Sitka High School Drama Debate and Forensics team members and Coach Christian Litten, back, wait for the final rounds of debate in the Sitka High library Saturday afternoon. The team, while able to be together, had to compete online in the regional meet this year because of COVID-19 concerns. (Sentinel Photo)
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
In the final regional meet of the season, drama, debate, forensic teams from Sitka High and Mt. Edgecumbe rose to the challenge of competing online and garnered several top spots.
Mt. Edgecumbe High School hosted the meet, and fielded a team, joined by Sitka, Ketchikan, Thunder Mountain, Skagway, Haines, Metlakatla, and Whitestone (Delta Junction).
Like other meets this season, the competition was held through a videoconference system, with kids competing from their rooms, a classroom or other space, and judges watching live performances from their home or office. All but two events – Readers Theater and mime – were held live.
Sitka High
Christian Litten, who along with Amy Ainslie coaches the Wolves team, said it was the first time since October the kids have been together as a team at the school.
“You can definitely see the virtual format was wearing on the kids,” he said. “It was great to recreate some of the camaraderie we’ve all been missing. Being on the ferry, sleeping in a church and bonding among the kids – that’s been missing.”
That being so, he said, the students have been performing and competing well in most events, with a cadre of freshmen joining the upperclassmen. Litten said that while the virtual format has provided challenges, “We’re getting better at it,” he said.
A number of Sitka High kids earned top marks in several categories, and Litten was pleased to see seniors finish the season strong in their last regional meet.
Among them was Tava Guillory, who said she was happy with her performances, earning a first place in original oratory, extemporaneous speaking and readers theater. Teammates in the readers theater piece “She Kills Monsters” were Zia Allen, Felix Myers, and Ben Hedrick.
Guillory’s original oratory on male contraception has been doing well throughout the year, and the category is strong overall for the Wolves, who placed first, second (Darby Osborne) and third (Jamison Dunn) at the weekend meet.
Guillory also competed in public forum debate and while Ketchikan took the top spots, Guillory was sixth in speaker points and her teammate Darby Osborne was first. The topic was “Resolved: On balance, the benefits of urbanization in West Africa outweigh the harms.” It will be the same topic at the state competition.
“We’re working on adapting our cases to what we learned and what we focused on, and we’re working to get more evidence,” she said. “We’re rewriting cases, and thinking through rebuttals.”
Zia Allen, who has been doing well all season in the acting categories, also had a good final regional meet in her senior year, with a first in dramatic interpretation of literature, and fourth in humorous interpretation of literature, on top of the win in the readers theater event.
Among the freshmen who had strong weekends were Felix Myers and Jamison Dunn. Myers took sixth in extemporaneous commentary as well as first in readers theater. Myers moved here from China, and had never heard of drama, debate, forensics before.
“When the athletic director told me about what it was, I went, and I loved it, and been doing it ever since,” Myers said. At state he will be entering the contests for readers theater, extemporaneous speaking and debate with partner Logan Kluting.
He has a background in acting, and enjoys DDF for the chance to “connect and talk about real-life issues and real-life problems around the world.”
“I love having these discussions about these things,” Myers said. “I enjoy being with like-minded people who enjoy it, and love having a competition around it. That’s fascinating to me.”
Myers is the son of teachers, and has lived in several places around the world. The debate topic has been an interesting one for him, he said, and “it seemed overwhelming at first. It’s a multifaceted issue, a complicated issue – there’s so much to talk about and so little time.”
Jamison Dunn, another freshman, also had a good weekend, with a third in oratory on vegetarianism and sixth for her informative speech on anxiety. Heading into state, she said, she and her debate partner, Addie Poulson, will be gathering new evidence to strengthen their arguments.
“There’s so much evidence, and you don’t know what people are going to bring,” Dunn said. She said she also needs to work on “connecting to the judges,” who are watching the debate remotely. That means looking into the camera, which is challenging, she said.
SHS Results
Extemporaneous commentary: 4. Addie Poulson; 5. Logan Kluting
Extemporaneous speaking: 1. Tava Guillory; 6. Felix Myers
Informative speaking: 1. Addie Poulson; 6. Jamison Dunn.
Original Oratory: 1. Guillory; 2. Osborne; 3. Dunn
Humorous Interpretation of literature: 4. Zia Allen
Dramatic interpretation of literature: 1.
Duo Interp and duet acting combined: 2. Osborne and Poulson; 4. Sally Everson and Ben Hedrick
Solo acting: 6. Sally Everson
Readers theater: 1. Tava Guillory, Zia Allen, Felix Myers, and Ben Hedrick
Public forum debate: 6. Osborne and Guillory
Debate speaker points: 1. Osborne; 6. Guillory
Mt. Edgecumbe
Mt. Edgecumbe coach Marcia Drake said the judges and competitors are becoming more comfortable with the digital platforms.
“This allowed us to run the tournament almost entirely live, meaning judges were watching students compete in real time,” Drake said in her report on the meet. “Overall, the feel of the tournament was more like a real DDF meet.”
She said her team did “surprisingly well considering we recently returned from Winter Break, followed by 10 days of lock-down quarantine. We are fine-tuning our pieces and are eager to perform for State.”
MEHS Placings
Fiona & Hayden Raasch – (Sitka) 1st Duet Acting
Cash Arrington (Nome) – 2nd Extemporaneous Speaking
April Wyatt (Craig), Marissa Crabtree (Palmer), Emily Hill (Sitka) – 4th Readers Theater
Marissa Crabtree (Anchorage) – 3rd Solo Acting - Finalist Humorous Interp
Julia Johnson (Fairbanks) – 5th Solo Acting
Drake thanked the volunteers who helped judge the meet, and said those interested may also judge at the state meet Feb. 11-13. They can contact Drake at 738-0429 or Litten at 738-5869.
