By Caitlin M.
When you walk down the hallway and hear someone say something about how they spent the weekend at forensics, you think, “They examine dead bodies!” Admit it, we all done it. “Forensics is not crime scene investigation,” says student Gracie Taylor. “It’s speech and debate and competitive acting!”
Speech and debate where you give a speech, act out a ten minute piece, or debate. To this club’s adviser, it’s more than the sum of its parts. “Forensics is an opportunity to compete against other teens from across Ohio able to be comfortable about speaking and performing in front of others,” says Mr. Prater.
There are many different categories of competition. The first two deal with speech. There is original oratory, where you write and perform your own speech, and original interpretation, where you give a speech that is already written. The other two categories also deal with speech as well. For example, United States and World Interpretation is a catagory where you write an essay about out country or the affairs of the world at large.
The acting categories break down into humor, drama, and duo. In humor and drama is contestants memorize a script and perform it solo, playing all the roles. Duo is just the same expected contestants are partnered. Duo performances can either be funny or dramatic.
The Forensics Club travels all around Ohio to compete. They go to a tournament about every Saturday during November till February. Sometimes there are hotel tournaments, where you stay at a hotel which is a highlight for many performers. “Craziness, do well, make it happen captain, oh well, OI, stupidity, drama, humor hotels,” dramatically states performer Carmen Evarage.
“I love forensics I joined to get out of my shy bubble and it helped.” states Jane Smith, another member of the team. Forensics is also great if you love to act and meet new people. “Forensics is just fun. You get to meet kids from different schools and compete,” sums up Maria Sommers.
