Warsaw speech team members shined at State Fair Community College on March 4 and 5 as they competed in the district speech contest and one-act and reader’s theater contests.

   “One-Act is like a play or musical but shorter, and readers is a group reading and performing from a book, ” sophomore Caitlyn Easter said. “You can use props in One-Act and Readers, but you use them mostly in One-Act.”  

  The contest took place two days. On Friday, One Act and Readers performed and then on Saturday other members of the speech team came up for District competition. Everyone in the speech team had fun, and worked extremely hard at their pieces.

  “I’m really proud of the team, because many of them worked hard this year and they grew as actors,” speech coach Katie Johnson said.

  The One-Act team worked in the mornings with speech team coach Nathan Hopkins. The One-Act performance, “Longri and Bourbon,” was about three southern ladies gossiping, it had humor and a good story line. Seniors Ricky Branson, Madison Lane, and sophomore Caitlyn Easter performed the play. To make all of this possible there has to be a hard working set crew. The students who were part of the set crew were, senior Matthew Stebbins, juniors Wesley Carr, and sophomores Kylee Myers, Rusty Johnson, and David Derks.

  “I loved the pieces we performed,” senior Madison Lane said. The One-Act performers got third place out of seven schools at contest.  

   The Reader’s Theater performance was “How to Survive High School Without Really Trying.” This was a humorous story about high schoolers locking the teachers in classrooms, then recruiting all eighth graders, to prepare them for their four-year sentence, to high school. Those who performed were sophomores Madison Rozzel, Emily Stantorf, Makayla Andrews, and freshman Leeann Rozzel. The Reader’s Theater performers got fifth place out of eight schools.

   Districts for speech involved students who had performed in other speech contest and were most prepared for Districts. Caitlyn Easter, Briar Heavener, Noah Long, Autumn Rhea, Matthew Stebbins, Hannah Chapman, and Edsel McMillin were those who performed at Districts. Those who finaled in Districts was Caitlyn Easter, Briar Heavener, Noah Long, Autumn Rhea, Matthew Stebbins, and Hannah Chapman. While no one placed in districts to qualify for state, they all had a fun time and gave it their all.  

  Teammates of the One-Act, Readers, and Speech team strongly encourage other students to go out for Drama next year.

  “It’s a really great experience, we bond in and out of practices and performing is a lot of fun,” Easter said.