I, the Forensics Judge

I got there bright an early at 7:30 AM. Yawn. Fortunately I had breakfast and was full. When I arrived in the Hospitality Room they had two huge boxes of donuts!!! Now, I wished I hadn't ate breakfast. Oh well. Of course, coffee percolating in the room. I would love it with they would have had a space heater and hot chocolate or Coca Cola. I am not a coffee drinker.

I collected my assignment and only got to judge two rounds. I was disappointed. I wanted to do more. Oh well, maybe next time. I noticed who the other judges were. There were some judges that I wouldn't want judging me!! This particular person is always pretty stone faced. I wondered who asked her. I saw some CHS teachers, a HES teacher, a wrestling coach, some moms of students, and a sister of a student (S's best friend from H town). So I talked a lot with her (LS). She's always been nice to converse with. It's funny, her parents and me are around the same age. I enjoy talking to the younger people. I guess that's just me though. Everyone went off to their assignment before 8 AM.

I found my room. The big cold band room. I switched on a light and waited. No one came in. I called L and waited. Finally I had two boys come in asking me if I had a timer. I was hoping that I did. So we waited. Pretty soon Jerrod came in tell me that such and such cancelled. Meanwhile I did get a timer person. Ethan of Anthony was pretty nice. So I saw the first Improv Duet Acting. They had a lot of energy. A little too much energy. I wasn't sure how to rate this one. So I did what I could. Then I saw another one about Big Foot. I liked this one because I could actually see where their play was going to. Then I had a guy and girl team (before I had two guy teams). These two kids looked to be either juniors or seniors. They had a great intro, a title and a lot of physical action, I felt the movement. After they ended, I wanted to clap for their performance. I smiled and told them "Thank you very much." Now, I know I was supposed to wait to rank them, but it was easy to see that no matter what, this was my first choice. They were polished. The next routine received the worst rating from me, as they were pretty bad. The plot was all over the place. Then they fought on the floor, oh please. It was stupid! But I didn't say this on the comment sheet. I said something like it didn't work for me, sorry. Then I had two boys do a gnome and a race car driver, it was pretty funny.

Prose was pretty interesting. This is what S does in tournaments so basically I was trying to rate them based on what she does. One girl did a "Fractured Fairy" tale about Hansel and Gretel. She was scaring me with all these unneccesary gestures and it was hard to tell the characters a part. I think what creeped me out was the gestures. She was last. The next girl was really nice, then off to the races she went!! It was like !! WOW, this WAY too fast. Faster than the previous one whom I graded down on. Her characters were slow but the narration was too quick. There was one whom I wanted to rate first except her piece was way too short (she was part of the team who had IDA that I liked), so she had to get 2nd. The one who got first, was pretty graphic and she read it slow with meaning. I could catch all of these, it was just a gruesome subject. I gave third place to a guy who read a piece by Paul Feig (he's the science teacher on "Sabrina the teenage witch.") The Army Elf, I think it was about. He had good voice characterizations and it was a funny piece.

It's funny I wrote a lot on this one girls' piece as I thought she was very nice. I guess I wanted to see her improve. The gestures girl just bothered me and I didn't like her piece.

I let HH know I would be available for next year. I had fun and learned a lot about prose. Some of the judges were late getting into their room and students were waiting. You should be to your assignment on time if you are a judge. No one likes to be kept waiting!