Speech+and+Acting+Team


 * Speech and Acting Team**

A1 is D.E. in round one section A of HDA. This is a sentence several Belleville West students may find confusing unless they know the secret language of the school’s award winning Speech and Acting Team. This team has grown from students put in due to Drama Club and vocal groups to students who felt like going to a weekend tournament and then into students who dedicate their time and hardwork into making speeches or acting out skits. The team usually attends between nine and twelve tournaments per year. The members dedicate an entire Saturday to acting and speaking at any time ranging from 8 am to 5 pm. Speech Team has also proved to be a noted step into the sensational career of a noted Belleville West alumnus. Throughout the years, Individual Events has evolved into Speech and Acting Team through some rough patches, but for the most part, through total victories in multiple tournaments around the area. The Speech and Acting Team, originally called Individual Events, has had an exceptional winning streak since its beginning. The team began on the point of taking strong actors from other clubs and placing them in Individual Events. Some years later, it expanded to any student on campus who felt like participating in an event one weekend. These students could take part in this even without being a legitimate member of the team. The team was large between 1963 and 1981 making the Belleville West Individual Events Team one of the strongest in Illinois. Through the late 80s up until the early 2000s however, the team suffered a large decrease in number thus decreasing the amount of talent to extend to the state level of competion. Now, in the later 2000s, the team yet again excels to a much higher degree than that of some of the strongest years in the 1970s. The team sends a great deal of people to Regionals, Sectionals, and State. In regular season tournaments, the Speech and Acting Team practices several times during the week to hopefully wipe the floor in as many Varsity and Junior Varsity events as possible. The strong advancements of the team helped create the extravagant team that takes over all speech schools in southern Illinois. The Belleville West Individual Events Team was founded in 1960. The expansion off of this, awarded to some of the strongest competitors, was National Forensic League (NFL), which was introduced to West in 1962. Candidates that would excel in both Individual Events and Debate were selected to be NFL. In 1963, Individual Events consisted strongly of members from the Drama Choir. These students would produce vocal scripts and present them at several meetings.
 * Summary**
 * [[image:Speech_and_Acting_Team.jpg caption="The 2009-2010 undefeated Speech and Acting Team poses for a yearbook picture. This team won every EFL Tournament, two Chicago area tournaments, and placed 1st in both IHSA Regionals and Sectionals."]] ||
 * History**
 * History**
 * 1960s**

The Individual Events Team hits an all time high of sixty-five members in just one season. The 1975-1976 season was an extremely powerful for the team. Every month, Hy News would post more and more articles about how much the team excelled in regular season tournaments and swept the floor in Regionals, Sectionals, and State. During this year, the West team also qualified in Reader’s Theater at State. Within a great majority of 1977 and beyond, most of the tournaments were not held in Southern Illinois, but instead Chicago areas. Anyone who had a large interest in being able to increase their public speaking skills were able to participate in Individual Events.
 * 1970s**

The fantastic team hit a phenomenal high in the 1980s. For the first time, Belleville West hit a record in the IHSA tournament in Waterloo. West ranked in the top six out of the 370 schools that were present at the tournament. The team also captured first place at the IHSA district and sectional contests. The team had clear cut victories throughout the 1980s and also had a great percentage of tournaments in not just Illinois but Missouri as well.
 * 1980s**

In the early 1990s, the Individual Events Team contained numerous winning streaks for a very short period of time. In 1991, the team was exceptionally large yet again with a team of 33. The team, however, did not have has many exceptional wins as in past years. In 1991, no student advanced on to the state level of competition. Throughout the rest of the decade, the team had a much larger struggle to remain on top. In 1998, only one member advanced to the sectional level. Speech events during this point of competition included acting, public speaking, poetry reading, and prose reading.
 * 1990s**

The Individual Events Team gets yet another coach in 2001, Mr. Jenkins, who officially made the team the Speech and Acting Team. Though the years started out rough because of the small size of the team, the team had a strong evolution with the hard work and dedication Mr. Jenkins’s put into helping the team evolve. The team went through southern tournament after southern tournament taking down some of the strongest teams in Harrisburg and Carbondale. Every year, students have excelled in every single event whether it be public speaking like Special Occasion Speaking or acting like Dramatic Duet Acting. This decade had numerous State entries that advanced far into the season. The events Group Interpretation and Performance in the Round were also introduced. The 2009-2010 speech year was the most powerful year under Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Reidelberger. The team went undefeated in Egyptian Forensics League (EFL) tournaments, two Chicago tournaments, and both IHSA Regionals and Sectionals.
 * 2000s**

Mr. Stokes Instructor of the Drama Choir. (1963-1967) Miss Kelly (1968-1971) Mrs. Battey (1971-1976) Mrs. Parris (1977-1988) Mr. Kirksey (1981-1983) Dr. Hunsaker (1984-1987) Took over Speech for a little while coaching both that and Debate and was also a theater director Miss Totsch (1985-1987) The assistant team instructor Mr. Sanders (1988-1994) Mr. Lodle (1995-1998) Mr. Jenkins (2001-Present)
 * Exceptional Members and Coaches**

Several members of the Individual Events Team/Speech and Acting Team have excelled since practically the beginning of Belleville's West involvement in these events. A large amount of competitors from West advanced on to either Regionals, Sectionals, or State depending on their skills during the tournaments they competed at. In 1968, competitor Leah Johnson qualified for the Tournament of Champions. In 1977, eight students went on to the Sectional level and both Meyer Gross and Mark Vitale advanced to the State Tournament. Some of the largest honors competitors could receive during tournaments included the sweepstakes trophy from the Great St. Louis Speech Association by winning the Illinois High School Assocication district and sectional competitions. The early 1980s was an exceptional time for Individual Event members. Six of the competitors advanced to the State level. In 1988, student Erin Moore was the only student to advance on to Sectionals by placing second in Prose Reading at Regionals. Although several speech competitiors advanced to the state level, 2001 was first Belleville West winner at State. IHSA State crowned Derrick Cooper 1st place in State Dramatic Interpretation. In 2009, Jessica Petrie won 1st Place in both State and National Tournament Extemporaneous Speaking. In the 2009-2010 Speech season, every Regional entry advanced to Sectionals after taking either first or second in their event. At the Sectional Tournament, almost every member advanced on to the State level and from there, competitors Emily Woods and Eli Bernstein made it to finals in their events. Emily competed in Dramatic Interpretation and Eli competed in both Impromptu and Extemp and earned third place in Impromptu.




 * Belleville West Speech Team Alumnus**

The most notable Belleville West alum who was an avid member of the Speech and Acting Team was 2003 graduate Stewart Calhoun. He was only on the Speech Team for his senior year at West, but he left a deep impression in what is now one of the strongest speech teams in Southern Illinois. Calhoun was one of the first members under Mr. Jenkin’s team to reach the State level in both Humorous Duet Acting and Humorous Interpretation. Ever since he graduated, Calhoun took his acting credentials to DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, where he had a large amount of theater practice to prepare him for the acting world. Calhoun has been making it as a big time hit and Los Angeles, California. He is currently working on a thriller movie called tHE EVE about a group of spring break students whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. In 2010, Calhoun has been appearing in several broadway shows including Ben and the Magic Paintbrush, Above the Line, and other performances noted at the South Coast Repertory.
 * [[image:Speech_Team.jpg caption="The Drama Team reenacts their vocal scene during practice. During the first years that West had the Individual Events Team, the Drama Club would write and perform vocal performances for meetings."]]

Page by Kirstin Palovick ||