Characters are the anchor of any successful performance in every interpretation category. You want your characters to be interesting, unique, and most of all believable. We will go over a useful process as well as tips and tricks for creating characters that will bring your pieces to life.
Daniel Hodges has been a speech coach for over 10 years and is currently an Assistant Speech Coach at Apple Valley High School in Minnesota. Prior to Apple Valley, Daniel coached at Sioux Falls Lincoln High School in South Dakota where he competed in both speech and debate events as a student. While he has coached both interpretation and public address categories, his main focus is interpretation events. Between the NSDA, NCFL, NIETOC, and TOC National Tournaments, Daniel has coached 23 National Finalists, with 8 National Championships. Most recently, he coached 2020 NSDA Drama Champion, 2020 NSDA Duo Champion, and the 2021 TOC Duo Champion and Runner-ups.
Outside of coaching, Daniel is a professional stage actor and works as a non-profit fundraiser, focusing on data analytics and grant writing. He received his B.A. in English and Communication Studies & Theatre from the University of Sioux Falls and his M.A. in Performance Studies from Washington University, St. Louis.
This workshop will explore several of the key areas that public forum debaters can focus on to optimize their performance. It will focus on how to maximize speaker points, improve partner synergy, and will review tips for how to make it clear why you won both on the flow and perceptually. This workshop will outline several drills that debaters can build into their prep before a tournament.
Ashley Murphy is from Pennsylvania and has been involved in the speech and debate community-- as either a competitor or a coach-- for the last 15 years. She currently works as a Special Education teacher, a debate coach and a public speaking tutor. Ashley has received a Diamond Award and a Distinguished Service Award from the National Speech and Debate Association for her coaching work over the past seven years. She is a member of the Public Forum Topic Selection Committee as well as a board member of the Philadelphia chapter of the NCFL Speech and Debate League. Ashley has coached state finalists, national elimination round competitors and invitational champions in Public Forum Debate, Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Parliamentary Debate, Original Oratory, Informative Speaking, Extemporaneous Speaking, and more. Ashley has designed and implemented professional development material, curriculum and coaching resources for a variety of events and has presented at numerous conferences on Leadership, Advocacy, and Creating Accessible and Differentiated Team Environments.
4. Congressional Debate
The Only Three Congress Speeches You’ll Ever Need (Plus Parliamentary Tips and Tricks) by Becky Chabot and Keith Bistodeau
Congress debaters, have you ever wondered what the difference between a rebuttal and a crystallization really is? Or what needs to be in an authorship or sponsorship speech? Want to master parliamentary procedure? This session is for you! We’ll start with the three different types of Congress speeches, how to prep for them, and how to use them in rounds. Then, we’ll talk about parliamentary procedure and give you some tips and tricks to make mastering it easier. You’ll also leave with drill ideas to keep practicing the skills over the summer!
Becky Chabot (she/her/hers) is a Minnesota-based debate and speech coach and judge; over the course of her career, she has coached every debate format, but Congress is her true love. In addition to running Congress for Lakeville Debate, she regularly judges on both the local and national circuits and teaches elementary and middle school debate for Potomac Debate. She is passionate about creating inclusive debate spaces that are welcoming of all identities and is known for her commitment to student mental health. Outside of debate, Becky loves soccer, plaids, nerding out over theory, and gentle British reality shows (where lovely people make lovely things and are perfectly lovely about it.
Keith Bistodeau (he/him/his) is a Minnesota-based debate and speech coach and judge; over the course of his career, he has competed in and coached every debate format. In addition to coaching speech and debate at Wayzata High school, he regularly judges and runs tournaments on both the local and national circuits and teaches middle school and high school school debate for Potomac Debate. Known as Dr. B by his students, he focuses on creating inclusive and supportive environments within the debate community that foster genuine and meaningful relationships, connection, and experiences for all students. Outside of debate, Keith spend time playing baseball, grilling, camping, and spending as much time as possible with his wife and children.
5. Lincoln Douglas
Turns on turns on turns by Jasmine Stidham
Jasmine will introduce the concept of turns and how to answer and execute various versions of them in Lincoln Douglas. Students will learn about impact turns, straight turns, link turns, and more. While these concepts are oriented toward policy-style arguments in Lincoln Douglas, the lecture will still be relevant to students who prefer traditional arguments in LD. Students will have the opportunity to assess their knowledge at the end of the talk with a fun Kahoot!, along with plenty of time to ask questions.
Jasmine Stidham is a teacher and coach at the Harvard-Westlake School in California and an assistant coach for Dartmouth College. In 2018, she graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma, where she debated for four years in college policy debate. During her career, she managed to set records for her University: qualifying to the National Debate Tournament all four years, being the first team from UCO to receive a first-round bid to the NDT, reaching NDT octafinals two years in a row, winning several tournaments and top speaker awards, and more. As a high school coach, Jasmine has qualified dozens of students to the Tournament of Champions in Lincoln-Douglas and policy debate, including two TOC finalists. During her first year at Harvard-Westlake, the team earned 62 TOC bids and qualified 13 students in LD. At the collegiate level, Jasmine has helped coach Dartmouth to win the National Debate Tournament and the Copeland award. She also manages Girls Debate, an organization dedicated to highlighting issues facing gender minorities in debate and providing free resources to the debate community.
6. Policy
Topic: Health and Progress in Debate with Azja Butler
Hi my name is Azja Butler! I currently debate at the University of Kansas. I have been debating now for about eight years and am still in the thick of my career.
I am a three-time National Debate Tournament Qualifier, CEDA National Tournament Finalist. I am the first Black woman to win the Harvard Debate Tournament, and the first Black woman to win Top Speaker at the National Debate Tournament. I primarily read critical arguments about race and relationality but come from a traditional policy upbringing. I love this activity more than I can sometimes articulate but I look forward to imparting what knowledge I have so you all may go and grow into the wonderful debaters I know you all can be!
