Student News Desk | Dynamic Duo boosts Lincoln East Speech Team

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Written by:  Izzy Apel, East High 

Spartan Speech has been on the rise lately, winning nine meets thus far in their 2022-2023 season. With over 80 individuals covering eleven events, their recipe for a successful season has been working. The Spartans are strong contenders for the 2023 State title and certainly have it in their sights. Every member on the team has a key role in helping East claim the championship.

Duo interpretations have become a popular event within Lincoln East’s speech team: they went from having two duos last year to five this year. One of this year’s duos to watch is the sophomore pair who placed 3rd at state last year, Max Apel and Jack Welstad.

“Duo is an event with two people acting out a play,” Welstad said. “The time limit is 10 minutes and you can’t look at or touch your partner, so you have to use creative blocking, [and] line delivery to make it interesting.”

Both Welstad and Apel got involved in speech through different means. Since Welstad knew he wanted to be in speech, he signed up for the Oral Comm Forensics class. Shortly after, Coach Herink reached out with details regarding the speech meeting. Jack then started his entertainment speech.

On the other hand, Apel started accidentally.

“I saw a Tik Tok that one of my friends posted about it and it looked funny,” Apel said. “They were all wearing suits and hanging out at 6 a.m., and I was like, maybe I’ll give it a shot.”

After a few false starts, Apel was paired up with Welsted. “Finally, at semester, they asked me if I wanted to be in a duo with Jack Welstad, ” Max said. Both agreed and they were given the script Crayon Map. The two have not looked back since.

In the beginning, the duo lacked chemistry. This made sense, as they had not gotten to know one another. They simply exchanged numbers and began memorizing alone.

“The clicking moment was the day before the work day and we were both not memorized at all,” Jack said. Comically, the workday was four days before their first tournament together.

“The more we worked together, the more we got to know each other,” Jack said. “Our chemistry became better and now it is kind of the thing we’re good at.”

Once their duo came together, it left those who watched it in tears. Oliver Leslie and Christopher Marianette’s script Crayon Map told a beautiful story of an older and younger brother who embarked on an emotional journey in the younger one’s imagination. Jack played the older brother, Max played the younger.

“Speech is a place where everyone loves acting and performing as much as I do,” Jack said. “Anyone can be good at speech if you put in the effort and work hard, and I love that. It’s full of supportive and kind people that you end up getting to spend a lot of time with.”

This year, Jack and Max have a different duo script: Swallowed by Brielle Dimirjian. It is a unique take on the biblical story, Jonah and the whale.

“The cool thing about our duo is [that] it’s a mixture of humorous and dramatic,” Max said. “So it’s kind of fun that we can both play on our strengths because we do serious [and] humor very well.”

There is an extensive process to get any speech up and running. This year, Max and Jack each have two individual events alongside their duo, meaning on a given tournament day they will perform around 120 minutes each.

“We don’t always memorize together,” Max said. “Usually it’s apart, and once we’re memorized, then we begin blocking our idea of the speech and the delivery of the lines.”

With help from the coaches, Jack and Max were able to have this year’s duo up after two weeks of practice.

“He’s the calm and confident one,” Max said regarding Jack. “You can always count on him being crisp: whether it’s characters, climactic moments, really anything.”

Each of their individual strengths allow the script to come alive.

“One of Max’s biggest strengths is that he is a big actor,” Jack said. “He’s always conveying emotions and really plays into his characters.”

Jack expressed one of his favorite memories being the time where he and Max were polishing their speech for NIETAC (National Individual Event Tournament Of Champions).

“We just got to hang out and work on our duo,” Jack said. “I got Jimmy Johns and it was awesome.”

Max has enjoyed all of the mini-tournaments thus far and also the 2022 State competition.

“During the season is always a good time,” Max said. “Because you get to meet people and hang out with the people on your own team. It’s fun stuff.”

Jack and Max operate like brothers, constantly bouncing jokes or ideas off one another. Both look forward to the future of their duo and the speech team as they enter championship season.

Check out this story and more at East High’s online publication: https://lehsoracle.com/

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