More Than a School, It's a Community.
Happy Catholic Schools Week!
We are blessed to be able to share our faith together in our school. Second semester is in full swing, and the electives are working to build ensemble. In the spring semester, the sixth graders have moved over to Multimedia with Mrs. Fosco, and I have the opportunity to teach the fifth graders Speech and Drama. They are learning about actor tools (voice, body, and imagination) and how to apply these tools to their Wax Museum presentations.
Please join us for the 7th and 8th grade Drama Club production of Sideways Stories from Wayside School…
Performances are Friday, January 30th and Saturday, January 31st at 7:00pm in the school gym. There are two casts/crews, so each night is a different performance- join us for both!
The performance should last about one hour and is free and open to the public.
We are finishing up the semester with large speech projects in all classes!
6th Grade: Sixth graders are finishing their semester by writing an “I Believe” speech, based on the This I Believe Project that was aired on NPR for many years. Students wrote lists of beliefs. Then they chose one that they wanted to develop. They wrote a three-point thesis to guide their speech. They crafted an introduction, three developed body paragraphs (or “body burgers”, as I call them- lots of “juicy” details and all the fixings) and a conclusion to tie it all together. Students will deliver their speeches in our final days of class. They have AWESOME beliefs! It is beautiful to hear them spoken in class.
7th Grade and 8th Grade Electives: Seventh and eighth graders are finishing their semester by choosing a speech event and piece to polish. They could write their own speech (Original Oratory) or do one of the interpretation events (Oral Interpretation of Drama, Declamation, Poetry, Duet Acting, Humorous Interpretation, or Dramatic Interpretation). If you want to see hard work, step into our 5B speech room during practice time with these students, and you will see the very reason speech with middle schoolers can be magical and ENERGIZING!
The 8th grade melodrama was excellent. The students reflected on how they gained skills like cooperation, creativity, patience, finding their “voice”, leadership, and flexibility, just to name a few. These skills will be transferable long into their futures. Besides, they also put on a great show! With an original script, a student director, student designers and actors, and a live student accompanist, can it get any better??
Just Wait ‘Till you See the Headlines!
There’s so much to be excited about in the Fine Arts Department!
* 5th and 6th grade have been preparing for their musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and tech week is finally here. During tech week for a play or musical, the technical parts of the show are added: lights, microphones, costumes, props, and set pieces. It is intense and messy, but it is incredible to see the production all pull together. Students will perform Wednesday at 2pm for PreK-4th grade, Thursday at 2pm for 7th-8th grade and grandparents, and Thursday at 7pm for family and friends. Enjoy the show!
* 7th grade has been hard at work writing and practicing original monologues. A monologue is a speech by one actor. They wrote their monologues inspired by a “treasured item” such as a necklace, basketball, hat, etc. and are creating a character with clear voice and body choices. Some students are even working to add lighting to their monologue to contribute to the character and mood of the piece! This meets the Nebraska Theatre curriculum standard: “Students will deliver a scripted monologue to a focal point”, among other standards.
* 8th Grade Advanced Speech and Drama is in the final stretch as they prepare their melodrama. It is SUPER HARD to create theatre in spaces other than your theatre, but they are doing a great job transforming our classroom practice space. Here they are doing a costume parade to see what costume pieces are still needed (pants? shoes?). Students are the directors, designers, and actors. We are looking forward to our performance on November 21.
Want to see excellent musicals AND SPSL alums? These upcoming shows are a great opportunity!
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AND… Ladies… Here is an extra special opportunity to meet the cast, attend The Addams Family for FREE, and enjoy a backstage tour of the production! Addams Family Preview and Popcorn
6th grade is working on their 5th/6th grade musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This musical, written by Andrew Lloyd Webber with music by Tim Rice, is the Bible story of Joseph. It is set to energetic music and explodes with the brilliant colors that God gave us, symbolized in Joseph’s coat of many colors! During class, we are working on the choreography for the chorus as we use movement to demonstrate characters, mood, and plot. Featured dancers have been hard at work during recess rehearsals to learn some additional choreo.
The 7th Grade Elective is in their technical theatre unit and working on a few of the technical items for Joseph. They are sorting and organizing shirts and pulling costumes for a few characters. They made the prop table and are working on a few props. Drama always takes a big team, so we are glad to have the hands and creativity of this class.
Big thank you to Roncalli for loaning us some props and costumes!
The 8th Grade Advanced Speech and Drama class has started working on its melodrama. This script, Wait ‘Till You See the Headlines! Or… Genevieve Plunkett, Journalist Extraordinaire, was written by SPSL alum Anna Preston for our class to use. The script includes a variety of fun characters and opportunities for students to learn all of the technical aspects of theatre as well. Student Mari B. was selected to be the Director, and we worked together to cast and crew the show. Through their job applications and auditions, students were cast as actors and were selected for Costume/Props/Set/Lighting/Sound/Publicity Design, led by Tech Director James G. This class is meant to be an example of the creative processes involved in theatre from script to stage. We are excited to begin our work on the melodrama. We will offer one performance (around Thanksgiving, date TBA) for select grades and parents/grandparents.
8th Grade Elective: The Advanced Speech and Drama class has been working to build their new ensemble and start examining melodrama. We did a script search and did a first read of the original melodrama that they will be performing. This script is written by an SPSL alum for our class! They are discovering all of the technical roles in theatre and will soon “apply” for one or more of them for our class play.
7th Grade Elective: The seventh grade elective has been working to build their ensemble and their actor tools of voice, body, and imagination. They showed immense creativity, focus, and ensemble in our class exercise of “Birthday Party”.
6th Grade: We have worked on ensemble and the parts of the stage. We are slowly working into the 5th/6th grade musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by practicing stage directions and starting to work with a script. Featured dancers have started working on choreography during their recess times.
ENSEMBLE seems to be the theme here… Yep. We really can’t do anything well until we can work well together. Ensemble is French for “together”. It is also the word for the non-named characters in a play or musical. It is also a group of people working together. Each of these classes must build a strong ensemble to be able to support each other’s brave work of creating and speaking.
Excellent Ensembles at Work Here!
8th grade students here are researching play scripts on Pioneer Drama. 
Over the summer, eight SPSL Speech students traveled to Des Moines, Iowa to compete at the National Speech and Debate Association national tournament. NSDA was celebrating its centennial anniversary, so it was extra special to be part of this national competition. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the parents who traveled with us to Des Moines, to the parents and families supporting us from home, to our SPSL administration for supporting our Speech Team, and especially to these talented students who worked many hours individually and on coaching with me to have truly dynamic speech entries. All of our students received excellent feedback and ranked very well nationally.
Congratulations to the following SPSL Speech NATS Team:
Lyra W. and Eva A. – Duo Interpretation National Competitors
Oliver L. – Declamation National Competitor
Ella B. – Poetry National Competitor
Aubrey R. – Declamation Octo-Finalist
Allison M. – Dramatic Interpretation Quarter-Finalist
Josie S. and Julia K. – Duo Interpretation Semi-Finalists
Eva A. – Poetry 2nd Place Finalist
We had a wonderful and busy WorldStrides trip to Washington, D.C. this May.
31 students and 6 adults traveled to our nation’s capitol to visit important monuments, buildings, and museums. Our packed itinerary included a White House tour, Capitol Building tour, Arlington National Cemetery (with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard), MLK Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, 911 Memorial, WWI and WWII Memorials, Air and Space Smithsonian, African American Smithsonian, Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Holocaust Museum, and so much more. It truly was an incredible trip with this group of 2025 SPSL graduates and parents.
Congrats, Grads, and we will be praying for you as you start high school!
You are invited!
We welcome all students, family, friends, and faculty to our After School Speech Showcase.
There will be a schedule of student performers available at the showcase.
5th graders have finished up with their Wax Museum speeches- Thanks to Dr. Adkins for successfully leading our students through the process of creating and delivering a speech. In our class, they also worked to build their qualities of good speech and include a strong tableau (frozen picture) of their historical figure.
Now students have the opportunity to compete in the Archdiocese/Christ the King Speech Contest. 5th graders have been building background knowledge about the speech topic: Lessons of Humility and Accountability from Religious Leaders. It is a tough topic this year! 
We worked in small groups to discuss the important vocabulary in the topic as well as relate personal experiences of humility and accountability. All 5th graders got started on their introduction. I hope many consider writing the speech to be our SPSL representative at the contest. Contest details are posted in Google Classroom and on the tabs here.
We are moving next into our Readers’ Theatre unit. Students’ knowledge of important figures in history will be flexed as we use Thomas Hischak’s collections of Plays of Science and Invention and Plays of the American Experience.
7th and 8th grade Drama Club spent Martin Luther King, Jr. day, January 20th, at school working on our upcoming musical, Disney’s The Lion King Jr. 
We finally got to rehearse in our performance space! The Parish Center has been a blessing to have for rehearsal purposes, but we were ready to try out the stage with real entrances and exits. Next week we will have our Tech Week, when we add all of the technical elements of the show- lights, sound, props, costumes/hair/makeup, and set. 
Please join us for our public performances of The Lion King Jr. on Friday, January 31st and Saturday, February 1st at 7:00 pm. Performances are free and open to the public with donations accepted. The performance should last approximately 75 minutes and will be held in the SPSL Gym/Auditorium. 
Many alums are involved in upcoming high school productions:
*** Roncalli will be presenting Beauty and the Beast November 8, 9, and 10
*** Mercy will be presenting Annie November 8, 9, and 10.
*** Mercy will host a special “Popcorn Preview” for 5th-8th grade girls on November 6.
Way to go, alums! We love to see you involved in Drama.
Parents and Grandparents of our 8th grade Advanced Speech and Drama class as well as 7th grade, 8th grade, and 2nd grade will be invited to our performance of Wait ‘Till the Sun Shines, Nellie. We look forward to showcasing all of the hard work students have done! The show features student directors, actors, designers, and technicians. We have a few more costumes, props, and set pieces to find, build, and paint, some scenes to tighten up, and some sound cues to polish.
Be ready to boo, hiss, and awwwww on November 26!
The 7th grade elective class has started our unit on a special area of technical theatre- costume! Seventh graders are learning about the role of a costume designer as well as the questions that a costumer must consider as a member of the creative team. We will be working as the costume designers and costume crew for the 5th and 6th grade musical, Fiddler on the Roof Jr.
Our new class, 8th Grade Advanced Speech and Drama, is hard at work on their production of a melodrama! They read script previews and selected the play, Wait ‘Till the Sun Shines, Nellie. We ordered scripts and paid royalties for a performance. They opted to do design work or audition. Two students have been selected to student direct, so we held auditions and cast the play.
Students are now immersed in all things melodrama. Students are designing sets, props, and costumes. They are learning all about stock characters, about booing the villain and cheering the hero, and even about some typical acting poses. We had a special guest teacher in our classroom who is an expert on melodrama- Miss Janet Drvol! She has been doing the music for melodrama (along with her mom our former music teacher, Mrs. Carol Drvol) for many years. She taught the students about the power that music plays in everything we watch and how incidental music is just one of the ways melodrama involves the actors and audience. Thank you, Miss Drvol! We also had an excellent donation of a keyboard to our classroom. We will be able to make our own soundtrack of incidental music and record it on the keyboard. Thank you, donor!
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The 7th grade Speech and Drama Elective class is hard at work building its ensemble. Here they are pictured doing “Mirror”. Through exercises like Mirror, Trust Walk, and Rainstorm, they showed great focus, concentration, and super strong teamwork. We will be able to accomplish much and take vocal and physical risks this semester using the trust that is built through a strong ensemble.
Happy last day of school!
The end of a school year always comes with mixed emotions for students; some are happy to be gone from school, and others know that they will miss their friends, teachers, and learning. I feel the same! I love the energy of the students and my school friends, and I love learning and growing, but I look forward to the summer activities. We will be taking a family vacation to the Black Hills and spending a lot of time swimming, going to the zoo, and taking care of summer home projects. Have a wonderful summer, and I look forward to growing with you again in the fall! I will keep you in my prayers.
4th Quarter in 5th Grade – We finished the year with nursery rhyme skits. Students were arranged in groups. They wrote original short scripts based on nursery rhymes and then performed them for their class. An added bonus was that they got to use the lights that were set up for the 7th/8th grade elective classes.
4th Quarter in 6th Grade – Sixth graders finished the year out with their “Where Do I See God?” speeches. These were 3-5 minutes long and were structured with a 3-point thesis. Students learned much about having a clear introduction with a hook and thesis, followed by main points with details, and ending with a review of the thesis and memorable closing. We heard many excellent speeches about how sixth graders see God in their moms, their dads, their grandparents, the saints and Mass, music, and MANY speeches about experiencing God most in nature. If you are the parent of a sixth grader, please ask him/her to present the speech for you!
4th Quarter in Speech and Drama Electives – Seventh and Eighth grade electives finished off the year with monologues and then a tidbit of Shakespeare. We can’t have a Drama class without the Bard… Some of the students’ interest was very piqued by the language and themes of Shakespeare, so they will surely get deeper dives in high school. We got to enjoy a beautiful day out on the lot with some stage combat- sword fighting! We emphasized safety and fight choreography.
Some students got to finish off the year with a few rounds of Guesstures… It was highly competitive!
Have a wonderful summer!
Mrs. Martinez
Speech Team is so excited to share with the community all the work they have been doing on their speech events. We will meet in the gym for prayer and a few brief announcements. Then we will split off to different performances in the fourth and fifth grade classrooms as well as the art and music rooms.
Use the QR code if you would like a sneak peek of the program.
I earned my BA in Secondary Education (Speech/Theatre) from UNO and an additional teaching endorsement in Language Arts from the College of Saint Mary. This is my 18th year of teaching at SPSL, including two years substitute teaching. I have taught seventh grade Literature, English, Vocabulary, Geography, and Religion as well as sixth grade Religion, Guided Reading, and Skills. This year I am thrilled to be able to share my passion for theatre in 5th-8th grade Drama and Speech class!
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