This week is the 111th annual state high school oral interpretation festival in South Dakota, but it will look different than it ever has before. That’s because the event won’t run in person for 2020, it’ll be held virtually through online submissions only. Originally slated to take place in Watertown, participants are now asked to record their performances on their own.
“So what we are doing is kids are creating their videos in their seven categories of competition,” said Michelle McIntyre, Sioux Falls Washington oral interp cocah. “And then we are submitting those video links for judges to judge over the course of a couple of days.”
The format for this year is anything but traditional, but it’s a format that allows kids to compete.
“So typically we would be in person and we would be in each of our seven categories with all of our competitors in that category from the AA schools or the A schools or B schools, wherever we are,” McIntyre explained. “And so typically at our level at the AA, if we were in an in-person competition, we would be one of about 14 in a round of competition.”
Along with being the head oral interp coach at Washington high school, McIntyre is also on the speech advisory committee for the South Dakota High School Activities Association. The speech advisory committee overlooks three fine arts activities that are under the SDHSAA umbrella – debate, one-act plays, and oral interp.
“It was really important to us as coaches and on behalf of our students to be able to make sure that they had every opportunity they could have this year, even though we had to drastically modify the format,” said McIntyre. “I think that there's such a great benefit to the kids being in any activity. It helps them academically and socially. And just making sure that at least from the oral interp standpoint, one of the biggest things is that kids find their voices. They gain their confidence.”
Judging for the state oral interpretation festival will take place this weekend in South Dakota, with judges being assigned a category of performances to watch and rate. Individuals and schools are aiming for superior ratings just like any other oral interp event. South Dakota Public Broadcasting will publish the results at sdpb.org/oralinterp once the judging has concluded.
After the state oral interp festival, the next state event on the SDHSAA calendar is the One-Act Play festival on February 4-6 in Brandon. As of right now, the plan is to have that event take place in person, but it's possible that it too may become a virtual event.
