Speech Team Audition Information 2015
At our next meeting (Monday, August 31st) everyone will present one of the audition pieces
for the coaches. This will help us to place you in the perfect event. This is a way for us to help
you to find the event for which you are best suited.
Depending on the amount of people who audition, we may not be able to extend an invitation
to all that audition this year. However, we will try our best.
There are 14 different events, in three different categories. Each one has been assigned a
different AUDITION PIECE depending on the skills necessary for the event. If you are interested
in that event, please prepare the required audition piece.
NOTE: Many of the events are very similar, so if you cannot decide which one you prefer simply
prepare the audition piece that you like the best and the coaches will be able to help you find
the event that is perfect for you!
For more information about the events, please check our website at:
http://www.lths.net/Domain/128 or ltspeech.weebly.com. There are videos on the site of
many of the events.
Speech Team Events
Interpretation Events: (Use audition piece #3, #4, or #5)
Humorous Duet Acting/Dramatic Duet Acting- In these events, two actors perform a short scene from a
play. The speakers are allowed to use two chairs and a table, if they wish, but no other props or costumes.
Obviously, DDA would be more serious while HDA would be more humorous. 8 minutes long. HDA: #4, DDA: #3
Humorous Interp/Dramatic Interp- These interpretation events require one speaker to play one or more
characters in a short scene from a play. The speaker uses focal points (staring at points on the wall) as well as
physical and vocal changes to differentiate between the characters. Obviously, DI would be more serious while HI
would be more entertaining. 8 minutes long. HI: #4, DI: #3
Original Comedy- OC is not at all a traditional speech! The intention is to entertain and the content, style, and
ideas are up to the speaker. It could be a dialogue between characters, a scene, a story, a monologue, etc. But as
"comedy" implies, it should be funny! 8 minutes long. #1 or #4
Prose- (PR) Here, the student reads a work of prose (a short story or a cutting from a larger work). The prose is
placed in a small, black folder which the reader holds. Each student must have 2 different pieces to read; the
selections can be humorous or dramatic. Not memorized. 8 minutes long. #3 or #4
Verse- (VR) In this event, the student reads a poem, a portion of a long poem, or a few short poems. The work is
placed in a small, black folder which the reader holds. Each student must have 2 different selections to read; they
can be humorous or dramatic. Not memorized. 8 minutes long. #3, #4, or #5
Public Address Events: (Use audition piece #1 or #2)
Oratorical Declamation (DEC)- The speaker finds a previously written speech, essay, or editorial and delivers
it. The work should have some significance or literary merit. So the delivery is somewhat like original oratory, even
though the speech itself is not original. 8 minutes long. #1 or #2
Original Oratory- OO: The student picks a topic of interest and does some research on how this problem affects
us and how we should use this new information in our lives. Traditionally, the speech is given in a problem solution
format and should be persuasive. 8 minutes long. #2
Original Informative- OI is just like OO, however it is an 8 minute informative speech instead of a persuasive
one. #1 or #2
Special Occasion Speaking- for SOS you choose a topic as well as particular audience to speak to (such as the
National Honor Society, Saturday detention students, those in a particular workplace, etc.). The topic should
obviously have a connection to the chosen audience. 8 minutes long. #2
Limited Preparation Events: (Use audition piece #1 or #2)
Radio- In RS, the student composes and delivers a 5-minute newscast with a commercial, much like one would
hear on the radio. With some tournaments, the speaker prepares the radio script at home using news that is no
more than 24 hours old. At others, the tournament managers will provide many news stories and the speaker
would have 45 minutes to make a script out of the given material.
Impromptu- IMP is a think-on-your-feet event! After the judge provides the topic, the speaker has eight minutes
TOTAL to prepare and deliver an organized 6 minute speech about it. Topics can include famous names, historical
events, quotes, common sayings, or single words. There is no memorization involved in the speech, but a good
knowledge base helps to organize thoughts and provide examples.
Extemporaneous Speaking- EXTEMP is challenging, but a terrific event. The speaker is given 45 minutes to
prepare an original answer to an assigned current events question. In composing the speech, the student can use
magazine and newspaper articles which are brought from the home school to the tournament site. The student
would cite the sources of his or her evidence in the speech. (Persuasive speech)
AUDITION PIECE #1 – PUBLIC ADDRESS (SPECIAL OCCASION SPEAKING)
“Houston, We Have A Girl Problem”
(can be read by a male or a female)
If you are expecting a pep talk, or some kind of a consolation speech, you are in for a surprise.
This Science Olympiad team nearly took the state title last year, and as senior captain, I won’t stand for
the kind of poor performance we exhibited at this past meet on Saturday, especially when the cause is
so obvious and the solution is so simple. Which is why I kept all you returning varsity members after
practice today. Guys I am not going to be gentle about this: we have girls on the team this year, and you
have to work with them if we want to do well, not just alongside them. Do you know how hard it is to
get absolutely anybody, much less girls, to join a Science Olympiad team?
A key part of our winning tradition has been our camaraderie, the friendly relations we extend
to our coaches, competitors, and each other. Now, we need to have relations with girls too! That’s not
what I meant and you know it... We need to work with our new teammates, because by increasing our
communication with the female members of our team in a knowledgeable and efficient way, we can
reach an unprecedented level of success. To fix our girl problem, we should begin by analyzing why our
existing communication isn’t working, enact ways in which we can correct the flaws we identify, and
ultimately consider the positive implications this will have on our team.
AUDITION PIECE #2 – PUBLIC ADDRESS (ORIGINAL ORATORY)
“Bleeding Pink”
(can be read by a male or a female)
Last year my favorite little cousin turned eight, and for this momentous occasion, she wanted
nothing other than a new bicycle. Walking into the gaudy and excessive haven that is a toy store, I
figured that buying her a new bike would be no problem at all, but boy was I wrong. Apparently, in the
land of toys, the concept of a unisex bike is very foreign. You see, my cousin is not an overtly girly child.
Growing up with three older brothers, she learned how to play with dolls and be nurturing, but also how
to play rough, and favor colors other than pink. Unfortunately, there were no bikes in the store to fit her
petite frame that weren’t bleeding pink, princess, and glitter streamers. She would not have liked a
single one of them. So that day, I walked out of the toy store sans bike, but with a newfound irritancy for
the companies marketing children’s toys. Sad enough to say, little Lily Rose didn’t get a bike that year.
Today we will define the problem that is THE gender bias in marketing, then we will discover why it is
detrimental to society’s young females, and finally, we will propose some possible solutions. The
undermining and confining of young girls into weak, stereotypical roles must be eradicated.
AUDITION PIECE #3 – DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION
Death of a Salesman
(can be read by a male or a female)
Now hear this, Willy, this is me. You know why I had no address for three months? I
stole a suit in Kansas City and I was jailed. I stole myself out of every good job since high
school. And I never got anywhere because you blew me so full of hot air I could never
stand taking orders from anybody! That’s whose fault it is! It’s goddamn time you heard
that! I had to be boss big shot in two weeks, and I’m through with it! Willy! I ran down
eleven flights with a pen in my hand today. And suddenly I stopped, you hear me? And
in the middle of that office building, do you hear this? I stopped in the middle of that
building and I saw- the sky. I saw the things that I love in the world. The work and the
food and the time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the
hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be? What
am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want
is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am! Why can’t I say that,
Willy? Pop! I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you! I am not a leader of me, Willy, and
neither are you. You were never anything but a hard-working drummer who landed in
the ash-can like all the rest of them!
AUDITION PIECE #4 - HUMOROUS INTERPRETATION
LAUGHING WILD
(can be read by a male or a female)
I want to talk to you about life. It’s just too difficult to be alive, isn’t it, and try to function?
There are all these people to deal with. I tried to buy a can of tuna fish in the supermarket, and
there was this person standing right in front of where I wanted to reach out to get the tuna fish,
and I waited a while, to see if they’d move, and they didn’t—they were looking at tuna fish too,
but they were taking a real long time on it, reading the ingredients on each can like they were a
book, a pretty boring book if you ask me, but nobody has; so I waited a long while, and they
didn’t move, and I couldn’t get to the tuna fish cans; and I thought about asking them to move,
but then they seemed so stupid not to have sensed that I needed to get by them that I had this
awful fear that it would do no good, no good at all, to ask them, they’d probably say something
like, “We’ll move when we’re goddam ready you nagging bitch” and then what would I do? And
so then I started to cry out of frustration, quietly, so as not to disturb anyone, and still, even
though I was softly sobbing, this stupid person didn’t grasp that I needed to get by them, and so
I reached over with my fist, and I brought it down real hard on his head and screamed: “Would
you kindly move asshole!!!”
AUDITION PIECE #5 - POETRY
Birches
by Robert Frost
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust-Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.