Speech Follies

By MICHAEL HUM Staff Writer

Arcadia High School’s (AHS) Speech and Debate team recently hosted their annual Speech Follies show from Mar. 24 to Mar. 26. This year, Speech Follies showcased all the different sections Speech and Debate offers. The twohour event was marked with intrigue, drama, and showcased the talented individuals from the team, demonstrating the parts of Speech and Debate: declamation, oratorical interpretation, dramatic interpretation, prose and poetry, advocacy, spontaneous argumentation, and improvisation.

Most of these acts relate to taking an existing piece of literature and modifying it for dramatic appeal. Declamation takes a speech given publicly and modifies it to demonstrate the new speaker’s eloquence and articulation. For example, a speaker can change Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech by preserving the same effect and meaning but modifying the subject matter to relate to the speaker. For Friday’s show, the declamations were mainly about serious issues, such as domestic abuse and negative comments.

Prose and poetry consist of speeches the speakers write, which contain poetic elements or are registered as stories. Speakers’ topics in this category vary, but many are personal stories or experiences they can write about.

Dramatic interpretation takes an existing literary work, and the speaker modifies it for dramatic purposes when performing it for an audience. Actions like monologuing, acting out different characters, and changing the voice’s tone and body position are frequently used to convey the dramatic effect. Regarding the books selected, most speakers chose a work with some horror elements, such as Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Tell-Tale Heart.”

The second improvisation opens up the show to the audience; the audience chooses the location and the central conflict for the story, with two people from the audience having to act out the entire scene in the same amount of time. With their infinite creativity and wisdom, the audience came up with eclectic and extremely exaggerated stories, an example from one show being a boy finding out his father is Santa after a therapy session. The show has two improvisations, one from Speech and Debate and the other from the audience, and both were incredibly entertaining to watch.

Lastly, speakers in original advocacy gave a speech relating to advocacy, usu-

Sign Language Club is a club dedicated to teaching American sign language to students so that they can excel at this communication skill by the end of the year. The club also teaches deaf culture and deaf interaction to those interested.

“It’s a language class, so you do gain a small amount of language proficiency,” said Amercan Sign Language Club President senior Annika Bullock. “But it’s also kind of a culture club so people can gain more knowledge in this regard and get in contact with a larger community that’s also interested in learning sign language.” swang@arcadiaquill.com

After visiting the variety of booths, students could get some snacks from the food trucks and enjoy the performances brought by the AHS Performing Arts groups.

First up, Orchesis did an intriguing preview of their upcoming performance “The Muses’ Canvas,” coming up on April 27 to 29. Then came Pep Cheer and Pep Song, demonstrating their acrobatic skills and dance moves. Finally, Pep Band performed, determined to bring the audience their best performance despite playing their instruments in the heavy rain. In the end, Spring Preview ended in success and managed to infuse many visitors with school spirit.

REGHITTO