Milbank Speakers Heading to State Festival

       Back row,Rebekah Tuchscherer, Korinne Roggenbuck, Brianna Schreurs and Nathan Loutch                                                      Front row, Taylor Balling, Devon Balling and Allison Grear.

The MHS oral interpretation team won first place at the Region IVA in Aberdeen.They qualified in all seven events and will now travel to Sturgis to participate in the State Festival December 4-5.

The locals earned the top places at the region meet battling against students from eight different schools including Aberdeen Roncalli, Britton-Hecla, Groton Area, McLaughlin, Mobridge-Pollock, Redfield, Tiospa Zina, and Webster Area. The top three or four in each event advance to the state festival, with the number of qualifiers dependent on the number of entries at the region competition.

Rebekah Tuchscherer earned a spot at the state festival in both the non-original oratory and serious reading categories. The non-original oratory event consists of interpreting a selection from a single source and includes selections such as orations, addresses, lectures, and essays and can be serious, humorous, or a mixture of both sentiments. The serious reading event is where a student interprets a selection from a single source of dramatic literature or prose with literary merit and appropriate to the reader. The selection must have been copyrighted, published in print, and available to the public.

Brianna Schreurs will compete at the state festival in the humorous reading event. Humorous prose includes stories, plays, and essays written in prose, together with all plays written in verse. The selection must be from a single source and be copyrighted, published in print, and available to the public.

Devon Balling advances to the state event in storytelling. The purpose of the event is to give students the opportunity to develop the art of creating a mood where a spoken narrative transports the audience to the time and place of the story being recounted. The storyteller is a narrator, not an actor or actress.

Taylor Balling earned a spot at the state festival in the poetry division. The student’s poetry may be one long selection, a cutting from a longer selection, or a series of short selections which is chosen by the contestant.

Allison Grear and Korinne Roggenbuck teamed up and will compete in the duet interpretation at the state event. The purpose of duet is to give students the opportunity to develop their characterization. Cuttings from plays, verse plays or other works may be presented and can be humorous or serious in nature.

Taylor Balling, Allison Grear, Korinne Roggenbuck and Nathan Loutsch make up the reader’s theatre team that will advance to the state festival. The teams group together with three to six students interpretively presenting literature. Readers theatre encourages students to create a scripted ensemble performance that focuses on the use of interpretive skills to present prose, poetry and/or drama without the aid of costumes, make-up, set, or props.

The State Oral Interpretation Festival will take place in Sturgis December 4-5 and will be broadcast by South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Milbank will compete against students from five regions and 55 schools that make up Class A.