League Policies

1. In any competitive event, boundaries must exist in order to create a level playing field. These are rules that are in place to avoid a competitive advantage of any competitor over another. A confirmed violation of these rules will result in a penalty.

   1. Tournament Administration will apply a four-rank penalty to the judges’ final ranks for any competitor who has a script or notes within their view during their speech at any tournament other than a Regional or National Championship. Online competitors must announce the script use before the speech begins.
   2. A pre-show is not permitted. A pre-show refers to rehearsed blocking, synchronized movement, or additional performance prior to the beginning of the timed speech.
   3. Only feet are permitted to intentionally touch the floor at any time.
   4. Gymnastics are not permitted. Gymnastics include acrobatic-type blocking such as flips, cartwheels, leaping over people or objects, etc.
   5. Costumes are not permitted. Costumes include any item(s) worn in addition to the competitor’s tournament attire.
   6. Visual aids are not permitted. Visual aids are items used to enhance the speech. In an online tournament, this also includes green screens, virtual backgrounds, or on-screen text.
   7. Competitors must present their speeches center stage (or within the camera frame for online tournaments) and must not infringe on the judges’ table or personal space.
   8. Requesting verbal or physical participation (e.g., raising hand, clapping, verbal responses, closing eyes) from audience members, including judges, is not permitted.
   9. In online tournaments:
      1. Other individuals may be present during the speech but must not be intentionally visible on screen.
      2. A single, stationary camera must be used (i.e., no zooming or panning is permitted).
      3. Only audio presented live from the competitor is permitted (i.e., audio that is computer-generated, recorded, generated by a third-party, etc. is not permitted).
   10. Competitors must present a single, non-original, published literature selection.
       1. “Single literature selection” indicates that only one selection may be used. Even when published in one volume or written by the same author, only one selection may be used (e.g., a single short story or poem from a collection, an individual book of the Bible, etc.).
       2. “Non-original” indicates that the literature selection is not written by the competitor.
       3. “Published” indicates a work of an author which is available to the public. Published does not include material from blogs, social media, or transcription services for audio or video recordings, radio, TV, or movies (e.g., dailyscript.com, simplyscripts.com, etc.).
       4. “Literature” includes plays, prose, or poetry.
   11. When cutting the literature selection, single words from separate sentences may not be strung together to create new sentences.
   12. When cutting the literature selection, an author’s words may not be changed except for
       1. combining phrases from several nearby sentences.
       2. repeating an author’s words even when the author does not do so.
       3. adding a single word from a nearby sentence for transition or character identification.
       4. pronoun substitution and verb tense.
   13. When cutting the literature selection, reassigning one character’s lines to another existing character from the literature selection is permitted, but creating new characters (including changing the name and/or gender of an existing character) is not permitted.
   14. Within the literature selection, published songs from another source are only permitted if the author has included a reference to the song.
   15. Up to 150 words may be added as an introduction and/or conclusion.
       1. Clear distinction must be made from the literature selection.
       2. Original dialogue must not be assigned to an author’s character.
   16. A short teaser from the literature selection may precede the introduction.
   17. The title and author of the literature selection must be included in the introduction.
   18. Any words added as a conclusion must be the final words presented.
   19. Singing may comprise up to 150 words of the speech.
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