(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic High School Speech & Debate has had a very busy and very successful Large Group season. High School/Middle School Spanish Instructor
Co-Head Speech/Debate Coach Trisha Niceswanger reports January 20th was the District Large Group contest held at ACGC High School. Atlantic took 6 entries varying from Ensemble Acting, Group Improvisation, Radio Broadcasting, Choral Reading and Readers Theatre. At the District level, students perform in front of a judge and receive a rating. A Division I rating is the highest, followed by Division II, III or IV. Pieces that earn a I rating will advance onto the State contest. Atlantic had two pieces move on: Ensemble Acting “Mugged”, and the Choral Reading “Nobody is Safe”.

At the State contest held at Ankeny Centennial High School on February 3rd, students performed for a panel of three judges to again receive the Division I or II ratings. The Acting group of “Mugged” performed mid-day and received straight I’s from all three judges. The Choral Reading group unfortunately was not able to go on as all individuals were abruptly evacuated from the High School. A non-credible threat had been discovered at the contest. For more information on that story and how it impacted the rest of the contest day, follow this link to the AHS Needle article written by J Molina, one of the students performing that day. https://ahsneedle.com/39379/fine-arts/atlantic-speech-team-evacuated-from-competition-after-bomb-threat/

Ensemble Acting group: Coach Troy Roach, J Molina, Nick Bennett, and Josie Handlos.

Choral Reading group: Margaret McCurdy, Megan Birge, Nissa Molgaard, Alix Nath, and Josie Handlos. (Photos courtesy Trisha Niceswanger)

Through all of the extra excitement, the Choral Reading earned straight I’s as well. The evening of Feb 6 led to the nervous refreshing of the IHSSA homepage looking for the announcement of All-State nominations. At least two of the three State judges must nominate a group to reach All-State, the collection of the best pieces in the state of Iowa. When the list dropped, the Choral Reading group was thrilled to see they had received Performing All-State honors. An extra bonus for this performance is that it is a piece written by coach Troy Roach, leading to a much more personal connection to the material. The Choral Reading students will perform their piece one more time on Saturday Feb 17 at the ISU Campus.