On Wednesday, March 24 the Iowa High School Speech Association announced the nominations for All-State recognition. For all-state recognition, a performance must receive nominations from two of the three judges.
Two seniors at Mid-Prairie High School earned nominations in two events:
Kyra Helmuth in Solo Musical Theatre, and Solo Acting. Helmuth wrote the acting piece that she performed and was nominated for.
Elizabeth Meader was nominated in Storytelling and Interpretive Reading, Prose.
Senior Emily Marner was nominated in the category of Solo Musical Theatre.
Freshman Avery Slaubaugh was nominated in the category of Interpretive Reading, Prose.
In a normal year, there would be an IHSSA All-State Festival at UNI in Cedar Falls, but due to Covid-19, there are no All-State Festivals this year.
With the IHSSA Individual Events All-State Nominations, the 2021 speech season concludes. It has been a record breaking year.
This year Mid-Prairie's Speech Team achieved a new school record for the most All-State nominations in the overall speech season, which includes group and individual events with a total of eight - previous record was 6, and overall this year, Mid-Prairie Speech has 8 All-State nominations. In addition, the record for the most All-State nominations in an Individual Events season at Mid-Prairie stood at the previous record of 4, and this year the team has earned 6 nominations for Individual Events All-State Speech.
Senior Kyra Helmuth has made it to All-State 9 times in her high school career, breaking and surpassing the former record of 6 nominations. She has made it for every individual event she has ever competed in, which was 6, and she has made it for 3 group events. Helmuth has written 4 of the events she made that she earned nominations for.
Speech Coaches at Mid-Prairie High School are Christine Meader and Lisa Helmuth, with volunteer assistance from Meredith Caskey and Natalie Silbaugh.
Photo from L: Emily Marner (Solo Musical Theatre) Elizabeth Meader (Storytelling and Interpretive Reading Prose) Kyra Helmuth (Solo Musical Theatre and Solo Acting) and Avery Slaubaugh (Interpretive Reading Prose) on the screen.