“Grateful - feeling or showing an appreciation or kindness; thankful.” Yes, Grateful, that is the one word that can describe the Wagner Raider Oral Interp students this 2020 Oral Interp Season. We, as a team, are grateful in so many ways.

First of all, we are grateful that we have been able to have an Oral Interp Season. At the start of the season, it was uncertain if we would be able to have this season at all. But, thankfully, Oral Interp is one of those activities that had the approval to do our activities virtually. We were able to record our pieces and get them to the judges for competition.

Secondly, we are grateful for the gift of technology in order to record and upload our performances. The students have worked hard not only in practice, but also in their recordings. With the gift of a video camera, the single pieces (Non-O, Poetry, Humor, Serious, and Storytelling) are able to perform in front of that camera (or even their own computers while in quarantine) and then get those videos downloaded to a private site where the judges are able to virtually watch their performances. Technology plays a big role in the duet portion of our performances as well. The state wanted to make it fair to all schools participating, so they created the rule that no one’s duet was allowed to be recorded in the same room. This means that we had to use Zoom with each student in a different location to create the duet performances. This was oftentimes challenging but, the challenge was met by each of our duet groups and done very well.

Thirdly, we are grateful for each and every one of these student’s God-given talents to perform and speak so amazingly throughout this season. We all have our certain gifts but, to have your gift be in public speaking is rare. These kids are using and portraying their gifts and talents for all to see and we are proud of that.

That said, it is with great excitement that we talk about the Lewis and Clark Yankton Oral Interp Festival 2020. The Wagner Oral Interp team went into this meet with great determination and poise! They were ready for this meet. The recordings reflected the ample amount of work that these kids had put into this season. This was their last regular season meet and they were more than ready for this one.

This was very apparent with the amazing results that came from Wagner’s Team. The results are as follows:

Our duet of Vincent Bechen and Caleb Zephier really kept the judges laughing. They Performed “Just Cloning Around.” The situation is tense as the main character makes a clone of himself and comes to find out that it was more than he could handle. These boys brought home 3rd place with their funny performance.

Our humorous piece of “Jogging with my Wife,” performed by Jackson Rolston was one that left the judges wondering if they have ever had such a funny jogging experience in their lives. He gave a stunning performance placing Second.

Also, in the humor category, was Caleb Zepheir. He has a hilarious account of how far a person will go to prove to someone how much they like them. He performed “Accumulating Cats,” and placed Third.

Performing in the Non-O category, Michelle Soukup portrays a wonderful rendition of Robert Kennedy’ speech “The Mindless Menace of Violence in America.” This is a speech based on accepting and being apart of this great world through accepting others for who they are; our brothers and sisters. Her amazingperformance earned her First Place.

In Storytelling, Mackenzie Roberts gave an amazingperformance with her rendition of “Rapunzel.” This version of “Rapunzel” shows the audience a different perspective of the villain and leaves the judges wondering if the villain really was the bad person in this story. Mackenzie received First Place.

In Poetry, Jennifer Barnett performed beautifully as she gave her “Collection of Poems based on Love.” This set of poems takes us from the beginnings of not understanding what love is, all the way to the end of self-realization and fulfillment when we really do understand what love truly should look like.

Taking home first in the Serious Category was Kallen Kafka. His amazingly touching performance of “Hit and Run” touches on the atrocities of drunk driving and what it leaves behind when a loved one is lost to such a tragedy.

Wagner Oral Interp has been a challenge this year. But, it has been a challenge that we, as The Wagner Oral Interp Team, have gratefully taken on! Without gratitude, we may have looked at this 2020 Oral Interp Season a bit differently. So, I challenge all of you, embrace gratitude in your lives and instead of looking at your struggles as challenges or burdents, look at them with new eyes; view them in gratitude for all that you have. Our Oral Interp Students have risen to this challenge, can you?