Alexandria High School - Alexian Yearbook (Alexandria, MN)

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y Declamatory Helen Marie Backlin, Miss Lee, Glenn Reuter, Peter Unumb. This year three Juniors represented Alexandria in the sub- district and district declamatory contests, two of them going on to the regional contest and then to the state contest. It is noteworthy that these same three declaimers placed high last year also in declamatory work. In the sub-district contest Helen Marie Backlin placed first in the dramatic division with the selection A Toast We Can Drink, and Glenn Reuter in the oratorical division with the oration, The Supreme Menacef, while Peter Unumb won in the humorous division with the selection David Garrick . Helen Marie Backlin and Glenn Reuter won first places in the district contest also, and received plaques for winning the regional contest. Never before has Alexandria had two contestants in a state declamatory contest. Helen Marie Backlin and Glenn Reuter, accom- panied by Miss Lee went to Minneapolis to compete in the state contest. Twenty-fom'

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Debate FIRST ROW-John Unumb, Kathryn Westerfeld, Gladys Coykendahl, SECOND ROW-Mr. Logan, Lyman Peterson. In the interclass debate tournament this year, the Senior teams were again victorious. Merlin Roth, Ralph Thornton, Kathryn Wes- terfeld, and Lyman Peterson comprised the Senior teams. John Unumb, Gladys Coykendall, Kathryn Westerfeld, and Lyman Peterson were chosen to represent the school in debate. The squad was fortunate in having the opportunity of attend- ing a large debate clinic at Moorhead early in the season and later in attending another tournament at Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis. Alexandria automatically Won the District debate crown when other schools in this district did not produce competition. In regional competition, Moorhead S. T. C. High School edged Alexandria out in a close decision. Much credit for debate work n1uSt go to K. Otto Logan, de- bate coach, Who has Worked hard to further debate Work in our school. Twenty-three

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s CX B gas. ,ri i X -vs:-i 'Six wt X f Dramatics w Xixx 'A DRAMATIC CLUB G, A The Dramatic Club is an organization for the purpose of giv- ing inexperienced students a chance at directing, acting, make-up, cos- tume and stage Work. The Club is to present a series of one-act plays during the year. The proceeds of the productions are to be used to obtain a mem- bership in the Thespian Society and also for make-up materials and costumes. Due to the fact of late organization, the club produced only two one-act plays which were called Romancers , directed by Edward Fiala, and Will O' the Wisp,', directed by Marcelyn Stoppel-both which proved very successful. In the future years, we hope the Dramatic Club continues to grow and become more successful! EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING Extemporaneous speaking, after having lain idle for a year, was again revived in Alexandria this spring. Since the district in which Alexandria is classed did not have a meet, the Staples district invited us to send two participants to enter their meet. Gerald Johnson and Ken- neth Melin were chosen as representatives of Alexandria. ' The general topic chosen for discussion was Labor. During the weeks prior to the meet the participants, under the guidance of K. Otto Logan, collected and studied information on all phases of the topic. An hour before they were scheduled to give their talks they drew two topics from a list of approximately eighty, and on one they prepared a talk. Miss Ethel Tainter of the Moorhead Teachers College, who is an authority in this line was selected as critic. This meet was non-com- petitive and after the talks were over she gave criticisms on each speaker and his speech. The constructive criticisms were of great value to the participants. Miss Tainter expressed her opinion that this non-com- petitive extemporaneous form of speaking is on its way up and in the future shall supplant the present forms. Twenty-tive