The Glenbard West Forensics team excelled at the IHSA Speech State Tournament over the weekend of February 17. Senior Olivia Pauer earned 4th in the Original Comedy category and a group of 11 speech team members secured 6th place in Performance in the Round.
The Performance in the Round(PIR) piece was directed by junior Daniya Chishty and performed by junior Mollie Blew, freshman Bred Cane, junior William Lafontaine, sophomore Amana Mariam, junior Blake Noble, freshman Lucille Williams, senior Nathan Williams, junior Audrey Weaver, sophomore Christian VanDeWoestyne, and freshman Suditi Vinay.
After earning second at sectionals, senior Madeline Murin and junior Hailey Weaver qualified for the state series in Humorous Duet acting, but did not place in the final.
Co- Captain Olivia Pauer has participated in Forensics throughout high school and jokes that she “is the funniest girl in Illinois,” since earning 4th in the final round at state for Original Comedy.
She portrayed each character in her interpretation, which chronicled a fictional journey through time to enlighten a sexist history teacher about notable female aviators, aided by Amelia Earhart and her magic jacket.
Ms. Pauer was pleased with her performance and challenged “this idea that women aren’t funny or can’t be funny, which [is] not true.” She says that while humor is very subjective, “comedy in general is very male dominated,” pointing to the fact that male finalists outperformed female competitors.
Despite placing last in the final round, the PIR team impressed with their 15 minute play about a loveable dog (Will Lafontaine), with a tendency toward flatulence, who gets adopted and saves his new family from burglars. This win allowed West Forensics to maintain their record of placing at state in PIR for 15 years straight.
Third year speech team member Daniya Chishty, describes the performance as very heartfelt and that she loved “the way we made people still feel something, […]so many people in the audience were crying when Will had to die.”
The team practiced for hours each day for three weeks with the help of assistant coach Mr. Holloway. Ms. Chishty applauded the work everyone put in and said that “everyone’s an amazing performer.”
Head Coach Grace Rangira is proud of the team’s performance and aims to “get our team’s strength back to where it was pre-pandemic, so we’re really working on recruiting,” next season.
Mrs. Rangira returned to coach the speech team 8 years ago after being a member herself from 2007 to 2011. She points to the supportive community as her favorite aspect, describing it as “unlike anything else I’ve experienced in my life, it’s kind of this magic in a bottle that’s hard to recreate in other places.”
In a not so subtle plug, Ms. Pauer added that “if you’re interested in doing Forensics, email Mrs. Rangira. I promise it’s so much fun, you won’t regret it, you can do other things, despite what they tell you, and it’s just one of the best activities you can do.”
