The Haines High School Drama Debate and Forensics team (DDF) is hosting a regional competition this weekend–the first home meet since 2018.

The team’s coach Hannah Bochart is organizing the activities for the competition this year. “It’s the first time in what feels like a very long time so it’s a lot to do,” said Bochart.

Students from high schools across Southeast will be in attendance including Mt. Edgecumbe, Sitka, Skagway, Ketchikan, Thunder Mountain and Metlakatla. “This year we’re kind of getting the program back on its feet. The year before last the entire team either graduated or moved away so we’re kind of starting from scratch.”

The team is up to eight students this year after two years of low turnout. “We’re excited to have these numbers again,” Bochart said.

The team is reaching out to community members to get involved. “We still need judges, so anyone interested in essentially being entertained for an hour or two on Friday or Saturday is welcome. You don’t need any training to be a judge. You can contact the school and we can fill in the details.”

The debate portion of the event, which covers two topics a month, is provided by the National Speech and Debate Association, which governs the DDF as a sport countrywide.

The resolution “The United States current strategy of great power competition produces more benefits than harm” will be debated at the meet. The resolution will allow students to assess the economic and military competition between the United States, Russia and China. Students must be prepared to debate both sides of the argument prior to the competition.

“It all comes down to the flip of a coin. Whoever wins the toss gets to choose the position for or against the premise of the debate,” Bochart said. “So, even if it’s something they morally or politically don’t agree with, they will have to argue the other side, so it’s really cool.”

For the drama events, students may select any piece they like so long as it is a published work. “Some may choose scripts from a film or a play, others might be more interpretive, such as dance or mime,” said Bochart.

For drama, the works range from a scene between two people, solo acting and the more unique events like a recitation performed in an imaginative way. “Essentially taking the audience through a story using your body and voice, not necessarily acting out a scene, but it can be anything, almost like dance or more interpretive,” said Bochart. “There are humorous and dramatic events as well as a duo event that can get really dancelike and very beautiful,” said Bochart.

The competition will be broken up and the events interspersed throughout the day. “First a round of the drama and then rounds of debate and then some more drama, just to keep things interesting for attendees,” said Bochart

The competition will include a reader’s theater where students can take multiple published works and turn them into a theatrical event. The final event will include pantomime and speechmaking. Mime is the only event in which the students get to come up with their own ideas and present them to the audience without words or props, but students will have the option to come up with their own light and sound design. Speech making, the final category, includes several speaking events where the students get to write their own speeches.

“The first is informative, where students teach the audience about a subject they find interesting.” The next category is “oration,” which is persuasive and deals with a variety of topics the students will use to swing judges and audience members toward their position.

“The event that I find very cool is extemporaneous speaking. The students go into a room, draw three topics, pick one to put back and then they have twenty minutes to write a three-to five-minute-long speech. I really like those events. They’re the most interesting for me,” said Bochart.

This year the Haines DDF program will be previewing a new event, Improvised Duet Acting. Two actors draw a topic and have half an hour to put together a scene which they then act out for the audience.

“It’s going to be very exciting,” said Bochart. “Because we don’t do very many home meets, the community has kind of forgotten what DDF is, because we’re gone all the time. We do a showcase at the end of the year, but it’s not the same as actually getting to see it while it’s going on.”

The students are hoping to get to state this year and rely on fundraising to do so, Bochart said. Although the event has been growing but was stifled during the pandemic, “it’s starting to pick up steam again,” she said. The last tournament had a turnout of more than 100 students.

“The program and the program activities are really expanding. It’s nice to see that there are more options for all of us nerds these days,” said Bochart.

Representing Haines High School this year: senior Sal Chapell, sophomores Selby Long, Willa Stuart and Colin Aldassy, and freshmen Maddox Rogers, Jade Oaks, Isabelle Alamillo and MJ Hotch. Chapell, the only senior competing with the DDF team this year, is also the team captain. “As a senior on the team I just want to help the others on the team and give them the best experience possible,” Chapell said. “When I began with DDF we had more seniors and other upperclassmen, and it was really nice that there were people there to help me through it and answer questions. I just want to be there for them in the same way and make sure everyone who joins has the best experience like I had.”