FHS Speech Team to perform a ‘Night of Theatre’ Jan. 30

FAIRFIELD – Fairfield High School’s Large Group Speech Team will host its annual Night of Theatre on Friday, Jan. 30.

The event will feature both live performances and recorded pieces, starting at 7 p.m. in the Mitcheltree, Slechta, Edgeton Performing Arts Auditorium. The Trojans’ speech team is fresh off a fantastic showing at the District Contest in Centerville on Jan. 24 where eight of the team’s nine entries received a Division 1 rating and will advance to the State Contest.

Attendees to Friday’s Night of Theatre will be treated to a one-act version of All in the Timing by David Ives, a choral reading exploring themes of censorship and book banning, original student written film and podcast-style radio pieces, a sci-fi group mime, three group improvisation teams, and a selection from the musical HAIR. Admission is free, though donations are welcome, which go directly to the team.

The Union caught up with a few members of the speech team to talk about why they joined, what they enjoy most about speech, and what advice they’d give to young kids thinking about a future on the team. Junior Marleigh Waugh is in her second year in speech, but her first year doing large group as opposed to individual speech. She said she joined the speech team to overcome her stage fright. She was uncomfortable getting up in front of the class to deliver a presentation, and did not consider herself a “social butterfly.”

“Over time, I’ve grown more comfortable doing things I wasn’t comfortable doing,” she said.

Senior Josua Carlson is in his third year in the program, having participated in improv and ensemble acting before. For those kids about to enter high school and contemplating if they should give speech a shot, Carlson encourages them to try it, because it will pay dividends in adulthood.

“You’ll not only enjoy yourself, but it will help you with memorization and being quick on your feet with improv,” he said. “You’ll learn to overcome fears. I think there are a lot of things you can apply to your life from doing it.”

Senior Phoenix Johnson joined speech because she was hungry for new experiences, and because several of her friends encouraged her to join. She did improv one year, and though she admits it wasn’t her thing, she still enjoyed herself. She also tried ensemble acting for a few years, and this year she’s in a one-act play. Carlson chimed in that improv is not for everyone.

“The practices were really fun, but the actual contest kind of freaked me out,” he said.

Johnson and Carlson said that they weren’t really friends before speech team but performing scenes together helped them build a friendship.

Carlson’s older siblings have performed on the speech team before, and he has a younger brother who decided to go out for a play for the first time, a musical at the middle school. Johnson has two older brothers including one who went to a theater school in California. Waugh’s siblings are all much younger than her, though she will encourage them to give speech and drama a try once they get older.

Fairfield High School’s speech team is led by coaches Noel Wotherspoon, Sam Garles, and Fred Hucke.

The complete student roster consists of:

Abraham Antonio, Sonya Antonova, Lelan Blomme, Josua Carlson, Emma-Grace Crandall, Bidhi Dangol, Nayari Estrada, Tristen Garretson, Jay Hames, Zef Hennesy, Evan Hunger, Nicole Hunger, Bella Jaeger, Phoenix Johnson, Divya Keith, Manon Kermott, Stormy Lint, Zek Moore, Peyton Neubauer, Arissa Pohren, Taryn Roeman, Trinity Rowland, Mia Salinas, Naomi Stiemsma, Adeliz Suastegui-Gregorio, Elliott Ward, Marleigh Waugh, Gretta Winheim, and Dominick Xayavong.

  Buy Photo

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com