‘Theater for theater kids who want to take it a bit more seriously’

Students from Soldotna, Nikiski and Homer competed Saturday at Soldotna High School in a variety of speaking, acting and debating events in the Kenai Peninsula Drama, Debate and Forensics Invitational.

At different times on Saturday, students from the three schools could be seen competing in the various events that make up a DDF competition.

Emerson Kapp and AJ Sorrell acted out a sketch where they were trapped together in a dark escape room. Jackson Hooper, Oshie Broussard, Belle Morris and Kincaid Jenness performed a comedic abridged version of the complete works of Shakespeare. Kenneth Fine and Connor Marks took on their own teammates Cy Garcia and Ethan Anding in debating whether the United States should or shouldn’t accede to the International Criminal Court.

Members of Nikiski’s DDF team, who won the state championship last year, said that DDF is “organized, competitive theater.” They said the competition can take many forms, like readers theater, where teams stand and act from binders; or duet acting, where there’s more movement and freedom. There’s also events that don’t involve acting, like the debates.

Jenness said on Saturday that, regardless of the event, preparation for an acting challenge often begins with identifying a fun script. There’s room for fun and experimentation in making artistic decisions from that starting point.

Because there’s so many different events, Morris said, “there’s a niche for everybody.”

Readers theater, she said, is her favorite because it’s so broad. During one readers theater session on Saturday, in addition to Morris and her teammates’ “Shakespeare Abridged,” a group of Homer High School students performed “Law and Order: Fairy Tale Unit” and SoHi students staged a scene from “The Office.” Another team from Nikiski performed a scene that opened like a comedy before ending on a dour emotional note.

The Nikiski actors said that DDF creates a space for them to exercise their skills in a different — competitive — setting.

“We wrote a rap about Shakespeare,” Morris said. “Now we get to do it competitively and win.”

DDF, Broussard said, is “theater for theater kids who want to take it a bit more seriously.”

Where Nikiski’s actors focused on the theatrical events of DDF, a group of SoHi debaters had their own take on the program.

“It’s pretty much competitive public speaking,” Garcia said.

It was a quirk of the smaller Kenai Peninsula competition that led two SoHi teams to tangle in one round of debate on Saturday. Fine and Marks were tasked with arguing for the U.S. to accede to the ICC, against Garcia and Anding who argued the opposition. The action got fiery, and the four students said after the debate that they’d worked together in preparing for the topic — which is the same as they’ll argue at the state competition in a couple of weeks.

Because they had to operate both sides of their own argument against one another, the four students said the exercise will help them shore up their plan for state.

Debate isn’t the only event they compete in, however, as they described also informative and argumentative speeches, another debate category that only allows for 30 minutes of preparation, and readers theater, where the four were joined by Arda Buluc in performing the scene from “The Office” where Dwight wears the face of a CPR dummy.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.

Kenai Peninsula DDF Invitational

Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking — 1. Cy Garcia, Sol; 2. DK Kitenge, Sol

Dramatic Interpretation — 1. Adelynn Ross, Sol; 2. Erin Allen, Hom

Duet Acting — 1. Kayla Kalafut and Raiden Skorski-O’Donnell, Hom; 2. Kincaid Jenness and Oshie Broussard, Nik; 3. Jackson Hooper and Rainy Jenness, Nik; 4. Ava Spurgeon and Kry Spurgeon, Nik; 5. AJ Sorrell and Emerson Kapp, Sol

Duo Interpretation — 1. Kincaid Jenness and Oshie Broussard, Nik; 2. Jackson Hooper and Belle Morris, Nik

Extemporaneous Commentary — 1. Ethan Anding, Sol; 2. Raiden Skorski-O’Donnell, Hom; 3. Eli Bouschor, Sol

Extemporaneous Duet Acting — 1. AJ Sorrell and Emerson Kapp, Sol; 2. Mattias Watson and Alex Brock, Hom; 3. Jessica Nguyen and Adelynn Ross, Sol; 4. Aiden Crane and Erin Allen, Hom

Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking — 1. Arda Buluc, Sol; 2. Kenneth Fine, Sol

Group Pantomime — 1. Kry Spurgeon, Nik; 2. Belle Morris and Rainy Jenness, Nik; 3. Jessica Nguyen and Adelynn Ross, Sol

Humorous Interpretation — 1. Alex Brock, Hom; 2. Trygg Flyum, Hom; 3. Raiden Skorski-O’Donnell, Hom

Informative Speaking — 1. Connor Marks, Sol; 2. Arda Buluc, Sol; 3. Ethan Anding, Sol

Lincoln Douglas Debate — 1. DK Kitenge, Sol; 2. Lilliana White, Hom; 3. Kingston Longpre, Hom

Original Oratory — 1. Arda Buluc, Sol

Public Forum Debate — 1. Kenneth Fine and Connor Marks, Sol; 2. Cy Garcia and Ethan Anding, Sol; 3. Marina Co and Kayla Kalafut, Hom

Readers Theater — 1. Jackson Hooper, Belle Morris, Oshie Broussard and Kincaid Jenness, Nik; 2. Kry Spurgeon, Ava Spurgeon and Rainy Jenness, Nik; 3. Ethan Anding, Arda Buluc, Kenneth Fine, Cy Garcia and Connor Marks, Sol; 4. Trygg Flyum, Erin Allen, Mattias Watson and Alex Brock, Hom