The secret is out, Mary Poppins is a hit man.
That was a revelation at the Iola High Forensics Open House Wednesday night. The forensics team has qualified 13 entries for state competition this year, and will travel to Washburn Rural High School in Topeka Saturday for the state championships.
Students gave the community a little taste of their entries.
Katie Terhune and Garrett Prall kicked the night off with lots of laughs. They want people to know about the real story of Little Red Riding Hood. In their duet piece, “Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon: Little Red Riding Hood,” Red isn’t as sweet as the famous story plays her up to be. Her grandmother isn’t a bed of roses, either. The two are foul-mouthed and actually beat up the big bad wolf.
Clara Wicoff explained how the world can fight world hunger in an original oration. She has three wishes to save the world and those wishes are Buzz Aldrin, Spider-Man and Mother Theresa. Wicoff said we should be more like those three. Mother Theresa would take care of the problem that is front of her. Fighting world hunger is an achievable goal, a responsibility and one that can be taken care of.
Wicoff also is taking an oral interpretation of prose to state competition. Wicoff tells the story of Holocaust survivors in “I Have Lived 1000 Years,” by Livia Bitton-Jackson.
Caitie Venter gave an oral interpretation of poetry, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” by Roald Dahl. The classic is given a little twist. The dwarfs are ex-horse jockeys who love to gamble. Snow White and the dwarfs use the evil stepmother’s looking glass to predict races.
Mackenzie Weseloh gave her oral interpretation of prose, “Through a Window,” by Angela Johnson. Weseloh tells the story in first person as a teenage girl whose best friend commits suicide. She guides the audience through the solemn story of Nick and how his death effects her.
Judd Wiltse and Yohon Sinclair performed a piece on a whim. The two are improvisational duet acting partners. At each competition they draw characters, a scene and an activity. Wednesday night Wiltse was a chef, Sinclair was a bratty child and they were lost on a playground. The two were comical as they dove and crawled through the giant playground.
Olivia Bannister and Caitie Venter are duet acting partners. The two girls tell the real story of Cinderella and her evil stepsisters. The prince isn’t all that bright, there is no fairy godmother and her stepsisters will go to great lengths to fit into the golden slipper. Yes, golden slipper.
Wiltse is quite the instructor. He knows how to do various accents and shares his secrets with the audience. Wiltse performed a humorous solo, “Accents, INC.” by John C. Havens. Wiltse plays a teacher who has stereotypes for every accent. Italians are all chefs and Scottish people are shepherds who love haggis.
Madison Luken is on a mission to find some missing vegetables. Luken gave an oral interpretation of prose, “The Webb Files,” by Margie Palatini. Webb is a detective on a farm who tries to “quack” the case of why farm animals’ items are going missing.
When a plumber and a narcoleptic come together as a team things kind of get messy. Emma Piazza and Trilby Bannister performed an improv duet acting piece as a plumber, a narcoleptic falling in a hole in a chapel. Bannister’s comedic timing to fall asleep was perfect.
Tyler Holloway presented an oral interpretation of poetry about “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Holloway makes hilarious voices and faces and keeps the audience laughing. Jack has a great idea to steal gold from the big giant.
We all know the story of the famous nanny Mary Poppins but in Trilby Bannister’s humorous solo she introduces Mary Choppins. Choppins is a hit man who takes over watching two children. The children must deal with her evil antics and figure out who killed their mother.
