Kennedy’s Speech group competed at districts in Monticello on Saturday, Jan. 25. All Kennedy groups received the highest possible rating and will move on to the state competition to compete for a spot at All-State. 

There are a variety of categories within the high school speech program. Some are pre-recorded categories such as short film and radio broadcast as well live performance groups ranging from musical theatre to one-act to improv categories.

“So a lot of people, when they think speech, they think about it as giving speeches, but I think the focus of the program IHSSA is to improve student communication skills through different categories, so there is a wide variety,” Kennedy Speech Coach Gabe Fink said. “So when you ask, what is Speech, it is so hard to pin it down because it is so many different things to different people. In one category, they might just be giving a radio presentation and in another category it would be more like what people consider theatre or even musical theatre.”

Speech is a winter activity. The program auditions in late October and after students get their groups, they rehearse to compete in late January at districts. The last competition is All-State, which occurs in late February, and groups can advance if they get a rating of one from all three judges as well as a recommendation at State. Students can also participate in individual speech, where competition will start in March.

This year, Kennedy Speech has seven groups: Improv, Choral Reading, Ensemble Acting, Readers Theatre, Musical Theatre, Short Film and Radio Broadcast. The rehearsal schedule is unique to each group, but the closer to competition it gets, the more frequent and time-consuming rehearsals become.

“It helps as well for people who don’t necessarily want to commit to a big long show, like they typically have to for theatre, or they don’t want to be in a big musical, they don’t want to dance and sing like in show choir,” Speech Coach Ashton Nanke said. “They have a huge range in Speech, [from] pre-recorded categories to performing on stage.”

The categories provide creativity and freedom for students. Both coaches and students agree that it improves public speaking skills and is a great way to discover new interests as well as meet new people. 

“Anyone [could find this club interesting], don’t be afraid by the name speech,” Speech Head Coach Sophie Steffensmeier said. “Treat it more as competitive theatre. There are also aspects if you are not really big in performing in front of people, we have pre-recorded stuff like short film or TV news and radio broadcasting. If you want to be more behind the scenes, we have opportunities for that.”