Spring Break
SJSU holds 108th storytelling competition
Casey Jay and Angelo Lanham
Issue date: 5/12/08 Section: News
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The annual event is a student contest celebrating excellence in oral interpretation and storytelling.
"This event has really shown the caliber of talent that this event holds," said Emily Howard, a theatre arts graduate student. Howard said the finalists were chosen from about 30 students who auditioned.
"The competition tonight seems pretty fierce," she said. "Everyone seems pretty rehearsed.
A preliminary round of competition was held Wednesday afternoon to narrow down the number of finalists to three storytellers and seven oral interpreters for Friday.
Beverly Swanson, a professor of oral interpretation and storytelling and coordinator of the event, said participating students completely memorized their material.
The performances on Friday included a variety of stories and interpretations of poetry, movies and song lyrics.
Ovan Chan, a senior theatre arts major and oral interpretation finalist, recited a collection of food poems for his piece.
"My favorite part is being able to take what I like and share it," he said of oral interpretation.
Chan added that the event is important not only for the champagne reception during intermission, but because it showcases a blend of talent.
Celissa Diolata, a junior creative arts major, said the most difficult part is defining the line between acting and oral interpretation. She said she chose her piece, part of the screenplay from the movie "Pleasantville," because of the message behind it.
"When things are different or out of the norm, people get scared," Diolata said.
Every finalist was given a book, which Swanson said is a Kaucher/Mitchell tradition. Two trophies were awarded to the best student from each category based on votes by three faculty judges.
Caitlin Dissinger, a senior theatre arts major, received the storytelling trophy, and Michael Sanchez was awarded the oral interpretation trophy.
"It feels great," Sanchez said of his win. "I was nervous the whole time because there was a lot of good competition."
Sanchez said he got into oral interpretation by accident.
"I took classes looking for easy credit," he said. "But once I started, I found it was really fun to do, so I stuck around."
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