The Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA) recently announced the All-State Festival selections for Large Group, and one Greene County High School entry was nominated for the honor.

Greene County Speech Coach Kelley Gray says the short film performance with Nathan Ausberger, Jack Hansen, Gavin Vander Linden, Bill Wright and Daniel Strawn made it to All-State. Seniors Ausberger and Hansen are now two-time All-State Festival qualifiers in short film and Ausberger describes what the short film is about.

“So the short film is pretty much grounded in a 90s sitcom. It kind of takes place in present day, but it has elements from what you would expect from the sitcom, it has a laugh track, it has sort of the camera angles that you would expect from that (and) the acting. So (it) kind of just revolves around a guy who broke his brother’s solar system and just the shenanigans that comes from that.”

Gray adds all seven of the entries that competed at the state contest, including five of the seven receiving straight Division I-ratings. 

“We’ve had some great performances. We had a good day, we had multiple groups with straight I’s that were hoping to maybe get some All-State consideration. And even the groups that maybe didn’t get straight I’s, we felt like maybe they did some of their best performances at state, and that’s really what we want.” 

The IHSSA All-State Festival takes place on February 17th on the campus of Iowa State University in Ames. Click here to see the short film on YouTube.