Woodard is a two-time All-Stater in one year

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Lily Woodard is a sophomore at Charles City High School and is gearing up for her second All-State performance this year in improvisation.

Ashlyn Bauer and Woodard are going to All-State March 26 after receiving nominations for their performances at the individual state speech contest last weekend.

In February, Woodard and her twin sister, Emily, went to large group speech All-State for improv.

“It’s almost surreal,” Woodard said. “When I joined speech I had no idea that this was going to happen.”

Woodard was pulled into speech by her sister, Emily, who had done individual improv last year.

“This year she said, ‘you’re joining speech and we’re doing improv together,'” Woodard said. “She’s the one that got me into it.”

Improv is a way for Woodard to be creative and be a bunch of different characters, she said.

“For improv I’m very much a character person, and my sister is more of the still man,” Woodard said.

Woodard has many different characters including a grandpa; Jimmy, a crazy and jittery person; a nerd; and Susan, a crazy PTA mom.

“She’s kind of building on different characters,” said Brenda Bailey, assistant high school speech coach. “When something comes to her she just starts building this persona around it, which is really cool.”

Woodard first joined drama in her seventh-grade year for a middle school play.

“I’ve always been interested in having fun with acting and doing plays,” Woodard said. “When I was a little kid we would put on little shows for my dad in our basement. We would reenact a movie for him and just have with that.”

When Woodard was a little kid in school she would do funny voices that other kids would make fun of, but now in improv those same voices play to her advantage, she said.

“I’m definitely staying in speech and drama,” Woodard said. “I’m always going to want to do improv and have fun, hoping just to improve every year on everything.”

Bailey said she finds it really exciting to work with both of the Woodard twins.

“They both have a lot of unique ideas. Their brains are constantly thinking about what they can do next,” Bailey said.

Woodard also participated in spontaneous speaking this year, which was a little tough for her at state, Bailey said.

“She’s constantly thinking ‘what can I do to improve my craft,'” Bailey said.

Spontaneous speaking is where a speech participant is given a topic and a limited amount of time to construct a speech on that topic. The topics usually focus on news items.

“They really have to be up-to-date on current events,” Bailey said.

Bauer is going for her poetry reading of “Part B” and Woodard is going in the improvisation category. They earned the nominations to perform at All-State through their performances at the state individual speech competition held Saturday in Arlington.

There were seven performances that earned a Division I rating at the state individual speech contest Saturday. Bauer and Woodward, Valerie Allison, Isaak Jensen and Ruby Peterson each earned one DI rating, and Mariah McKenzie earned two DI ratings.

The All-State performances will be held at the University of Northern Iowa. Woodard will perform in the 1:30 to 2:30 session at the Berta Martin Theatre, and Bauer will perform in the 11:30 to 12:30 session at the Lang Hall Auditorium.

In addition, two Nasua-Plainfield students will perform at All-State. Tanner Streigel will perform in solo musical theater, and Levi Williamson will perform in improvisational acting.