We had five performances qualify for finals, and all of them placed among the top six, earning medals! The disappointing news is that only the top three places go to state, and we came just short of qualifying for state in several events.
Here's the breakdown-
Jency Starr- 5th in Persuasive on the topic of vaccination, 5th in Informative for a presentation on Hershey, Nebraska crime boss Annie Cook. Jency put in countless hours of work researching and writing for both of these topics. She placed first at our conference meet, and also at the meet in North Platte. Her research on Annie Cook, in particular, included a lot of primary sources and original work.
Theresa, Holli, Katie, Garrett, and Lane- 4th place in Drama. This was a heartbreaker- one of the two judges picked us as a state qualifier, but the score didn't break in our direction. Our OID called for a wide range of emotions and reactions, and our actors did a great job at acting out characters who change and develop over the course of the play. Their staging was awesome, including a one-footed square dance.
Theresa and Holli- 4th place in Duet. Also picked as a state qualifier by one judge, but edged out on points. They used half a dozen different characters (including completely different accents) in under ten minutes. Their duet managed to get the whole room laughing every time they performed (EVEN when the group before them staged a full-on school shooting). Holli learned how to make an impressive "ugly" face, and Theresa sacrificed her skull to a near concussion for the sake of her art.
Alyssa and Addison- 6th place in Duet. Over our three meets, their judges comments have gone from, "that was nice..." to "that was NICE!" They showed a huge improvement, and put in a lot of hard work. I was impressed by how physical they were with their acting. Addison literally crawled all over the floor, and Alyssa elbow-dropped her off a chair in the second round.
Our other entries included-
Aubrey, Abigail, Alexx, Rainah, and Megan- Almost the Bride of Dracula
Megan- Poetry
Alyssa- Serious prose