Do you need a story, poetry program, or literary reading for your speech students? No better place to find one than the SpeechGeek + Mushroom Cloud Press complete collection of oral interpretation pieces. It's everything for literary reading events we publish in one place!
Inside, you'll find the prose, poems, and poetry programs included in four collections:
- SpeechGeek Competition Prose
- Mushroom Cloud Press Classic Prose
- SpeechGeek Competition Poetry
-
SpeechGeek Nationals Prose & Poetry
These scripts are tournament-proven, written by and for speech competition.
Format: Instant PDF download
Events: Prose (PRO), Poetry (POE), Program Oral Interpretation (POI), Oral Interpretation of Literature
Length: Cuttable for anything from five-minute supplemental rounds to ten-minute POI programs
Use: Competition, showcases, classroom performance; NSDA-eligible
Content: Subject matter appropriate for high school students, with themes noted in the included description files.
Ready for a variety of state league events. These pieces fit Prose and Poetry Interpretation (Texas UIL and TFA), Prose Reading and Poetry Reading (Illinois), Interpretive Reading and Literary Program (Iowa), Interpretation of Prose and Poetry (Kansas), Serious and Humorous Prose (Nebraska), Poetry Reading and Storytelling (South Dakota), and Prose, Poetry, and Extemporaneous Reading (Minnesota)
Save over 40% off the cover price of buying these three sets individually... grab our Complete Prose & Poetry, and your team will be set in these events for years to come!
What's included:
Competition Poetry
(IN)FAMOUS · Poetry Program Builder · Any gender · Giddy ambition that turns dark and accusatory
A fame-hungry speaker turns on the audience, blaming the public's appetite for the fall of idols from Marilyn to Amy Winehouse.
Being That Guy, Tony Damico · POI · Male · Comic, nervous, self-deprecating
An awkward guy tries one failed romantic cliché after another across four comic pieces, and ends up comparing himself to a nacho cheese Dorito.
Burned Out, Julia Neva · POI · Any gender · Plainspoken, rhythmic, weary
Burnout grows from one overloaded day, to a dancer's broken body, to a whole school staff.
An Electron Tragedy, Jesse Gall · POI · Female · Clever, wistful, bittersweet
A freshman-biology romance goes from crush to heartbreak to acceptance, framed by the science that electrons never truly touch.
The Godself Series, Bonny McDonald · POI · Any gender · Exuberant and irreverent, sincere underneath
A rapid-fire manifesto, prayer, and gratitude list about becoming a better self that never stays reverent for long.
Hiding Behind the Humor, Courtney Wright, Christopher Ellis & Jonnie Ray Delta · POI · Any gender · Brash dark comedy that turns vulnerable
A compulsive joker, starting at his injured brother's bedside, reveals the humor covers what he's too scared to say.
In All Directions, Nancy Harper · POI · Any gender · Swings between biting satire and tender memory
A child talks with their 80-year-old future self through a homemade time machine, exposing how carelessly we discard the elderly.
The Life and Times of Morgan Le Faye, Saeed Jones · Poetry Program Builder · Female · Lyrical, mythic, meditative
Arthur's forgotten stepsister tells her own story across centuries of names, deaths, and reinventions.
Past the Profundity, Stephanie Patterson · POI · Any gender · Argumentative, then intimate and grieving
A rebuttal on who poetry belongs to narrows to a grieving widower, then to the speaker's own family facing mortality.
Proud to be a B, Juniper Mariat · POI · Female · Defiant, punchy, escalating
A woman turns the insults thrown at outspoken women into badges of toughness.
Rethinking Pink, Julia Neva · Poetry Program Builder · Female · Raw grief with sharp satirical whiplash
A daughter watching her mother go through chemo skewers pink-ribbon marketing as a stand-in for real support.
Take 43, Collin Aldridge · POI · Male · Cocky and cinematic, unraveling into panic
A Hollywood director reshoots the "morning after" scene of his own life until his ego breaks down.
Tension at Home, Saeed Jones · Poetry Program Builder · Male · Lyrical, surreal, melancholy
A man traces an absent father, a breakup, and a Southern accent he can't scrub away.
Until We Meet Again, Shane Cole · POI · Any gender · Quiet grief easing into comfort
At a grandfather's funeral, a shuffled playlist and a dream explain the knowing smirk on his face.
What Do You See When You See Me?, Julia Neva · Poetry Program Builder · Female · Playful, then wistful, ending in a plea
A girl who played at being invisible becomes invisible for real and fights to be seen at school, in love, and in a phone-glued culture.
What You See Ain't What You Get, Tiembé Maboola · POI · Any gender · Reflective and confrontational, ultimately hopeful
Encounters across a lifetime show how little a person's appearance reveals.
Women and Scars, Deb Royce · POI · Female · Stark, unflinching, intense
Watching an acid-attack survivor shop for groceries, a woman admits she envies a pain other people can see.
Competition Prose
Attempts at Being a Savior, Rachel Wiggington · Any gender · Tense, plainspoken, unsentimental
A woman talks her niece out of a gun standoff, then returns a lesson in grief her niece once taught her.
BRAINS: A Guidebook For the Newly and Nearly Undead, Stephanie Patterson Alderdice · Any gender · Gallows humor with real heart
A mother tells the story of her degenerative diagnosis as a zombie survival guide, both funny and moving.
Bruise Ship, Waylon Brown & Rob Herrick · Any gender · Cringe comedy, self-deprecating, quietly reflective
A guy shows up to his five-year reunion on a cruise ship as his unchanged old self, and a string of cringeworthy setbacks follows.
David, Gregg Moeller · Any gender · Restrained, tender, quietly devastating
A boy's question about an obituary unlocks his grandmother's story of the stillborn son no one talked about.
The Dragon Slayer of Eastman Senior High, Sarah Carpenter · Female · Witty, nerdy, empowering
An outcast who writes fantasy stands up for herself when a bully reads her journal aloud in the cafeteria.
Endangered Species, Jane Nicolaas · Any gender · Nervous humor giving way to quiet heartbreak
In a clinic waiting room, a guy faces the fact that his girlfriend's decision isn't his to make.
The Graveyard Shift, Jane Nicolaas · Male · Easy banter turning gentle and honest
A former EMT keeps visiting a 3 a.m. cashier and risks their easy banter to be honest with her.
He Looked Like a Mortician, Corey Alderdice · Any gender · Deadpan, witty, warm
Death chats up his scheduled client on a park bench, learns he has the wrong Leslie, and nudges her toward a longer life.
The King of Nerd Camp, Corey Alderdice · Any gender · Warm, self-mocking comedy with a question underneath
Two counselors make the shyest kid at gifted camp its most popular, and the narrator wonders who it was really for.
Learning to Fall, Millay McCain · Any gender · Whimsical, warm, bittersweet
Two sisters who believed they were magic jump from a tree, then remember it differently years later.
Origin Story, Julia Neva · Any gender · Somber, restrained, devastating
A mother recalls the card game that gave her son pride, and the night her husband burned all of it.
The Prodigy, Richard Shelton · Any gender · Conversational, raw, heartbreaking
A fragile cello prodigy's viral fame makes him a target, and a bully's assault ends his playing for good.
Secret Identities, Corey Alderdice · Male · Funny and heartfelt, grounded in teen loneliness
A bullied comic fan dresses as Spider-Man to visit a dying boy, whose older brother turns out to be his bully.
Through These Gates, Corey Alderdice · Any gender · Literate self-mockery, ending hopeful
A guy maps a dance club as Dante's hell while pining for his best friend, then finds hope at an all-night coffee shop.
Trevor and Travis, Odell Workman · Any gender · Tender, grieving, gently cathartic
Twin brothers learn to grieve their grandmother side by side instead of competing.
When I Made Him Cry, Doug McConnaha · Female · Warm, plain, sentimental
A daughter remembers her father's tears after a barbed-wire accident, and sees them again at her wedding.
Nationals Prose and Poetry
Breaking the Water, Lorraine White · Prose · Male · Tense and gritty, breaking into relief
A fisherman whose wife is about to give birth wrestles with a lost job, a needling coworker, and an old grief before his daughter arrives safely.
Man of Steel, Joseph Conway · Prose · Male · Numb and wry, building to catharsis
A widower who hasn't felt anything in four years tries everything, until a dying deer in the wilderness finally breaks him open.
The Shepherd of Chi-town, Doug Osgood · Prose · Male · Charming showman voice that turns haunted
A Chicago street performer explains how he keeps crowds at a distance, and the day he stayed in character while a woman silently begged for help.
Mixed Up, Meredith Stein · Prose · Female · Candid, warm, quietly confrontational
A teen from an interfaith family thought bigotry died with her grandmother, until her mother objects to her friendship with a Black classmate.
Cutting Cords, Trevor Anders · Prose · Any gender · Awkward, restrained, tender
On his brother's wedding day, an estranged twin stranded in England makes a phone call that turns into a quiet declaration of love.
Could've Been Worse, Trevor Anders · Prose · Male · Absurd comedy with a warm buddy payoff
After a blind date implodes, his waiter best friend talks him down with a list of ways the night could have gone worse.
Second Opinion, Steven Guthrie · Prose · Male · Gentle tragicomedy, poignant
A lonely man who treasures his doctor visits is told his symptoms come from loneliness, and goes looking for a second opinion.
My Week as the Other, Isabelle Owens · Prose · Female · Sharp and indignant, building to fierce
A mother's complaint letter about her son "passing" as a girl for a week turns into a blunt account of what womanhood actually costs.
Growing Up Girl, Julia Neva · Poetry Program Builder · Female · Whimsical fairy tale, then watchful and raw
A heroine who almost settles for "good enough" is paired with a 13-year-old surviving the body-image pressure of a junior high locker room.
Memory Drive, Michael Hix & Will Schuster · Poetry Program Builder · Any gender · Apologetic, wistful, haunting
A forgetful partner apologizes for failing memory, paired with a child holding seances to reach an absent father.
Male Pregnancy, Jonathon Harper · Poetry Program Builder · Male · Frantic and funny, then earnest and aching
A young man sweats out a pregnancy test countdown, paired with a gay man's letter arguing that fatherhood isn't only biological.
Redefining Romance, Sarah Carpenter · Poetry Program Builder · Female · Self-deprecating comedy turning defiant
A grand gesture humiliates a girl in a school parking lot, and a woman takes back her name from a boyfriend who calls her "Kitty."
Why I Tutor at the International Center, Grace Bruenderman · POI · Female · Awkward and sweet, turning troubled
A college tutor's lessons with an adult refugee become a friendship, until bigoted students target him outside class.