The halls of Cedar Rapids Washington High School were transformed into a bustling suburbia for members of speech teams from across Iowa this Saturday at the state competition. City High’s sixteen-person team performed seven different events across the day, including musical theatre, group improv, and ensemble acting.

“I think that the state competition was a very good experience,” Sophia Wagner ’22 said. “Since it was my first time going, it was really interesting to see how different schools took different approaches to each area of speech. Looking at other people’s improv or ensemble acting groups versus ours, you can see how different people handle different situations.”

Wagner was one of six members of the ensemble acting group that performed the short play “The One.” Between performances, students attended other groups’ events with their coaches and took notes on what acting strategies were more successful than others.

The state competition is the last time speech events are guaranteed to perform unless nominated for All-State, and even then, not all groups nominated for All-State will perform at the final showcase.

“Going into the competition I felt pretty confident,” Wagner said. “I didn’t think we were the best, but we had worked really hard on it and put so much time into our scene. At some point when you’ve put all your takes on the piece you just have to let it go. I think we really put everything that we could into the scene so I felt confident in what we were able to get out of the competition. Even if we don’t move onto All-State, we worked really hard on it, and that’s what matters.”