Kelli Fontenot's blog

Before a speech and debate tournament, you’re poised to deliver amazing speeches and offer up astounding rebuttals to opposing competitors. So, naturally, nutrition is the last thing on your mind.

Going to a Dramatic Interpretation round shouldn’t make people squeamish. But at this point, many competitors and judges have said they've become sick and tired of watching performances that make everyone in the room cringe and wonder why the person would choose such a morbid script.  

If you’re diving into a piece with multiple characters and you aren’t sure where to start, this post is for you. In speech, performers often use different accents or “voices” to convey a character’s personality, location, heritage, or whatever the interpretation of the script calls for.

Some people will advise that you try every speech event at least once in your high school career, but let’s be realistic. It would be possible to participate in every event, but it wouldn’t be practical or a good use of your school’s resources.

One of the most famous moves in Duo is the often-attempted (and unfortunately, sometimes fumbled) slap. In Duo, two competitors stand next to each other, face the audience, and perform a 10-minute piece without touching each other or looking at each other.

Which, as you might imagine, makes slapping each other very difficult.