Showcase raises money for successful Speech and Debate team

By Denna Changizi,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The Davis High Speech and Debate team held a large showcase event on Tuesday, April 12 at the Brunelle Theater, and encouraged students, parents and friends to support the team. The performances included personal/prose speeches, a duo interpretation, impromptu speaking, oratorical interpretation, extemporaneous speaking and a debate.

The event was a fundraiser, so each student was charged a $5 admission fee, which also provided unlimited access to free dessert; in total, the event raised about $1,600.

Walking into the crowded theater, audience members were greeted by a large table stacked with awards, all of which were won in the past two years.

“I think [the showcase] was absolutely amazing,” senior Claire Michael said. “Last year we only had about 60 people and I don’t know the total amount of people [from tonight]; we had like 156 or like 160. For a Tuesday night, that is insane and I think it went really, really well.”

Michael began the night by performing a speech about her childhood and her period of depression. The crowd was immediately engaged by her story, and attentively listened to her speak.

Michael was followed by senior Kanishk Pandey’s impromptu speech; his topic was randomly drawn out of a basket full of ideas the crowd came up with.

Next, MCs and seniors Andres De Loera-Brust and Varun Kota gave junior Benjamin Hoffner-Brodsky a topic for his speech, along with 30 minutes to prepare for it.

Once all the speeches were given, the crowd took a brief intermission to eat dessert and participate in the silent auction.

When the debate began, the crowd was immediately engaged.

Juniors Jesse Brandt and Peter Zhu argued for a later school start time of 8:30 a.m. When they finished, the opposing side, seniors Kairi Sageshima and Matthew Corey, shared their point of view to discourage students from requesting a later start time.

Brandt enjoyed the crowd’s clapping and laughing while the debating sides argued.

“Often with debates, there’s only a couple people in the room and a judge, but that was a lot more fun with all the laughter and the crowd reactions,” Brandt said.

Thank you SO SO SO much to everyone who came out, it was amazing to see you all and the response! Updates coming soon with the $$$ raised 🙂

— DHS Speech and Debat (@davisforensics) April 13, 2016