Hundreds of students from across the district crowded Lone Tree High School’s gymnasium this Saturday awaiting their turns to perform their competitive speech events for the judges. City High’s team walked away with one hundred percent of its students awarded to proceed to the state-level competition.

This year’s Large-Group Speech team faced rehearsal delays against the schedule of the winter play, but the three ensemble acting groups, three improvisation groups, and single musical theater group met up outside of scheduled times to improve their performances.

“I’m not as stressed out [as last year], because I thought everything had to be perfect,” Phong Nguyen ’20 said. “You get to hang out with people who want to be there and sing and act. It doesn’t have the same amount of pressure as our high school musicals do.”

Last year, Nguyen played Whizzer in his musical theater group’s performance of “Falsettos”. This year, he is playing Linus in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and Mark in the ensemble acting play “The One.”

The state-level speech competition is Saturday, February 8, at CR Washington High School. Before this event, the Large-Group Speech team will host a Home Show showcasing every event this Friday, January 31, at 7:30 in Opstad Auditorium.