FHS speech team to perform ‘Night of Theatre’ Friday

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield residents will have a chance to see local thespians perform at Fairfield High School’s “Night of Theatre” Friday.

The high school’s large group speech team had nine entries in the Iowa High School Speech Association’s District Contest on Jan. 21 in Keota. Eight of those received a Division 1 rating and will advance to the state contest on Feb. 4 at Cedar Rapids Washington High School. But before going off to state, the school’s nine acts will perform their routines for their local fans at 7 p.m. Friday in the FHS Auditorium.

FHS Speech Coach Fred Hucke said he was thrilled with his team’s performance at districts, and mentioned that the only team to receive a Division 2 rating is comprised of students who were part of other groups that did get a Division 1, meaning every student in speech is going to state.

Hucke said Friday’s “Night of Theatre” has always been free, though the school accepts donations. He said he never wants cost to be the reason a family stays home from seeing the speech kids in action.

Twenty high school students are out for large group speech, a much smaller number than pre-COVID days. Hucke said that pre-pandemic speech teams numbered 40-50 kids. However, he said participation ebbs and flows, and tends to increase after high exposure, such as a successful group being selected to perform at All-State, like last year’s mime group.

Hucke said the “speech team” is somewhat of a misnomer, since prepared speeches are just one of many categories. He said it’s closer to a “performing arts team,” since it covers musical theater, ensemble acting, choral reading, mime, improvisation, film, and prepared radio and TV segments.

Fairfield’s nine acts include three ensemble acting groups, three improv acting groups, a musical theatre, a short film and a group mime.

Hucke said the school has often fielded multiple musical theatre troupes, but the students decided to combine their efforts into one big musical theatre Group of Eight performers. They are performing five selections from Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods.”

Freshman Nicole Hunger said that one of the songs from “Into the Woods,” called “Your Fault,” is one of the most difficult songs she’s ever performed. Junior Evie Messer agreed, and said the decision to pick “Into the Woods” was a collective one among the students.

“Sondheim has produced some of the hardest musicals out there, and ‘Into the Woods’ is one of his hardest,” Messer said. “’Your Fault’ is one of the hardest songs, but those of us in Vox Choir are used to doing insane and crazy things.”

Hucke said that Messer had to be pulled into a mime group last year, and this year she’s pulling other kids to join mime.

“The best thing to see is when kids drag their friends into it,” Hucke said. “Once they try it, a lot of them say they wish they had done this a long time ago.”

Hunger was one of those students who didn’t need to be dragged into speech because she knew right away that speech was for her. She grew up in a musical family, and she enjoyed performing in middle school plays. Her older sister, Allison, was in every play, and Nicole wanted to follow in her footsteps.

For her first year in high school speech, Hunger chose to participate in musical theatre and improv.

“Improv has been very hard, but also fun,” she said.

Erin Epperson, a senior, has done musical theatre every year. She likes doing it because it’s a fun thing to do in between the fall and spring plays.

“I’ve always been a big performing arts person,” she said. “It gives me a good adrenaline rush to go to competitions.”

Hucke mentioned that his speech team performers are self-starters who can lead their practices on their own. Epperson said that’s because the members are all good friends, and they know what they have to do to get better.

“It helps that all of us have been in leadership positions, so we know how to step up and do what we need to,” Epperson said. “We trust each other, and we know that we will put our all into it.”

Other speech coaches who are assisting this year include: Noel Wotherspoon, in charge of one of the acting groups and who does the blocking for musical theatre; Sam Garles, who helps with improv; and Nik Hucke, who helps with group mime.

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