Tournament brings out gift of gab

Shouting, singing and laughing drifted from behind closed doors, breaking the silence of empty hallways at Flathead High School Friday night.

Through the classroom windows, students could be seen gesturing vigorously as they competed at the Western Regional Speech and Debate Tournament.

Inside room 100, Corvallis High School seniors Shayla Hansen and Mariah Ancell humorously instruct their audience in navigating the “Terrorverse” in an interpretation of author Seth Grahame-Smith’s “How to Survive a Horror Movie.” They volley questions to the audience on how they may be stuck in the Terrorverse.

“Are you in the middle of a cornfield?” Ancell said.

“Are there strange Japanese people calling you through your home appliances?” Hansen said.

“Is there any strange music crescendoing any time you open a door?” Ancell said to a creaking “errr” sound effect, which elicits laughter from the audience.

They alternated speaking in quick succession while jumping in front of each other. Sometimes they spoke at the same time for extra emphasis. The sound effects and gestures came with the territory — sound effects add to the realism, Ancell said.

“It makes a piece more dynamic,” he said. “[If you’re] opening a door it should have a sound effect of some kind.”

In a more serious tone, Glacier High School senior Jessica Mount attempted to embody a middle-aged woman with early-onset Alzheimer’s in the serious oral interpretation event.

To Mount, Serious Oral Interpretation is the event that “makes you cry.”

Her interpretation of “Still Alice,” by Lisa Genova was a 10-minute performance pared down from the 292-page novel.

So how did Mount prepare to get into the mind of a woman with Alzheimer’s?

“I was kind of having trouble with it at first. What I ended up doing this past week I went on YouTube and watched videos of these people with early-onset Alzheimer’s’ disease and it made me cry like a baby,” Mount said. “There are just so many tragic stories of people with this disease.”

This year she is also entered in duo interpretation.

“It’s just really hard keeping up with it,” Mount said of the physical and mental aspects. “I love keeping up with it though.”

In a classroom upstairs, Flathead High School sophomore Ashlie Wise — competing in impromptu speaking — was given a small cartoon of a woman holding a phone that read, “I’m actually sitting here reading a book just to see if I can still do it.”

Wise sat down at a nearby desk, occasionally glancing at a timer set in front of her as she had only a few minutes to jot down ideas and formulate her speech.

Impromptu speakers were given a quote or cartoon that is left open for interpretation. The speaker then usually determines a problem, cause and solution, according to Wise.

“First, let’s look at the problem,” Wise said, discussing the cartoon. “We’re so dependent on technology. We’re living so fast in the moment that we don’t have much of a chance to really live. Everything we do is on a computer, or on our phone, or on our Kindle, or our tablets. That makes it really hard for us to go to social functions and actually socialize.”

Wise went on to talk about why unplugging from technology is important for retaining important skills, like holding a conversation with family members, and gave a personal example of how her family unplugs.

Thinking and developing a cohesive speech on the fly using knowledge based on past research on information about current events, interesting people and cultural or moral issues is a skill Wise said she would need in her future career.

“I want to be a lawyer, so it’s really helpful for that,” she said.

For Columbia Falls High School junior Colter Norick, competing in Impromptu and Extemporaneous was a new venture. He said he usually competes in Policy Debate, but his partner wasn’t able to compete.

“It’s similar to Policy Debate where you give two impromptu speeches,” Norick said.

Both the speech categories and debate require research, but in debate you have more extensive speeches and research on hand.

Norick said he enjoys Impromptu, which allows him to speak about philosophy, cultural or moral issues, whereas Extemporaneous leans more toward politics or world issues.

Norick said he enjoys the speech categories and debate for their more fluid nature.

“I never give the same speech twice,” Norick said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.