Iola High School’s forensics team will offer a number of humorous performances at a pair of state competitions Friday and Saturday.
The students will travel to Topeka Friday to compete in the State One-Act Championships, where Katarina McIntosh, Jonathan Michaels, Whitney Olson, Drew Smith, Audrea Stahl, Skylar Strickler and Reagan Webster will perform “Wiley and the Hairy Man.”
The contingent heads to Kansas City, Kan., on Saturday for the State Speech and Drama Championships. Iola is one of only 20 schools from across the state that fielded the full contingent of qualifiers, 16.
The Saturday entries are:
Smith, humorous solo acting with “I’m Really Good At This Stuff,” a tale of a day-dreaming history student.
Chris Harrington, informative speaking on “Schizophrenia: Another Version of Reality.”
Maggie Terhune, serious solo acting with “My Mother’s Touch,” a tragic story about a young girl neglected by her mother, with tragic consequences.
McIntosh, who portrays a New York City bag lady with “The Search For Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.” McIntosh also will provide an oral interpretation of poetry with the poem “Jabberwocky.”
Webster, humorous solo acting with “Cheering My Way Into College.”
Jonathan Michaels, serious solo acting as the main character in Edgar Allen Poe’s classic “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Strickler, informative speaking, listing the meaning of the lyrics to Don McLean’s classic song “The Day The Music Died.”
Autumn Snesrud, oral interpretation of prose for “Sold.”
Jasmine Bannister, humorous solo acting for “Alice’s Adventure With Poorly Cooked Cafeteria Seafood.”
Madison Ford and Bryan Miller, duet acting with “The Marriage Counselor.”
Eli Johns will perform in extemporaneous speaking, while the teams of Bannister and Andrew Kipp, Ford and Jonathan Michaels and Chris Michaels and Katie Thompson each will perform in improvised duet acting, where the teams are given 30 minutes to devise a short skit after being given their characters, a scene and a situation.
THE FORENSICS team is under the instruction of Jennifer Jones and Richard Spencer. The students performed many of their skits at an open house Wednesday evening at the high school.