Kee Large Group Speech Reader’s Theatre achieves All-State selection ...

The Kee High School Speech and Drama Department had one Large Group Speech performance achieve All-State honors following its State Contest held in Postville February 6. The Reader’s Theatre performance entitled “Power Play” was chosen for the honor. Students performing that All-State selection are pictured above and include, left to right, Owen Henkes, Michael Mattson, Daniel Wagner, Jada Mitchell, Alexis Johnson and Macy Manning. The piece they performed was a dramatic selection about stereotyping students in school and how judging others can destroy relationships and each other. The story has a lesson about self worth and who has the power to make a difference.

Even though there were several types of State Contest events held this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, those contests each still had to have three qualified judges who rated the performances that day. Those judges then went online to make their All-State nominations.

Those nominations by contest judges were sent to the State Iowa HIgh School Speech Association (IHSSA) headquarters and the final nominations were listed on the IHSSA website February 17. Unfortunately, there won’t be an All-State Festival this year due to the pandemic, so the team will not be making the trip to Iowa State University in Ames to perform. Kee High School Speech coach Tammy Manning did say that there will be some sort of celebration locally to recognize the team’s achievements.

“It’s somewhat bittersweet for my seniors who have finally reached that goal for the first time, and then not be able to take the weekend trip to perform with the best from the state,” Coach Manning shared. “Yet, we started this season with a simple goal to persevere through whatever came our way and to be grateful for the opportunity to have the time together to compete. We knew each day could be our last practice or time together to be part of the large group season, so just staying connected and having as much fun as possible was very rewarding.  We are very excited and thankful to receive the honor. I’m so proud of all the teams and especially the seniors for being strong leaders through all of this.” Submitted photo.