The creative juices were flowing at Iola High School Saturday.
Scores of students from 15 area schools were judged on their speaking and acting abilities in the annual IHS Invitational Forensics Tournament.
Because host students are prohibited from competing, IHS students kept busy through the day by serving as time-keepers and organizers of the massive event.
Forensics — competitive speaking and acting — features a number of different disciplines in which the students can rehearse for weeks or months in advance, such as oral interpretation of prose, oral interpretation of poetry, informative speaking; and original oration, in which the speaker must give a persuasive speech about a certain topic.
Those competitions can be highly competitive, noted Deb Chriestenson, IHS drama instructor and forensics coach, because the students usually have honed their performances well in advance.
TWO categories also are in place for students more akin to learning or thinking quickly: extemporaneous speaking and improvised duet acting.
In extemporaneous speaking, a student is given a topic on which he is to deliver a four-to-seven speech — without notes.
Improvised duet acting, meanwhile, gives a pair of teammates 30 minutes to devise a skit after they learn who their characters are — a librarian or a wine taster, for example — a specific location, such as a grocery store, a restroom or a bank vault — and a situation, such as arriving at a yodeling contest or watching grass grow.
“With extemporaneous speaking and improvised acting, you can prepare for them, but you really don’t know what you’re doing until the draw,” said Chriestenson.
PUTTING ON Saturday’s tournament required plenty of outside support as well, Chriestenson noted.
Judges from across the community, including former drama students, critiqued competitions.
“We have some alums who have come back to help,” Chriestenson said. “We also have a lot of other people who enjoy plays, some Friends of the Bowlus members, even faculty.”
With the Iola event out of the way, the 25-member forensics team can return its focus on competitions.
The students will travel to weekly competitions for the next five weeks, plus assorted others in April.
The top finishers in each forensics meet qualify for the state Speech and Drama Championships May 5. Iola students qualifying for state will compete at Washburn Rural High School in Topeka.
