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Acting their age

  • A small crowd reacts during Charles City speech students' performance of "Greater Tuna". Press photos by Kate Hayden

  • It's not about props: Large Group Speech contestants will rely on their expressions, actions and words to tell the story of "Greater Tuna" during their contest on Saturday.

  • The audience is enraptured during the Reader's Theater presentation "Greater Tuna", about an eclectic band of citizens.

  • Everyone has a bad first date experience. Senior Montana Schmidt's first impressions of junior Brian Feres are less than pleased.

  • Everyone has a bad first date experience. Senior Montana Schmidt tries to put some distance between herself and junior Jacob Hallett in a one-act play.

  • In "Blithe Spirit", junior Ryan Wolfe is torn between the two women he married: his ghost wife, played by sophomore Ruby Peterson (right) and his new wife, played by senior Kaitlyn Pellymonter (left), who is not happy with Wolfe's story.

  • Nathaniel Reams, senior, leans in to give friendly advice to Joseph Iseneker, junior, in their small-group entry "Othello".

By Kate Hayden, khayden@charlescitypress.com

As the writer Charles in “Blithe Spirit”, junior Ryan Wolfe doesn’t know what to do. On the one hand, his first wife Elvira –– sophomore Ruby Peterson –– has returned to him. On the other hand, Elvira is now a ghost. And Charles is remarried –– to the very much alive Ruth (also known as senior Kaitlyn Pellymonter).

Wolfe, Peterson and Pellymonter are three of 30 Charles City High School students are expected to compete in District Large Group Speech Contest this Saturday, held at Waverly-Shell Rock Middle School for Charles City’s region. Each one of them has been participating in speech contests since they began high school.

“It’s my opportunity to grow as an actress,” Pellymonter said. “You don’t realize how much you’ve grown until you’re performing in front of a judge, and you get that one (rating).”

Up to 20 students are performing in Charles City’s largest competing group, the One Act event. Seven groups are expected to compete, although one may drop out due to cancelled practices from ice storms and other extracurricular events. At the start of the season, coaches Brenda Bailey and Mike Lembke casted students in small groups, with input from students who wanted to perform in certain capacities.

“We let them try to come up with some ideas, if they want to do a comedy or they want to do something more serious,” Bailey said. “We’ll pick the pieces and cast based upon what we know we have to work with that particular year.”

At District contest, students will perform improv, Readers Theatre, One Act or small ensembles for judges to rate their skills. Students who earn a one rating will move on to the state competition. At state level, groups can be chosen to perform at the Iowa All-State Speech festival.

It’s a school activity that lets students grow, Lembke said.

“They come out of their shell. You can say, ‘are you really going to need to learn stage right verses stage left’, but with the classical, with Othello –– we’re exposing high school students that might not otherwise get to act Shakespeare this early in life,” Lembke said.

In the upcoming Individual Speech contests, students will be learning how to give speeches after dinners or in public settings –– “Something they can actually use the rest of their lives,” Lembke said.

“A lot of it is confidence and self-esteem. Being comfortable in front of other people,” Bailey said. “That’s something that so many young people, even adults really struggle with.”

“It helps me be more open with people,” Peterson said. “We really have a sense of family here. If you’re having problems at home or if there’s something you really need to talk about, you can come to practice and let everything out.”

Small group speech and acting ensembles also feel more personal to prepare for than large-scale productions, Wolfe said.

“There are definitely benefits to both. In a large show, everyone in the community gets super hyped up and excited to watch,” Wolfe said. “At the same time, I feel like you grow a lot more during speech.”

“I know just talking to students that have been in this before and even my own child, it just really takes them to the next level where they feel comfortable doing so many other things that they would never have done, had they not done speech,” Bailey said.

Students meet with Bailey and Lembke three nights a week from 4-8 p.m. rehearsing their group performances. That doesn’t include the hours they go over their individual scripts or the paperwork involved, the coaches said.

“Speaking in public is a number one fear. I absolutely love seeing a freshman show up who can barely speak, and then by the time they’re a senior –– we can barely get them to not speak,” Lembke said.

This is the first year Bailey and Lembke have coached speech without former coach Linda Brant and her husband Murray Harris joining them, Bailey said.

“I can’t even put into words what an incredible director she is, truly,” Bailey said. “We really owe a lot to her.”

With the encouragement of her coaches since freshman year, speech has given Pellymonter confidence, she said.

“I was a background person, and I would never stick out during auditions,” Pellymonter said. “I started getting bigger and bigger roles, and this year I was Fiona in ‘Shrek: the Musical’. I’ve definitely become more confident.”

“Even at school, I’m able to smile at strangers in the hallway, and I’m not scared to present in front of people,” she added. “It’s made me grow into a more confident and self-loving person.”

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