Lisbon and Mount Vernon speech teams are gearing up for another successful speech season this winter, with the first contests coming up at the end of January. Practices for both teams are going on now.
Lisbon
Head coach Ellen Johanns said that there are 29 members on the Lisbon Speech team this year.
Joining Johanns as assistant coach this year is Lillee McAtee.
“McAtee is a third grade teacher here at Lisbon, and she has helped direct and choreograph productions at Solon,” Johanns said. “Ms. McAtee is coaching group mime, group improv, an ensemble acting, and musical theater piece this season.”
Lisbon will be participating in the Tri-Rivers Large Group Conference speech contest at Maquoketa Valley Jan. 17. District Large Group speech contest will be Saturday, Jan. 24, at Monticello, and State Large Group contest is at Clear Creek-Amana Saturday, Feb. 7.
In Individual speech, the Tri Rivers Conference speech contest will be Feb. 23, while District Individual Speech contest will be held at Lisbon, Saturday, Feb. 28, and State Individual Speech contest will be at Vinton-Shellsburg Saturday, March 14.
Johanns said that they have nine events they are taking to large group this year, more than they’ve had in the last few years.
“We’ll compete in choral reading, musical theater, short film, ensemble acting (2), group mime, solo mime, group improvisation, and radio broadcasting,” Johanns said.
As for hosting district individual contest, Johanns is excited to host that contest for the first time.
“If anyone would like to get involved as a volunteer, they can contact me at [email protected],” Johanns said. “We will need people to watch great events as timers and room chairs.”
Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon has 76 students involved in large group speech this year, with a total of 30 different groups overall between ninth-grade and varsity teams.
The team will participate at WaMaC Conference Large Group speech contest at Center Point-Urbana, District Large Group speech contest at Monticello Saturday, Jan. 24 and State Large Group Speech contest at Clear Creek Amana Saturday, Feb. 7.
Head coach Grant Freeman said they hope to have a showcase of the groups who reach All-State to be held Sunday, Feb. 15.
“As always, I’m most proud of our student coaching program,” Freeman said. “This year, we have eleven students coaching six groups in ensemble, musical theatre, improv, reader’s theatre, and radio news.”
Freeman is also excited for the One Act play this year, about the Super Outbreak, the largest outbreak of tornadoes to ever hit the United States.
“Beyond pieces, I’m always most excited to see students start to reach their fullest potential,” Freeman said. “I was working with my musical theatre the other day and told them, beyond All State, I love watching them fully become the version of themselves they’ve always wanted to be. That’s the real victory, when students gain their own perspective on what success actually looks like.”
Another piece that Freeman is excited about is the choral reading piece, a true story of a friend of his who lost her husband to a drunk driver before the pandemic.
“It’s called ‘Eulogy to My Heart,’ and it intermixes her own writing and poetry to tell their love story and also what happens after he dies,” Freeman said. “I’m pretty proud of the piece, but one line sticks out, ‘Because our old house is a story filled with stories,’ and I think that sums up the Speech program at Mount Vernon. Each year, we build a house and fill it with all 76 students and their stories. The story of our season always comes from their stories.”