Seniors perform speech with ‘10 percent more action’ for final season

RANDOLPH – Justin Guenther and Chloe Meyer transformed into Jim Pickles and Babs Buttlebee as the Randolph High School speech team made its debut appearance over the weekend.

Guenther and Meyer, along with seniors Jacey Bartels and Matthew Schultz, performed “Action News: Now with 10% More Action!” making their debut in the Oral Interpretation of Drama (OID) category for the 2024 speech season.

The speech is a “wildly inaccurate and absurd” newscast in which the students take on multiple roles, Guenther said.

Other side characters include Carl Muffintop, Olivia Blackplaque, Gretchen Fieldgreens, Gertrude Hubs, Jeremiah Crockpot, Chauncey Peephole and Tim Doppleflop, just to name a few.

“My favorite part of our speech is its stupid humor and our funny voices,” Guenther said. “I like that we can all goof around to keep the speech light-hearted and funny.”

Meyer said it’s challenging to stay in character and not to laugh during the speech.

Bartels said her challenge comes from playing so many different characters.

It helps the foursome are all friends.

“I like how transparent we can be with each other and this allows us to fully get into character without fear of judgment,” Bartels said.

Another group – made up of freshmen Alaina Schulz, Sydney Robinson and Jenna Guenther – are also competing in the OID category, while freshmen Maddy Aulner and Riley Wachter are competing in Poetry.

As seniors, this is the first and last year Meyer and Guenther will participate in speech.

“Throughout all of high school, I had wanted to try it out, but was too nervous to do any sort of public speaking,” Meyer said.

“But this year, I had a large role in our oneact performance and had a lot of fun doing it so that gave me the confidence to finally try it out. I also decided that since it was my last year, I might as well give it a shot as it’s just for fun.”

Guenther said he’s tried many new activities for his senior year, speech being one of them.

“I’ve tried new things that have gotten me out of my comfort zone, such as one-act, bowling and choir during my junior and senior years, and I haven’t regretted one yet,” he said.

He said another fun part of trying new activities is meeting potential friends from other schools.

“It’s harder to do that during sports, especially team sports when the other school is seen as your opponent,” he said.

Speech students competed at the Laurel- Concord-Coleridge speech meet Saturday, Feb. 24. Next, they travel to Creighton Saturday, March 2.

Lewis and Clark Conference action will take place Monday, March 4, at Osmond and districts are set for Tuesday, March 12, at Wausa.

The season concludes with state speech Friday, March 22, in Kearney.