City High’s All-State level Large Group Speech team is having their auditions tomorrow, Tuesday, November 1st, and Wednesday November 2nd.

“Large Group Speech is awesome,” says head of the program, Ms. Brinkmeyer. “It’s very unlike what people think of when they think of the word speech. They think of standing and giving a speech by yourself. And while that category does exist in individual speech, when we talk about Large Group Speech at City High, we’re more talking about more performance-based activities.

City High is taking about seven or eight different categories to competitions. Some of these are more typical acting pieces, where you learn your lines and perform a short piece. These are categories like ensemble acting and one act plays. Some are more group based, like choral reading and reader’s theatre, where there are large numbers of people, sometimes speaking in unison to tell a story. There are also vastly different categories like musical theatre, group improvisation, and group mime. The school may even be taking a short film to competition this year.

Ms. Brinkmeyer will be directing choral reading, reader’s theatre, mime, radio broadcasting, coaching group improvisation, and overseeing short film. Robyn Calhoun will be returning as the director of ensemble acting and will direct her first one act play. Chris Okiishi will also be returning to direct musical theatre. A new coach from the University of Iowa, Jessica Wade, will also be joining the team to direct an additional ensemble acting piece.

Last year, City High earned two All-State nominations, with groups performing in group improv and musical theatre. The improv groups often get All-State nominations and often get chosen for performances.

The general audition is on Tuesday. You can sign up for a slot online, or show up when you have time in the evening, between four and eight pm. You will be group with two others and be asked to read a side from either the ensemble acting or one act pieces. All sides are available in the language arts office. They also ask that everyone bring one piece to present that shows off what makes them unique. This could be a special talent, a piece of writing, a monologue, or anything else you can think of. The musical theatre and improv auditions are on Wednesday. The coaches will group you together and you will be asked to improv a 3-5 minute scene, and for musical theatre you will be asked to sing one minute of any song, with a backing track or a cappella.

You can sign up for auditions online here  

General and improv auditions are open to anyone.