SPEECH: NV, O-M each taking entries to state in large group

Nodaway Valley and Orient-Macksburg each have large group speech entries going to the state contest this Saturday, Feb. 3 at Ankeny Centennial High School.

These are results of a recent district contest at Clarke High School in Osceola.

For Nodaway Valley, Malachi Broers and Kayden Siegwarth will be taking their musical theater piece based on “Shrek the Musical” to state.

NV speech coach Lauren Huff said that despite experiencing adversity with a multitude of snow days, the pair heading to state should be proud of their accomplishment.

“We had lots of last minute substitutions and everyone worked extremely hard to get good results at districts,” Huff said. “We are super proud of our musical theater group for advancing onto state and the rest of the team is looking forward to our first contest of individual season.”

O-M speech coach Kendra Breitsprecher said that despite being one of the smallest schools in the state, her team should be proud of their results. They’re going to state in their reader’s theater entry called “I Just Got Here: Slayyyyying the Eighth Grade.” The play was written by Breitsprecher, with help from students and other staff.

“One of the seniors who isn’t even in speech came up with the ‘I just got here’ gag and then one of my former students from years ago, who is now a speech coach herself, came up with the ‘slayyying’ party,” Breitsprecher said. “Sometimes it takes a village.”

The play features “Brandi NewTeacha,” played by junior Carter Osborne, who is first-year English 8 teacher. Her class is pretty much the worst English 8 class in the history of the world. One student, Eddie, played by senior Kinsey Eslinger, not only believes he is a Hare Krishna, but also refuses to give up his phone, putting it under his butt to keep it from the teacher. Alice, played by senior Bridget Bracy, is pretty much the teacher’s pet who is also obsessed with Harry Potter. Anthony, played by freshmen Kolbie Carson and Andreas Pierce, won’t stop talking about his brother—who due to get out of prison any day now and would really like to meet the new teacher. Josie, played by sophomore Natalie Mullen, spends a lot of time shooting pretend basketballs and making inappropriate jokes. Finally, Harry, played by senior Rogue Paxton, likes to blow things up.

Brandi isn’t entirely on her own, however. She has a mentor teacher—Behir Sincegodwasaboy” played by senior Emily Campbell, who is a little bit jaded, to say the least. The school superintendent is played by senior Patrick Fletchall. Superintendent Kowalski might be just a little obsessed with “A Streetcar Named Desire.”