It's a great topic of discussion. When people see speech choir on your resume, they're going to want to know what is speech choir. It's like taking poetry, prose, all the stuff, putting it together and performing it, but not as one.
There is a blending of the poetry and prose. that makes sense tying in factual information and narrative together. We've done stuff for chapels. We do really funny pieces and we've done serious pieces. You know, we've done some funeral pieces.
I'm looking to go into a profession which requires more public speaking so being able Being able to develop those communication skills even further is something that I was just ready to grab a hold of and take the chance at. You don't have to audition, you don't have to be a particular major to be in speech choir. You come to speech choir on Wednesday nights and you just got to be willing to give it your all and be creative.
Their first gigs were to read scripture in chapel, but now almost any time there's a university event, the speech choir is asked to be a part of it. I had this idea last year at the end of Vespers how neat it would be. to have them present Twas the Night Before Christmas, a reading of that.
I thought immediately, of course, why not? It fits. But it's new, and we will be the only ones who are not musical in the performance this year.
At the very first speech choir meeting of the semester, Dr. Emel gives us a list of, we call them gigs, that we've been asked to do, and we just start researching, looking for material. All of the stuff that's in our programs, we research ourselves. We find online, in books, articles, poetry, drama, prose, really anything that you can find. And then we turn all of those research items into Dr. Emel and one of our other advisors, and through the magic of communication, they put together some sort of script, and it works.
It's supposed to be the night before Christmas, but I just couldn't ask you to do only that. It starts out as a class with Professor Swenson telling us about his research on the night before Christmas. After we get the script, we do a couple of just cold readings, and that's when student input starts. The Big University Skeet Choir presents a lesson.
Now it was the nocturnal segment of the period preceding the annual Yuletide celebration. He had a broad face and a little round belly. That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.
We'll decide if everything works just line up. and if we need to move lines around, if we need to take something out, add something in. Of the wood burning caloric apparatus. Yeah, it's just finding ways to kind of add emphasis here and there to make it absolutely absurd that you're saying those things.
We're always tweaking little things and, you know, trying to perfect our blocking and making sure it looks neat. We figure out how we can move, physically move to the piece. Could it be up there, like the teacher lecturing in front of the class and then everyone...
Tootsie. Everyone else can just turn around. Because there's no way we can just turn around all the time. It's a really interesting environment in that everybody's comfortable making really strong choices and they just feed off of each other. No ticking is going to get old really fast so we're just going to get it through the first few lines.
Should he be mouthing something? Like not actually words but like he's continuing talking. I don't know if you were doing that stuttering thing on purpose but it definitely worked sometimes.
We would be reading through something and someone would go, oh stop. What if we did this? And then everyone loves it and we add it. Or it might be too much and we can't do it. All I'm saying is that's written really rhythmically and I could rap it.
No, no, no, no, no. We do a lot of back and forth, you know. Will this work? No, I think this'll work better. It's all about the group coming together as a whole.
And through this like refining process, it gets more and more towards a polished script. So up to the housetop, the coursers they flew with a sleigh full of toys. And Saint Nicholas too. What do you hear?
Reindeer. Dead. We did a lot today.
Usually it doesn't go this smoothly, but I think we were all really into this script. We all pulled from our childhood. I know I did at least, because my dad reads us the story every year.
People were suggesting that we do some more blocking towards each other, and then each of us now has a character that we do, and we didn't have that before tonight. You're in a new place, far away from everything and everyone familiar. Was it easy to become overwhelmed?
Puppies were an economic dead end, and Scrooge was fond of saying so. Nothing so infuriates me as the incapacity of seeing... We do presentations in class individually, so people can benefit from each other and learn as a class.
When they got out of the van with their sleeping bags, they were the most awful looking bunch of kids you have ever seen. We've been so consumed in this world of the status update that we barely even know what's going on in our own lives. Sleep on it, and whatever tomorrow brings, it brings.
Out of the huts of history's shame I rise, up from the past that's rooted in... pain. I rise.
I rise. I rise. My book is special to me because I have some post-it notes in the front and the back pocket that some friends stuffed in here once to give me some confidence whenever I perform to kind of make me smile.
It's got scripts that I'm currently performing. and I also keep old scripts in there. Scripture card, my good luck charm, because I rock that performance. Right here I have a script that we did for a memorial service for one of my professors.
She passed away last year. I really feel that it's important to who I am in speech choir, and it kind of reminds me of why I do this. We have warm-up exercises, which those are really fun.
During rehearsals and before we actually perform, it helps keep us pretty warmed up, keeps our lips loose, that way we don't have any tongue ties or stumbles. For a beat tattoo and a pointy tattoo, with a rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tattoo, warm-ups we have just all these crazy words that we say to get our consonants out and to really practice our enunciation. That's always a lot of fun because it's always about getting your energy up so you can get out there and do your best for the audience.
Public speaking is historically ranked as the number one fear in America. You're not alone if you feel that, but I rarely see students who Evidence as much fear as Siobhan does. I was valedictorian of the graduating class of 2008. I had to give a speech in front of about a thousand people plus my peers of about 300. And I get up there at the podium and I freeze for about three minutes straight.
Just knowing that I am up there all by myself, it's like, oh no. What if you freeze up? What if you forget your lines?
If I'm doing something with speech choir in a group where I know I'm not the main focus, I'm fine. And you know, I went from down here when I joined speech choir to slowly but surely, you know, after every script, building that self-confidence. I want to be a lawyer, so this fear of public speaking, I'm going to have to get over pretty soon.
And speech choir is helping me to break out of my shell and make me do things that otherwise I wouldn't be able to do. Community is an important part of who we are. As you talk to alums and people that have been here, they get a sense of this is a place where they first learned what it meant to belong.
I wouldn't have finished school at Baker if it wasn't for Speech Choir. I would have transferred. Speech Choir was one of my favorite classes. That group of people was probably the core group that really kept me here. The group is some of the most interesting individuals I have ever met.
We have people who are Greek, who are independent, ranging from super seniors way down to freshmen. From any major imaginable. Speech choir really fostered a sense of brotherhood with people we wouldn't really run into. I mean, I'd see this person on campus, but if it wasn't for speech choir, I would never hang out with them. I probably wouldn't know their name.
At speech choir, we find that medium ground where we can be friends, and that's very cool. With speech choir, you're a team, and they kind of have your back no matter what. If you have anything that you need or if you're having any trouble, you can just really go to anybody in the group, and they'll be there for you. I've just become so close and the culture is so tight-knit and we're all just so honest.
It really gives me a feeling of home. All right, all right class. I expect your full attention.
Even though this is the last class of the semester. Okay, stop. This is going very well, but we've got to have some more movement. Anybody have ideas?
So what if they were in the line, get everything, and everyone was off in their own little thing, and then Warren was like, all right, class, and then they all lined up. All right, all right, all right. Okay, it's got to be A, it's got to be Sandra and not Santa. Sandra. All right, and the two of you are gonna work and get those reins tied to the weather.
Okay. I suppose this weather reindeer, someone said here just on purpose. Happy Christmas to all.
And to all a good night. I like it! You won't forget it before Saturday, right?
...waiting for the sensation of a short, sharp shock......from a cheap and chipper-chopper on a big black block. A short, sharp shock... There was some cause for concern yesterday when one of our members came ill, and we all really had to step it up to bring the energy up....ta-ta-ta-ta, da-da-da-da, ta-ta-ta-da-da, ten-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight, shoulders-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight......walk up the... then or you can go up... The well of advice that Dr. Emil has in her is amazing.
Which I quite frankly think is the better plan because you don't want to start, Rebecca, while people are seated because they won't hear you. There are some professors out there that are feared because they're scary, you know? Yes. And Dr. Emil is feared because we don't want to disappoint her.
Exactly. The Baker University Speech Choir presents... I often worry in rehearsals that they're not going to be up to snuff. And without fail, they come through. The Baker University Speech Choir presents a glimpse into the classroom, too close to December 25th.
All right, all right class, all right, I expect you. Your full attention, it was the nocturnal segment of the period preceding the annual Yuletide celebration. It was the night before Christmas and all through the house.
Not a creature was stirring, not even... I think the most important thing I've learned from speech choir is just to be confident and to go out there and just do public speaking. Not to be afraid of it or to shy away from it, but to embrace it....
experiencing subconscious hallucinations of variegated fruit confections. I'll just put visions of sugar plums dance in their heads. It really helps me to be confident when I'm giving a speech.
So giving speeches in other classes is a snap. We could hear the children moving. We didn't move. We wanted the children to think we were asleep.
Now I can stand up, talk. I mean, I'm still a little awkward and uncomfortable, but I feel more brave now, which is good. Reindeer, I said. I shut the window and walked. about.
We've done so well in the past with everything we've done. I was really confident this was gonna be a big hit. I wasn't worried that it was gonna be anything less than excellent.
They stopped talking but I could hear them moving. They made sounds. It's kind of a trial by fire.
After going through all of those different performances, it really takes a lot to face me. He put on all those toys he had flung in his back, and he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack. The first speech choir script I ever did, I only had one line. Now I am doing scenes and improv-ing and I've grown as a speech choir member.
I speak out more in classes and I do things that Oshimon wouldn't do. Speech Choir has just helped me a lot so I thank it. And one day when I'm a multi-millionaire, I too will give a giant donation so that the speech choir members of that day can do this.
Ecstatic Yuletide to the planetary constituency. Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.