Impressions of a Forensics Judge (Pt. 1)

At the first of the year, I decided to get back into judging high school Speech & Debate tournaments after about a 15 year hiatus. I have judged every event in the past month and a half, and I have come to some conclusions about each of them. I plan to write a series of posts; each dealing with a specific event. Some events might get more than one treatment.

DUO INTERP

Fifteen years ago, this event didn't exist, so when I was assigned to judge the Finals at my first tournament back as a Judge, I didn't know quite what to expect. The first selection I judged was "Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks", and I thought it was really weird. The rules of this event require the two performers not to look at or touch each other. It creates some awkward blocking situations at times and can cause some confusion when the blocking or pantomiming (props aren't allowed) isn't completely clear.

Despite my initial dislike of this event, I think it has become my favorite after repeated exposure. I had the opportunity to judge the Final round of the North Texas Longhorn National Qualifier the past two days. The round was very strong and had, in my opinion, three teams that deserved to advance to Nationals. Alas, only the top 2 qualify, so one very deserving duo gets left at home.

The duo who won the qualifier performed a brilliant adaptation of "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" by Lorraine Hansberry and Robert Nemiroff. It was a tremendous blending of narrative and poetry as well as being emotionally powerful. The Final round marked the third time I had seen the team's interpretation, and it got better with each performance. This piece has become, for me, the Gold Standard of what Duo Interp can be. There is nothing wrong with the works that involve two characters in a more traditional dramatic structure, but it is this one that really showed me the potential for this event.

I had judged the members of the second place team in other events, but yesterday was the first time I had seen their DUO, and it was excellent as well. They performed an often humorous, but ultimately tragic piece called "Oz!" by Don Zolidis.

The team who wound up in third place (and who will serve as the alternate if either of the top two can't go to the National tournament) were performing in front of me for the fourth time. They, too, got better with each effort.

Judging this event also introduced me to two plays I want to read: "A New York Minute" by Michele Palermo and "The Old Boy" by A.R. Gurney ("Love Letters" "The Fourth Wall" "Sylvia").