Saturday morning greeted the students bright and early as the wagon left Otis at 6:15 AM. Students were picked up in Bison, La Crosse and Rush Center. Five students made the treck to the Kinsley Invitational Forensics Meet: Cody Kaler and Tanner Loucks; Leah Collins and Amanda Sizemore; and Ben Welsh.
Cody and Tanner performed in the area of Improvised Duet Acting. Their first performance was entitled “The Shanghai Robbery”, the next “The Power of Christ” and last “The Booming Playhouse”. It is always difficult to start right off with a quality performance, no matter the category, but the boys consistently improved throughout the day. During the first round they finished 5th in the room, then 3rd during the second round and finished off at the top with 1st in the room. Even though they consistently improved as the day progressed, they did not break into finals.
Leah and Amanda also performed in the Improvised Duet Acting division. This was their first meet to compete in IDA. Their performances were entitled: “Blind Space”, “We’re Bringing Whitney Back”, and “An Out of This World Dream”. The judges felt they had a lot of untapped potential which is very promising as they become more comfortable in IDA.
Amanda took a Serious Solo involving an alcoholic father, although she did not break finals, her performances improved greatly throughout the day as well. Leah performed her Serious Solo about “Guilt” and how her best friend killed her brother. Leah broke finals for the second meet in a row finishing 5th place overall. Ben Welsh went along to watch performances and gain confidence to perform his Informative Speech on Origami.
The kids made their annual stop at Romano’s Pizza to top off the day of performing. Overall, a great and fun day of bonding.
