The GHS Oral Interpretation Team traveled to the 116th annual Oral Interpretation Festival this past weekend in Watertown. The team had five pieces qualify for the festival, and all five received superior rankings. Because oral interpretation is very subjective, the judges do not place the contestants from first to last, thus making it a festival and not a tournament. The goal is to receive a superior ranking.
The festival, which included AA, A, and B schools, kicked off Friday morning with readers theatre for the B schools. This year’s team included all seniors: Piper Bartlett, Bo Brozik, Madisan Graber, Ella Sperl, Ryler Stevicks, and Dani Timanus. The piece they performed was “Channel Changers.” To receive a superior at state, two of the three judges must give you a ranking of a superior, which is a score of a 5 to 7. A perfect score is a five. The group received a 6, 7, and 8.
That evening Madisan Graber competed with the piece “The Little Match Girl’ in storytelling. With the scores 5, 5, and 6, she secured another superior for the team. She was one point away from receiving a superior with distinction, which is a perfect score from all judges.
On Saturday morning, Dani Timanus competed with “The Andrew Poems” in the poetry round. She received a superior with the scores 6, 7, and 8. That afternoon sophomore Charissa Ring competed in non-original oratory with “The Voices in My Head” and won a superior with the scores, 6, 7, and 9. Also, sophomore George Timanus competed in the serious readings category that afternoon with the piece “Forgive Me Leonard Peacock.” He received a superior with the scores 5, 6, and 7.
The team won a plaque for a team excellence award; a B school must have at least two superiors to win this award. “Five is the most superiors I can ever remember winning at the state festival,” commented Coach Ronda Graber, “and I have been coaching since 2001. It was a fantastic season with a great group of students and an excellent assistant coach, Natalee Graesser. It is certainly a year I will never forget!”