Reese Johnson

Coaching Expertise

Blocking and Sound Design - I am exceptional at building believable environments that help your audience keep interest and transfer them into other worlds.
Character Work - I will assist in creating dynamic and believable characters that will emotionally move your audience.
Intro and Thesis Writing - As a Creative Writing major I have the ability to help you cultivate compelling arguments that are essential to national and personal success.

Reese Johnson

Speech: DI. Duo.

Short Bio:
Hi! My name is Reese Johnson. I am currently a competitor for Western Kentucky University’s Forensics team and earning my degree in Communication and Creative Writing. I have competed in speech for 8 years now. I believe in the power of forensics, what it can do for you and your community. Throughout my forensics career I have competed in 7 national final rounds of Duo Interp, including NSDA, NIETOC, NCFL, AFA, and NFA. I was the national runner-up in Dramatic Interp at AFA and took 3rd at NFA. I have also competed in national final rounds of Original Oratory and Informative. Dozens of national out-rounds in numerous events. I also helped coach the Duo National Champions at NSDA in 2019! I love the creative process and am excited to make something excellent with you. Let’s grind!

Coaching Philosophy:

My coaching is based around the idea of bringing out the true actor in students. Believability is at my center when it comes to performance and telling a story. One of my old coaches always told me, the greatest compliment you can receive from a performance is “I believe you”. To this day that is the goal in every piece I perform or coach.

In Dramatic Interp and Duo Interp, transporting audiences to other realities is essential in making an argument. I always push students to make purposeful and unique choices to help separate those from the competition.

I believe in providing students the tools to better themselves independently. I provide all my students with practice techniques and character development exercises to better our practice time together. Every session we will create a tangible goal for our time together, whether that be script selection, cutting, blocking, character work, or emotional and narrative building.

Being nationally competitive is my goal for everyone of my students. I love competition, but more importantly I love creating something that moves people. My fondest memories in speech were not on that national stage, but the conversations I had with people afterwards, hearing the impact my speech had on their life. My hope is that all of my students experience moments like that.