Drama, debate, forensics competitions are worth the stress

People buzzing around constantly; practicing for your performance whether it be in acting, debate, or speech; downtime is a prized rarity; eat if you have food. What I just described is a typical Drama, Debate, and Forensics tournament.

These competitions bring together students from schools statewide to compete in speech, acting and debate events. The stress and chaos provided of a tournament is nothing compared to a performance.

The minute you step up on stage to perform your selected piece, a million different things run through your head. A lot of what you think about is the effect a positive or negative performance will have on your overall performance in the tournament. The anxiety of performing starts long before then though. The closer you get to the time of your performance, the more nerves start setting in. By the time you figure out what room you will be performing in, your hands have started shaking.

While you watch others perform, you start to wonder if your piece is good enough. You’re a walking ball of nerves as you step up in front of the judges. While you perform, you have to focus on your piece and not on how nervous you are. After the piece, you wonder if it was good enough to compete with the other pieces you already saw. It takes about 15 minutes before you can relax again and focus on the next performance, whether of course, it starts all over again. This is an average performance for me when it comes to my DDF acting events.

Despite all the nerves and the pressure, I find performing to be very rewarding. The real worth in DDF performances is the fact that the judges rate you as a performer and often times leave very insightful advice in the comment selection of their judging sheet. Not only do the judges give advice and constructive criticism, the other performers also give advice as well.

The tournaments normally consist of two days of performances, speeches and debates. In the acting events that I compete in, the tournament usually consists of one performance of each piece on the Friday of the tournament, a performance on Saturday, and then finals. Finals determine who places first, second, and third in an event.

Nerves are amplified and hearts race as finals approach. As with the usual performances, the performers need to put everything behind them and perform. In finals, it’s much harder to push the stress away; but we do anyway. When the performances are complete, there’s a bit of downtime before the awards. Then the nerves set in again. What if the judges hated your piece? What if you placed? What if you didn’t place at all? What if you failed miserably? All sorts of questions run through your head as you wait for your event awards to be announced. After the awards are announced, you either need to cope with the fact you didn’t place, or be happy that you did. Either way, you compete for new judges next week at a new tournament, and all the nerves and preparations start all over again.

Though the whole process of a DDF tournament is very taxing, it is a very rewarding experience and a lot of fun.

Tianna (Tia) Jones is a journalism student at Wasilla High School.