February 21, 2025

Orient-Macksburg speech repeats as all-state qualifier

Readers Theatre tells story of rural Iowa school set to close

By Orient-Macksburg CSD
Members of the Orient-Macksburg readers theatre group are from left in front, Ava Jenkins and Emily Butler; back row: Malaki Jackson, Addie Shinn, Marissa Cass, Natalie Mullen, Carter Osborne, Emma Boswell, Kolbie Carson and coach Kendra Breitsprecher.

Members of the Orient-Macksburg readers theatre group are from left in front, Ava Jenkins and Emily Butler; back row: Malaki Jackson, Addie Shinn, Marissa Cass, Natalie Mullen, Carter Osborne, Emma Boswell, Kolbie Carson and coach Kendra Breitsprecher. (Contributed photo)

Ah, the irony. Orient-Macksburg High School, which is slated to close June 1 with dissolution of the school district 13 months later, has an active and competitive large group speech team. This team decided to write and produce a reader’s theatre piece about the feelings the community has about a very successful school dissolving due to budget issues. The work is a tear-jerker and was very well-received as the group of nine students (about a fourth of the high school’s total population) prepared for the big state contest held last weekend at Waukee High School.

Just walking into Waukee High School is somewhat intimidating for students from the smallest school in the state. Waukee is a huge school — big enough to host state speech, a basketball tournament, and a girls’ wrestling tournament all on the same day!

“How many gyms do they have?,” one student asked incredulously, speech coach Kendra Breitsprecher said.

The group was not granted a great time for competing. Nevertheless, they took the “stage” (a high school classroom) with aplomb and once again, moved the audience to tears. It even moved two of the three judges to tears — and was apparently memorable enough to receive an All-State Speech nod at the end of the day.

This is the second year in a row that Orient-Macksburg has qualified for the prestigious All-State Large Group Speech Festival. Last year was the first time in the school’s history that O-M won this honor. Three of the members of last year’s cast returned this year; the other six performers are all new to large group speech.

Also qualifying for All-State in the same categories are 4A schools like Waukee Northwest, Cedar Rapids Washington and Kennedy, and West Des Moines Valley.

“To be competitive against huge schools that have more speech coaches than we have speech students is really something,” said Breitsprecher, who wrote the original script and then asked for student input to refine it.

As a thank you to the community, the team planned to present the piece 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19 in the school music room. They will then attend the All-State Festival Feb. 22 at Iowa State University in Ames.

The team is made up of senior Carter Osborne; juniors Addy Shinn, Emma Boswell, and Natalie Mullen; sophomores Kolbie Carson, Emily Butler, and Marissa Cass and freshmen Ava Jenkins and Malakai Jackson.