Welcome to Open Interpretation!
This event explores a single, published literature selection and is presented by a single competitor. Students face the challenge of dramatizing all of their own characters and scenes. Presentations range from hilariously funny to heart wrenching.
How This Event Works
Students adapt a published piece of literature into a ten-minute presentation, cutting words from the original source to form a script and bringing the characters to life though acting and blocking. With all of their lines memorized, they endeavor to deliver an enjoyable and meaningful presentation to the audience.
Learn More about Interpretation Events
Featured Resource
Our workshop kit can help you learn what you need to know to successfully prepare your first interp speech.
Intro to Interpretation Workshop
With six hours of instruction and activities, an easy-to-follow facilitator guide, printable student activity packets, and slides, even a novice parent can successfully lead students through this workshop. Recordings of the live event are also available for family or group use.
Open FAQs
Why should I participate in Open Interpretation?
Interpretation speeches ask students to bring a piece of literature to life through blocking and characterization. Open invites students to:
- Engage emotions. As students interpret stories, they can engage the emotions of the audience in a way facts can not.
- Shape thinking through stories. By turning a favorite story into an Interpretation speech, students will be able to communicate truth in a manner that resonates with the audience.
- Broaden perspectives. Stories broaden students’ perspective as they discover characters whose lives, experiences, and beliefs are very different from their own.
- Improve skills. Interpretation speeches challenge students to talk and act like a variety of characters. Open Interpretation can help students to overcome their vocal and physical delivery.
Do we still have a grace period for speeches exceeding the time limit?
The automatic 2-rank penalty will only be applied after 15 seconds of the speech time limit. Find clarification on overtime in the event guidelines under “Timekeeping Protocols” (see Apologetics as an example), in the Speech Head Judge Instructions, and as an example of a timekeeping rule penalty in the Compliance Penalty Addendum. Keep in mind that while the grace period allows for small mishaps and miscalculations, judges may still consider the time limit of the speech event as they rank. We advise competitors to prepare for these variables by continuing to practice a speech under the time limit.
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