Anyone Took Part in Speech Contests?

[Icehouse Life]

Posted: 10/25/07 at 8:58pm

When I was in fifth grade attending a since-closed Catholic school, I took part in a couple of speech competitions that were held on Saturday afternoons in suburban Catholic schools. What these speech contests were about were us students from fourth to eighth grade reciting memorized speeches inside a classroom or a library to be evaulated by judges on pitch, voice range, diction, presentation, and beleivabilty. Categories to enter were comedy, duet, and serious. There were two rounds of this and you can enter as a solo speech or in a duet. My first time around was when I did Fat Albert getting nervous about and eventually playing football with his friends. I almost earned a perfect score, and the most interesting thing about it was how I almost trained myself without the aid of a coach (near the end of the practice time before going into the contests though I willingly became coachable). If you got an overall perfect score by the judges on a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being perfect), you earn a gold ribbon. I got a blue ribbon for my accomplishments. I was to do a duet with a girl for my next go-round, but she didn't turn up for the day of the contest. We got along well and liked each other as we practiced. So some time later my coach, Sister Kathleen, advised me to go into the serious category. So I went decided to perform my rendition of MLK's "I Have A Dream", and it went well. Not almost as well with my Fat Albert, but it was very, very solid.

I bring this up because with theater and drama voice is very crucial in drama skills. Has anyone done this to improve their range of voice and how else did it help you? Does it serve as a nice springboard to meaningful drama experience like with acting camps and workshops? Did it help harness your voice in drama? I'd say so. Been over a decade and a half since I did this, even longer. If anyone who's done this I'd like to read your stories!