This week I started a new semester of college, and I happened to find myself in a Philosophy class. One of the first assignments we were given involved reading the first meditation of one of Descartes’ works. The main point of the piece was that things completed by one single person are ultimately much better than things completed by a group of people. Well… I think Descartes is boring—really really incredibly boring. However! Reading his works (well, actually I used Spark No

How I’m going to get my novice, or younger members, to be the great performers that I want them to be (when they are older and more experienced) is one of the things I am constantly thinking about as coach. Not everyone is brilliant from an early age—not everyone has an easy time understanding acting techniques. I’ve spent a large amount of time trying to come up with some of the best possible things that I can try to get younger students to learn so that they have this talen

Creativity, as I’m sure you’re aware, is a crucial component to creating a cool interp performance. Creativity, however, is not a skill you can perfect or hone—you are either creative, or you’re not. Personally I believe that every single person has the ability to be creative. The trouble is (and this is going to sound strange) most people try to be creative in—what can best be described as—the wrong way. Too many people isolate a certain part of their piece and go, “Yes, her

Recently I was having a conversation with my old assistant coach, and the topic of interp came up (as it always does). We talked about a lot of things, but mainly how my old team is doing this year. Since I graduated in 2011, my team has lost almost all its coaches. I’m one of the people who have stepped forward to volunteer as an assistant coach, and I have (along with a few other great coaches) been doing my best to keep the tradition of excellence alive at my school. I’m

The last article I wrote was about something I think a lot of people are missing from their pieces. Well I’ve thought of another that is missing! A skill that I believe is very important to have in interp is the ability to adapt—especially with duos. Too many people practice their piece to be done one specific way and don’t leave any room for changes. They don’t discuss ways to change their piece for different circumstances relating to room size or judge placement. At a typic

Something that I think is important for all pieces, especially dramatic ones, is an idea I have called singularity. Yes—I’m almost certain that singularity is already a term that has something to do with physics (though I’m not entirely sure what). Well, I liked the word so I stole it for my own personal usage. Singularity is—like most complex ideas—a difficult term to simply explain with words in an article. For this reason I’m going to tell a story that I hope helps to exp

A problem you run into a lot as a coach is your students wanting to find a “perfect piece.” I cannot even count the number of times a student has come up to me and said that he/she wants to change their piece, or that they want to look for a better piece. On a few occasions, I have agreed with these students and started searching with them for a better piece. But the trouble is (more often than not) these students have not worked hard on their pieces and simply want to change