a readers' theater, in this case). John Craig, a senior who plays the main character, had a lot of positive thoughts on the readers' theater.

When asked about District speech, John said, “The day went really well. Everybody got ones so it was a good day for RS. Everyone had a good day and everyone is excited for state.” 

After each event, a score is posted, indicating whether or not the event moves on to state. Each group waited anxiously for their score. In the end, each group received a one, which means that all four events will be moving on to the state competition. The speech day was quite successful.

Location: 1009 Story St, Story City, IA 50248, USA

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