By Casey Jarmes | The News-Review
PELLA – English Valleys students competed at the Pella Large Group Speech Districts on the very cold day of Jan. 24. Six teams competed in Improv, Musical Theatre, Short Film or Radio Broadcasting, with five receiving the coveted I rating that will allow them to compete at the State Contest in February.
The first group to compete was the Freshman Radio Broadcasting Team consisting of Davis Burdick, Drake Offerman, Joana Martinez, Bella Schott and Meika Spies, who performed “104.8 Fresh,” a news program hosted by old people, for old people.
“It is our first year, and we thought it’d be really fun to just try out radio news…As there is a lot of topics we could choose from, we feel like, talking as an old persons’ home would be a more interesting thing, because it’s just more fun to do,” said Martinez.
“It’s a new experience and we thought we’d give it a shot,” said Offerman.
The Freshman Radio Broadcasting received a I.
Kaylee Frazier, Phoenix Sorden and Tyler Wiseman starred in the Short Film “Kitchen Safety,” a safety PSA stylized like a cooking competition.
“We obviously wanted to make a short film, and we were in foods class and we were talking about safety and stuff and some funny like things that have happened, and just of like safety issues, and so we were kinda thinking that maybe we should make something to like display those and talk about the importance of kitchen safety, but in a fun way, so it wouldn’t be boring, and keep your interest,” said Frazier. “We were unsure of what we wanted to do, but we wanted to be involved in speech, and so (Coach Carrie) Burdick told us that it would be a good idea to try this and get out of our comfort zone and try some new things.”
Their Short Film received a I.
Ambryn Hoylman, Ellie Patterson, Kaylynne Hoylman and Pantera Spies competed in Radio Broadcasting with “64.1 – FAITH,” a Christian-themes radio broadcast discussing Christian musicians. They received a I.
“We just thought it was a really creative idea, and all of us go to youth group together, so it was cool to be able to put that in perspective and apply what we learned there,” said Patterson.
“And we’re all pretty fond of like, the music and everything. Like, we’ll listen to music going there, and we’ll listen to like Forrest Frank and Josiah Queen, and it just makes a big impact on us,” said Hoylman.
The third English Valleys Radio Broadcast, 1950s newscast “80.08,” featured Betsy Wells, Lydia Smith, McKenna Rugg, Olivia Debevec, and Zola Voss.
“It’s something we’re really comfortable with, and editing wise, it’s really easy to do,” said Wells. “I just thought it would bring a laugh.”
Peyten Conrad and Miley Clubb sang together in Musical Theater with the song “Therapy” from the musical “Tick, Tick… Boom!,” a song about an arguing married couple.
“It’s from a musical I really like and I thought Miley would be able to sing the male part,” said Conrad.
“It was very difficult, and we thought it would be really good to have some difficulty. It also, as (the judge) said, is a very brutally honest song, and we’re very brutally honest people,” said Clubb.
Conrad stated she practiced the difficult song through Karaoke, while Clubb said “I personally had to listen to that song a lot. This weekend, I listed to that song only this weekend. Peyten must know, that’s really hard for me, as someone who can’t stand listening to one song all the time. Then I looked up the Karaoke with just the male part going on.”
The Freshman Improv team, consisting of Davis Burdick, Drake Offerman and Sage Scheibe, received the only II rating of the day.
“I thought it went well. I feel like we could have practiced more earlier. We didn’t do a good time of setting up times to really rehearse them, so it’s kinda on the spot,” said Scheibe.
Tri-County, who were also scheduled to compete on Jan. 24, postponed their performances due to the windchill, instead performing at their school on Jan. 27.
