Dear Forensics Coach,

 

The Sun Prairie High School Forensics team invites you and your team to the fourteenth annual Sun Prairie Forensics Tournament. This asynchronous tournament will culminate on Saturday, February 6, 2021. 

 

We want to make forensics competition accessible to as many students, coaches, and judges as possible.  With that in mind, we are offering both asynchronous *and* synchronous competition.  We see educational value in both types of competition, but recognize limitations and challenges inherent in both.  We welcome students competing in both options, and plan to recognize award winners from both at a joint awards ceremony on Saturday, February 6 at 3:30pm.  Students are invited to attend both our asynchronous and synchronous tournaments to maximize the feedback they receive at this early-season tournament, provided they have judges to cover their entries.  

 

 

The following information is for our ASYNCHRONOUS tournament.  

 

There will be four preliminary rounds and no final (power) round for this asynchronous tournament.  Final placings will be determined by cumulative student placement in the four asynchronous preliminary rounds.  This gives coaches and judges more flexibility to complete their assigned rounds, and eliminates the need for judges to be present for a time-sensitive power round on Saturday afternoon.  

 

 

Rules     

WFCA rules will be used for all events (For a list of rules see www.wfcaforensics.org) with the following modifications:

-Allowance of one 4x6 notecard in Oratory

-Solo Actors will be allowed to use a chair

-Allowance of notes in Oratorical Declamation

-Allowance of notes in Demonstration, Informative, Moments and Special Occasion

 

 

 

Individuals in Demo, Duo, Group Interp and Play Acting must perform from separate spaces (Split screen).

Students are allowed a single camera, and single microphone

 

 

 

Videos must be uploaded to YouTube as UNLISTED and the links added with the entry. All videos should be named with student’s LAST NAME ONLY and EVENT: Dahlgren, Radio. For OIL, and Storytelling, also include whether the video is prose, poetry or the story that they are telling: Dahlgren, OIL, Prose. This will make it easier for judges to know which video they are watching while judging. 

 

Please advise your students that the background, lighting, and sound quality will not be judged; however, they should try to find a quiet place to record. All videos must be done in a single take with no editing, single camera, single microphone. The same video performance will be used for all four rounds. 

 

Please enter storytelling videos in the following order:

Video 1: A fable 

Video 2: A story about being heard

Video 3: A story of the undead

Video 4: Storyteller's choice: Please submit a second link of the student's preferred video for the fourth round

 

Please enter OIL as 

Video 1: Poetry

Video 2: Prose 

ASYNCHRONOUS SCHEDULE

 

MONDAY FEBRUARY 1

 

5:00pm Limited Prep (EXT, IMP, RADIO), prompts posted to SpeechWire, and emailed to coaches marked as “attending” at that time.

 

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4

 

5:00pm Student and Judge Entry Deadline; Links due to SpeechWire

 

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4

 

7:00pm All rounds blasted out to judges. Rounds also posted to SpeechWire

 

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 6

 

12:00pm Ballots due

 

2:00pm Notification of "top speakers" in each category

 

3:30pm Awards Live Stream via zoom

 

 

 

BALLOT PUSH CRITERIA

 

Please reach out to Anna-Lisa Dahlgren via email (amdahlg@sunprairieschools) or text (608-712-5152) with any potential DQs.  

 

Any preliminary round not started by 11:00am cst on Saturday will be pushed to a standby judge. The team responsible for the “missed round” will be charged $50 per missed round.

 

 

 

 

DEADLINES

 

Please register via Speechwire.com no later than 5pm, Thursday, February 4th. A registration confirmation will be emailed out after registration closes. Coaches can also view their own up-to-the minute fees on Speechwire.com.

 

Links are due to SpeechWire by 5pm on Thursday February 4th.

 

 

 

 

LIMITED PREPARATION

 

Students entered in Impromptu are expected to film both their prep time, and speech as one continuous, unedited video.

Students entered in Extemp and Radio should prep and record, and upload their speech within a 45-minute time frame.  They should only submit the spoken portion of their speech (students in Extemp and Radio do NOT need to record prep time) 

Students can enter in more than one limited prep category

 

 

 

ENTRIES

 

Students are allowed to double enter in any category.  

 

 

JUDGES

   

Each school must provide one judge for every six entries or portion of six entries. Each duo, group interp or play acting is considered one entry. Please try to bring your own quality judges. Your judge commitment will be based on your entry as of Thursday, Feburary 4th at 5:00pm. We will have hired judges available for you at a cost of $15 per uncovered entry. Teams with over 60 entries/10 judges are required to hire judges from the tournament.

 

 

AWARDS

 

Medals will be presented to all finalists. In addition, the top novice competitor in each category will receive an award. Team awards will be given to schools in three divisions. Your top 25 competitors with a maximum of four in any one category will count for team awards. Divisions will be determined based on actual entries competing. A minimum of five entries will be needed to compete for team awards.

 

Awards will be mailed within a week of the tournament.  Coaches: please verify that your address is correct in speechwire.  

 

DEADLINES

 

-Teams can and should manage their own drops on Speechwire.com until 5:00pm, Thursday, February 4th.

-Entries dropped after that time will still be charged and you will be responsible for the judges listed.

 

FEES 

 

A fee of $10.00 for each individual entry and $15.00 for group entries (Duo, Group Interp, Play Acting). Entry fees are per entry, not per student. Fees will be based on your confirmed entry.

 

 

SPEECHWIRE

   

-Note on Varsity/Novice designation: When prompted to enter a student’s division, please use varsity for all competitors EXCEPT those students in their FIRST year of high school forensics competition. Please mark these students as NOVICE. This will allow us to recognize top novice competitors at awards like we have in the past.

-If you encounter any problems with the online registration, don't hesitate to email amdahlg@sunprairieschools.org

 

We are looking forward to hosting you in this atypical way! If you have any questions, feel free to contact us!

 

Anna-Lisa Dahlgren                                       

Head Coach, SPHS Forensics                 

Cell: 608-712-5152

E-Mail: amdahlg@sunprairieschools.org

 

Alexis O'Connell

Coach, SPHS Forensics

 

Sara Hilliger

Coach, SPHS Forensics

 

Jason Samens

Coach, SPHS Forensics

(vr)