Four area schools are sending members of their speech teams to Cedar Rapids Washington High School Saturday to compete in the State Large Group Speech Contest. The groups performing each received a I rating at the district competition to advance to state. Washington High School has eight teams headed to state, including ensemble acting, one act play, short film, two music theater groups, and three group improvisation teams. Mid-Prairie will be sending seven teams, including three group improvisation teams, three ensemble acting groups, and a one act play. Highland will be sending a group improvisation team. Keota will be represented by eight teams, including ninth grade choral reading, varsity choral reading, reader’s theater, two ensemble acting groups, and three group improvisation teams.

All total, there will be 24 performances by area speech students at the state competition. Mid-Prairie Speech Coach Dave Helmuth is excited for the students to perform at a larger event. He said, “It’s a lot bigger competition, so it’s going to be a lot higher stakes with All-State as an option. So basically, we just want to bring a little extra something to each of our pieces so that we can hopefully move forward.” In order to qualify for All-State, groups must receive two I ratings from their three judges, as well as two All-State recommendations. All-State will be held on February 25th at Iowa State University.