Milk Maid
Despite the weather causing havoc with many activities and school being cancelled, the Minneota speech team was still able to host their varsity speech on Saturday.
The halls of the Minneota school were filled with dressed up speech competitors carrying their scripts and other supplies as they prepared for three rounds of good competition.
Because Minneota hosted the event, extra hands were needed to help the meet run smoothly and I was able to step in as a judge for the day. I had such a great time!
Even though it’s still early in the season and there are still speakers using their scripts, I felt the competition was excellent.
My favorite speech I heard all day was in the Serious Drama category.
The speech was about a cat hoarder living with 43 cats and the city she was living in was about to come in and seize her cats.
Because it was the Serious Drama category, the backstory on how the cat hoarder came to be was given.
That young lady’s performance was extraordinary and I would love to see her speak later in the season because she will only get better and better.
I have not heard any of the Minneota students yet, but judging by the enthusiasm the team displayed on Saturday and with the hardware they kept home, I believe they’re in for another terrific year.
There are 12 other categories that speakers can choose from, which is great because everyone has a different skill set.
Creative Expression is where the contestant writes his/her own material. The mood may be serious or humorous or a combination.
The Duo category features two speakers interpreting together one or more scenes from a published selection of any genre of literature.
The content may be serious or humorous. This is usually a popular event. In the Storytelling category, the speakers draw a story from a preselected list and they must recreate it. It’s a fun category to watch.
Extemporaneous Reading is a category that is often overlooked. The speaker will read excerpts, prose and poetry, from two specific sources. They draw a selection before each round. The Humorous category is very popular and is fun to watch. This may consist of any published selection of prose, poetry, or drama that is humorous. It should amuse and create laughter! Serious Poetry is where the speaker recites a poem or collection of poems and is judged on their ability to give meaning to the poem. I tried that category my first two years in speech and it wasn’t for me. The Serious Prose category may consist of any published selection of prose, from a short story or novel and should be serious. Informative was and still is my favorite category. It’s an original, factual speech on a subject of general interest. The purpose should be to inform. The speakers are allowed to use display boards.
Discussion is a neat category to watch. The speakers participate in small group problem solving and are given a topic to discuss.
Extemporaneous Speaking is really fun to watch and is a challenging category. The speech is on timely topics dealing with social, economic, and political issues which they draw their topic before each round. That means their speeches are different every time.
In the Original Oratory category, the speaker delivers an oration of his or her own writing and usually persuasive with facts.
Finally, the Great Speeches category involves speakers delivering a speech, historical or contemporary, given before an audience by a person of prominence.
What makes this category difficult is the speaker must also add their own analysis of the speech. The Minneota Speech Team hosted a great meet and they should be very proud.
It will be a very fun season to keep track of the speakers to see how they all perform in their respective categories.
Good Luck Minneota Speech Team and have a great season!