Stratford will host the region literary meet on Tuesday, March 6. Seven schools and more than 200 students will be participating.

Juniors Noah Fenimore and Caroline Cole will represent Stratford in Boys and Girls Solo. Fenimore will join sophomore Matt Newberry and juniors Austin Slocumb and Ben Jorgensen in the Boys Quartet. Senior Katie Belle Duke, sophomore May Rubinstein and freshman Sarah Pyles are Stratford’s Girls Trio.

Senior Morgan Mathis and sophomore Riley Davis doing the Oral Interpretation Duo. Junior Guinevere Heath is doing the Dramatic Oral Interpretation, Senior Anna Kate Alford is doing the Comedic Oral Interpretation. Junior Kenzie Muenzer is writing the Personal Essay.  Junior Sai Pagadala is writing the Argumentative Essay, Junior Alex Stefanis is writing the Rhetorical Analysis Essay. Senior Ellie Wangerin is doing the Domestic Speech and junior Rushabh Patel is doing the International Speech.

Stratford’s literary team was selected before Christmas and has been busy preparing for the region competition.

The literary team consists of three parts. The three sections are singing, writing, and oral interpretation. Oral interpretation is divided into a speech section and acting section. In the singing section there is a male and female solo, a male quartet, and a female trio. Each one has to deliver two pieces.

For acting, there are two monologues and a dialogue. In acting, there is a dramatic, humorous, and duo section.

“It’s a memorized selection, kind of like acting, like a monologue, but they’re longer. They’re between 5 and 10 minutes long and they’re judged on how well they deliver the material,” Stratford Theatre Director Ms. Sylvia Haynie said.

Mrs. Michelle Fleming, department chair of English, is in charge of the writing section. The students are given their topic at the competition, so they don’t know their topic before. They have an hour to prepare after they are given their topic. Then, they have a short period of time to write their essay.  There are three different kinds of essays. The three different kinds are argumentative, personal, and analysis. There are two categories in the debate section. The two categories are international and domestic.  

Rushab Patel is doing international and Ellie Wangerin is doing domestic. They are given their topic in September, but it is a very broad topic.  They compile all sorts of documents together that would help them with their topic. They get their question at the competition at the competition and they have 30 minutes to prepare.