On Friday, Feb. 3, Huntley High School’s Speech Team hosted its annual “Meet the Regional Team” night. The team presented all of its regional entries to provide a glimpse of the team to friends and families of its members. This year’s regional team is packed with experience, featuring nine seniors, one junior and one sophomore.
“This is the most experienced regional team that I have ever been a part of in my 24 years of coaching,” said head coach Tom George during the event. “I think that’s going to show tomorrow.”
To give our readers some insight on the team itself, The Voice has compiled information on all 15 events Huntley will be performing at Saturday’s tournament.
Dramatic Duet Acting (DDA)
What it is: A dramatic interpretation of a published work performed by a pair of competitors.
Who is performing: Seniors Christian Aldridge and Olivia Stepp.
What’s being performed: “The Rainmaker”
“We’ve planned on doing the DDA since last year. It stuck to us, but not at first two. Personally, it wasn’t my favorite of what we found so it was sort of a struggle to get with it, but we finally got some real work done on it. We’re looking forward to our promising regional competition.” – Aldridge
“We always knew we were going to have our ‘epic duo season’, but we never knew what piece we were going to do. We just kept reading piece and after a while, we narrowed it down to a few, and this piece just really stuck with us and what we could do with it. ” – Stepp
Dramatic Interpretation (DI)
What it is: A dramatic interpretation of a published work performed by one performer.
Who is perfoming: Senior Jade Strong
What’s being performed: “Sorry”
“Well, ‘Sorry’ was actually my second choice… I’ve been kind of subconscious because the last two tournaments I haven’t even broken semifinals or finals. But now, I feel a lot better about it because I’m trying to take pressure off myself to get out there and have a lot of fun.” – Strong
Extemporaneous Speaking (EXTEMP)
What it is: The competitor is given 45 minutes to prepare for a memorized six-minute-long speech in response to a political question.
Who is performing: Senior Brandon Bencko.
What’s being performed: Performance varies with topic.
“I’ve been preparing for extemp by going out and printing out newspaper articles after school every day after school and watching the news if I get the chance to.” – Bencko
Humorous Duet Acting (HDA)
What it is: A humorous interpretation of a published work performed by a pair of competitors.
Who is performing: Senior Lauren Simek and Junior Brian Goldfarb.
What’s being performed: “Jerry Finnegan’s Sister”
Humorous Interpretation (HI)
What it is: A humorous interpretation of a published work performed by one performer.
Who is performing: Senior Jeremy Dorsey.
What’s being performed: “Oh Eddy.”
“I always felt it was more interesting to me and it wasn’t just on someone else. It was more on myself and so I could act out more characters. Honestly, I just tried to motivate myself and push myself to my farthest limits and prove to everyone that although it’s my second year, I can still make it to state.” – Dorsey.
Impromptu Speaking (IMP)
What it is: Performers are given two minutes to write a six-minute-long speech.
Who is performing: Senior Marta Makowski
What’s being performed: Performance varies with topic.
Informative Speaking (INFO)
What it is: An original eight-minute-long speech informing the audience of a larger problem in society.
Who is performing: Senior Irina Tuluca
What’s being performed: An informative on Hutchinson–Gilford Progeria Syndrome.
“It was a little nerve-wracking, but it helped me gather myself.” – Tuluca, who had went to state sophomore year but did not participate in Speech Team her junior year.
Oratorical Declamation (OD)
What it is: An eight-minute-long interpretation of somebody else’s speech.
Who is performing: Senior Brandon Bencko.
What’s being performed: A speech by political critic Keith Olbermann.
“I’ve being going through and adding to my piece, and making sure that I have emotion where I need emotion.” – Bencko
Original Comedy (OC)
What it is: The performer has to create an eight-minute-long completely original comedy.
Who is performing: Goldfarb.
What’s being performed: A piece on a boy’s journey to get what he wants from Santa Claus.
“The OC I have is not originally my first OC. I had like four ideas at first. There are parts that I find that aren’t funny, that I cut, I rewrite, and change with my coach [Steve] Sturm.” – Goldfarb
Original Oratory (OO)
What it is: An original eight-minute-long persuasive speech.
Who is performing: Makowski.
What’s being performed: A persuasive on why people should take more positive risks.
Poetry (PO)
What it is: An eight-minute-long interpretation of poems.
Who is performing: Simek.
What’s being performed: “Imagine”
“If I do poorly in one, I can go into my next round fully prepared. It’s ultimately less pressure.” – Simek on being double-entered.
Prose (PRO)
What it is: An eight-minute-long retelling of a short story.
Who is performing: Sophomore Brooke Romero.
What’s being performed: “Manhattan Romance”
“It’s been a great experience because this team is really close.” – Romero
Performance in the Round (PIR)
What it is: A single performance where the audience surrounds the performers in a circle. The actors act out a series of connected scenes.
Who is performing: Senior Karyssa Ercoli; juniors Alex Morton, Andrew Rewerts, Alex Krum, Jessi Owensby, and Abby Gleason; sophomore Jake Quirk.
What’s being performed: “13 Ways to Screw up a College Interview”
“My freshman year, we did the show as an actual, full-sized play. It was a good script and play so Mr. George thought that it would be a good idea to do it now since he was already familiar with it and since we’d had so much success with it.” – Morton
Radio (RAD)
What it is: A performer is given 45 minutes to prepare for a five-minute-long news broadcast. Performers are automatically disqualified if they are more than five seconds off of five minutes.
Who is performing: Senior Chris O’Meara.
What’s being performed: Performance varies with topic.
“There were a lot of former state qualifiers when we went to the sectional [last year]. Speech camp helped me develop skills.” – O’Meara
Special Occasion Speaking (SOS)
What it is: The performer gives an original speech about something that is an issue which can resonate with the audience, with humor included.
Who is performing: Stepp.
What’s being performed: “Hurtful Words.”
“I was in SOS two years ago, but because I was at state, Mr. George wanted to switch me to a different event last year so I could do it my senior year. I knew from the very end of last year that I wanted to pick a piece which would actually mean something and last an impression on the audience [and] on myself.” – Stepp
*Additional reporting contributed by Online Managing Editor Joe Cristo