At the fourth annual "Speak Out" on Wednesday, the TU Speech and Debate Team will present interpretations of poetry and scripts that they have performed at numerous competitions across the nation.
The students selected their own pieces, covering a wide range of topics, like AIDS and lost love.
"The common thread [of the program] is a guiding principle our program uses: that performance can be personal and political," team coach Darren Goins said. "This year we have been exploring performance art, script and text as a part of our process."
Many of the pieces that the team will be performing are of situations that many students may be able to relate to in some way. The pieces are dramatic dialogues with two team members on stage that can't look or touch each other while they are performing.
"The Man Who Couldn't Dance," a piece performed by team members Jordan Walter and David Biglari, is about a couple that broke up but later realized that they were meant to be together but by that point it was too late.
Dramatic duos are very different from the dialogue that most students are accustomed to seeing. "They can see real emotion being acted out between two characters," Biglari said. "In the event the two characters are not allowed to look each other in the eye or touch each other. It's an off-stage focus."
"It's probably one of the funnier pieces to watch," Walter said. "Watching two people interact with one another...is something [students] can relate to."
Biglari will also be performing with team member David Kosak in "The Normal Heart," which is about two men that fall in love and then one dies of AIDS.
"As a heterosexual it challenged me," Kosak, a sophomore mass communication major, said. "It allows me to show the genuine emotion that was present throughout the piece. I really had to become the character. It really is about loving somebody and seeing them die."
Goins said he hopes the performances pique the audience's interest in the Speech and Debate Team.
"I want them to get the excitement for performance, and interest in joining Towson University's Speech and Debate team and have respect for the hard work the students involved are putting forth," he said.
Biglari said the event allows students to see what the Speech and Debate Team does.
"Really they can learn new skills of speaking and really that's what it's all about," he said,
The members of the speech and debate team said that they hope that those that come to see "Speak Out" to enjoy the dramatic performances being offered and to gain a better appreciation for speech performance.
"It's absolutely entertaining and thought provoking," Goins said. "It is an art form that goes back millennia but still exists in academic and commercial venues."
"Speak Out: Speech and Drama Hour" will take place Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Ruth Marder Studio Theatre in the Center for the Arts.
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