Just three years ago, nobody knew Waterloo West’s speech team as the powerhouse they once used to be. However, change has been taking a toll on the speech and theatre program for the better.
From only two All-State performances in 2023, to just one performance in 2024, in 2025 things were looking up for the program. 2025 was a record setting year with five performances, and this year, 2026, there were three performances.
Of these performances, one group stood out. The short film group, made of juniors Emma Teare, Liam Ramsey and Sofia Gomez, was the first group to make it to All-State and perform in ten whole years.
But the journey there wasn’t so simple. It all started with the creation of the group, where each student had their own reason for joining. “I really wanted to get involved due to a) being able to create something completely from scratch and b) having the chance to be involved with multiple parts of production. I like doing anything I can to help,” said Teare.
“I got involved with Short Film because my creative writing teacher recommended me to join Large Group Speech, and I heard that I could animate for a short film. I wanted to learn what it was like actually working on a team when it came to making an animation,” Gomez added.
With the group decided, they were quick to bring ideas to the table.
“From the beginning, my team (as well as our director, Abigail Avis) really wanted to make an animated short film this year. What kicked things into motion was the idea that we could inspire our film from a song. It was a bit of a struggle at first to find what we wanted – but the day after our first rehearsal, Liam approached me, gave me a few songs by Good Kid, and we all ended up agreeing on Dance Class as a silly, wholesome song to write off of,” said Teare.
The entire short film revolves around the song ‘Dance Class,’ by Good Kid, which Ramsey says is “a song I like and we picked together.” The film follows the story of the song, with characters named Beryl and Bleu. Teare states “The song’s about someone being too anxious to confront the person they like and ask them to dance – we went from that central idea and created Beryl and Bleu’s tale!”
Creating the entire short film took the team nearly three months to complete, although each person played a different role. Ramsey and Gomez were mainly voice actors, while Teare took on the role of animating the entire film.
“I helped choose Dance Class as the music used throughout the song, wrote with the others what we wanted for our story and script, storyboarded the entire film (with my voice in rough placing of Liam and Sofia’s acting), animated the final characters within a month (believe me, over 3-and-a-half-minutes is incredible to see finished in such a short amount of time!), added in backgrounds (provided by Sofia), and took the excruciating time to make sure everything was synced correctly, subtitled, and sounded right when in the final editing stage. And I’m really happy about that, I loved having a lot of work put in on this year’s film,” said Teare.
While they each played a crucial role in the creation of the film, their passion is what drove them to continue. “This was the first short film that I’d fully-animated and finished, released to so many audiences who enjoyed it. This is what I want to do for my life – I hope to be able to continue doing this as a career in the future. I’ve been practicing and working and waiting for so long to make something like this – and I can’t wait to see where this takes me in the future. “Passionate” is an understatement,” Teare adds.
Their passion didn’t go unnoticed. The group ended up at the highest level a theatre group can achieve, which is at the All-State Festival. Achieving an All-State level honor is not a simple feat. Less than 1% of performers from the state of Iowa make it to All-State.
First, groups must earn a division I rating to advance to state. At state, all groups have the opportunity to make it to the All-State Festival, where the best of the best in each category from across the state performs. To make it to All-State, groups must receive nominations from at least two judges and are ranked by how impressive they are throughout the day.
“It’s incredible to hear that we’re the first in a decade to make it to All-State as a short film! I was amazed by the fact that “Drawn to Hue” was nominated, and had such an amazing time performing in Ames. Believe me, it took a second for it to register that our film was nominated – it was a really good thing to see, though. I never thought I’d actually see something I’d made be listed with 4 others as the performing Northeastern films,” states Teare.
“I knew that many believed we were going to get in, and I hoped so deeply much before the results were announced. It’s so amazing to get that support. And I’m glad that all of those comments from peers, who were firm on us getting in, felt worth hearing. Truly.”
While Teare has been involved in Large Group Speech before, both Gomez and Ramsey are first years. Gomez says, “In all honesty I never expected that I would get into All-State for my first year in Large Group Speech. It was a genuinely exciting moment to find out that our group got in.I was really nervous but also really excited. It was my first time doing this, and I didn’t really know what to expect, but I really enjoy Large Group Speech, and I definitely want to do this kind of thing again next year.”
Ramsey adds, “It was a labor of love from all three of us. We put so much time and effort into it, especially Emma, she animated the whole thing, and it was just so exciting to hear that I was gonna go to All-State. It was just an amazing feeling.”
The trio had an unexpected surprise while presenting their piece. Their guest critic was Don Hall, a seasoned professional animator. Hall has worked on iconic films with Pixar and Disney, such as The Princess and the Frog, Meet the Robinsons, and Big Hero Six.
“I got to talk to him throughout the day multiple times – he’s an amazing man! I was incredibly anxious to meet him, but man, I’m so happy I did. He was blown away by our film and I haven’t been happier to hear that from another fellow animator like that. It’s so amazing to feel that a Disney professional from Los Angeles, who was once an Iowan, like I am, loved and complemented something that was my work so much. It gives me a little hope for myself. I hope one day I can come across him again in-person and show him something else of mine,” Teare shared.
With the completion of their short film, the trio has already started to work on a short film to compete with for next year. All three plan to continue on the course to become skilled animators and actors.
Teare says, “My biggest takeaway? Keep moving forward. “Drawn to Hue” made a beautiful mark in my life.”
