11/02/07Voices, noises and laughter fill Pulliam Center Thursday nights, marking the beginning of practice for the Baker University speech choir.

The speech choir’s first performance this semester took place during convocation and was followed by a performance at chapel Oct. 25, a presentation before the Board of Trustees Friday and an appearance at the Baker soccer banquet Saturday.

Susan Emel, faculty sponsor of the speech choir, said each speech the choir made differed for each group they performed for.

“We try to tailor presentations to the groups that invite us,” she said. “The students do research and construct scripts.”

Emel said every speech contains different stories and jokes. The students research the theme of each speech and gather the information together. They pass it along to Emel, who puts all the information together into their scripts.

Emel said the scripts differ from year to year, but the increased amount of history this year correlates with Baker’s anniversary.

“There’s a lot of history now,” she said. “We usually don’t have this much history.”

Freshman Olivia Hernandez said the historical facts give depth to the university’s 150th anniversary.

“A lot of it is rooted in Baker history but also in Baldwin history,” she said. “It’s about Baker in the midst of Kansas.”

With all the history involved with the speeches, the speech choir has still found ways of working humor in.

“(The soccer banquet speech) was more joking, it’s to entertain. The commencement speech was much more informational,” junior Ali Sherman said.

Emel said the scripts come from a collage of works of literary value but also contain humor. Sherman said the choir even managed to work a rap into its chapel performance.

“You can do almost anything. Emel has done such a good job of showcasing our spirit,” she said.

Emel said the group draws its creative power from the diversity amongst itself.

“Students can come from all kinds of majors. We get a variety of students,” she said.

Emel said the speakers create a dialogue during the read-through, giving suggestions and tips to each other to help create a better performance.

“It makes for very creative sessions,” she said.

Hernandez said the humor behind the pieces is sometimes hard to restrain.

“It’s hard not to laugh during performances,” she said. “You remember what people really said during practice. It’s a smorgasbord of fun.”

Sherman said despite the effort put into the scripts and practices, the group still has fears.

“We’re really nervous people won’t laugh at our jokes,” she said.

Emel said the speech choir is looking forward to many more invitations to perform.

“I expect we’ll have plenty (of performances) in the spring because of the 150th anniversary,” she said.