I hated to get up in front of groups of people whether it was to speak or play an instrument. My lack of enthusiasm with performing may go back to my dance lesson memories from my 5 year old brain. I was asked to leave dance class when my mother was advised to “save her money” since according to the instructor, “I had all the grace of a baby elephant”.
However, honor students were supposed to participate in one or more categories of competitive public speaking. There were many areas for students to choose from including radio announcing, debate, stand-up comedy, dramatic reading, and so on. Very few of these appealed to me. The least threatening category appeared to be “Children’s Literature”.
The participant was required to deliver a story or story fragment in a manner that would engage the attention of small children. No one else wanted to compete in this category, so I had it all to myself.
I started competing in this category as a sophomore. I chose a portion of Winnie the Pooh where Pooh and Piglet go off hunting the woozles. The first thing I had to do was to edit the story to a five minute oral presentation. Once the selection was complete, then I had to create voices for the characters, as well as the delivery. This meant more editing since five minutes is not very long. Then, it was a matter of practice and more practice. Dress rehearsal usually occurred the Friday before the competition in front of the first and second grade classes, since this audience usually knew what they liked. After this rehearsal and any minor editing, there was a presentation to the coach, a tough old nun who drilled us relentlessly.
In that first year, I remember sixteen contestants with two sections in the first round. The top four contestants from each round competed in a final round of eight. The major weakness in this category of the competition was that we presented to adult judges with no children present. Audience feedback was sparse to non-existent, so it was impossible to improvise to the audience. The woozles made the finals, but not the top three much to the chagrin of the Sister Lucy who definitely did not like to lose.
Next year’s entry of Peter and the Wolf did not make the finals. Both the editing and character ranges were much more difficult to achieve the required perfection in the five minute window. In my senior year, I tackled Green Eggs and Ham which fit with little editing. It was also the year of the great Michigan blizzard. The paralyzing snow closed school for the two critical days prior to the competition. I trudged through eighteen inches of snow to get to the convent for one final practice. This presentation was my best finish at fourth – showing that you can probably continue to improve the delivery of children’s literature to adults, but it is much more fun to deliver the stories to their intended audience.
