Language festival times two

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Our Lady of Perpetual Help’s Jazmin Diaz and Maddy Ebel were tops in the Serious Duo category with their performance of “I Have Lived a Thousand Years.”

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Fruitvale Jr. High's Lauren Kukula and Heather Hansen were all smiles after their Humorous Duo win at the Kern County Oral Language Festival.

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St. John’s Lutheran School’s winning Verse Choir team included (from back left) Noah Holle, Chandler Hilken, Lexy Girado, Fayth Sandman, (from front left) Kameron Theodore, Hope Johnsen, Jayne Morris and Brandon Vincent.

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Serious Duo finalists were (from left) Erica Greene, Adriana Thomson, Jazmin Diaz, Maddy Ebel, Paige Kobdish and Jenna Ricks.

Two weeks after students in grades 4-6 made their mark at the Kern County Oral Language Festival, their peers in grades 7-8 provided just as much entertainment in round two held Feb. 26 at University Square in Bakersfield.

Performances were both humorous and serious, covering everything from life in a World War II concentration camp to the antics of “The Witch’s Broom.” What started out as an estimated pool of more than 50,000 Kern County students was pared down in school and district competitions to approximately 140, 7-8-graders from 30 schools and 17 regions and about 190, 4-6-graders, who competed in the county festival’s two nights.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help students Jazmin Diaz and Maddy Ebel performed “I Have Lived a Thousand Years,” a story about the plight of Jewish prisoners in a World War II concentration camp during and after the war. It was the judge’s choice as best in category, and the two say it was not an easy victory for them.

“We originally practiced to perform a piece based on 9-11, but two weeks before the event, we learned we couldn’t use it,” said Diaz. “So, we had to learn and memorize this in a very short period of time.”

“But, it contained lots of emotion, a good message, and it required us to put so much energy into it that we were ready,” Ebel added.

Still other students chose the humorous route to display their interpretive skills. Fruitvale Jr. High students Heather Hansen and Lauren Kukula rode “The Witch’s Broom” to victory, drawing several audible laughs from the audience along the way.

“When our names were announced, I screamed, I was like, oh my, goodness,” Kukula said, having a tough time realizing they had won.

“There were lots of character voices, and we both like getting in front of a crowd and acting, so we felt like the piece we chose was the right one for us,” Hansen said.

Students were judged on content, delivery, total impression and adherence to rules as they used their drama and speech skills to interpret humorous or serious literary works in solo, duo or group presentations. The literature had to be a published work available to all students.

Other winners included an eight-person, group effort for the Verse Choir team from St. John’s Lutheran who successfully interpreted a piece called, “Meanwhile.” In the solo categories, St. Francis School’s Katherine Soper was a “Humorous” winner with “A Star is Hatched,” and Warren Jr. High’s Prutha Metha, gave a convincing performance of “Out of the Dust” to earn the “Serious” title.

One of the more surprising moments of the night came when Ollivier Middle School’s Esperanza Gutierrez gave an impromptu thanks to the crowd and her competitors. “Everybody did a really good job, and I’m really glad all of you were here to support us because we worked really hard to get here,” Gutierrez said.

Awards were presented to the top three finishers in each category. The finalists were:

Humorous Duo
First Place — Heather Hansen and Lauren Kukula, Fruitvale Jr. High
Second Place — Antoinette Dulcich and Kathryn Johnston, Norris Middle
Third Place — Aurie Gonsman and Kaylee Rundle, Tevis Jr. High

Humorous Solo
First Place — Katherine Soper, St. Francis School
Second Place — Mike Somers, Actis Jr. High
Third Place — Irfan Habib, Warren Jr. High

Serious Duo
First Place — Jazmin Diaz and Maddy Ebel, Our Lady of Perpetual Help School
Second Place — Erica Greene and Adriana Thomson, Warren Jr. High
Third Place — Paige Kobdish and Jenna Ricks, Chipman Jr. High

Serious Solo
First Place — Prutha Metha, Warren Jr. High
Second Place — Katelyn Shipp, Norris Middle
Third Place — Teresa Nowatski, St. Francis Parish School

Verse Choir
First Place — St. John’s Lutheran School: Chandler Hilken, Noah Holle, Hope Johnsen, Jayne Morris, Fayth Sandman, Kameron Theodore, Brandon Vincent and Lexy Girado
Second Place — Fruitvale Jr. High: Cassandra Boyer, Corbin Burnes, Chloe Carlson, Taylor Harmel, Jessica Laurente, Jared Parks, Thomas Patterson and Kyle Wiggins
Third Place — Actis Jr. High: Nora Mansour, Mary Kate Paquetts and Bailey Williams

Kern County Oral Language Festival is presented by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office.

 

 

 

 

 


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