I need something to preform for speech team

[Breezy du Nord]

I usually write my own short story, but lately I have been a confronting a major bout of wirter's block. Of course, We dont start until December, but if things keep going the way they are, well, let's just say the wheels aren't quite turning in Breezy's head as of late.

So anyway, my question for all of you is is there a short story or an excerpt from a novel or play that you particularly enjoy that you think would be good if read out loud? I'm just trying to get ideas, I'd like to actually be prepared for once.

Thanks!

Breezy

(Note: In my school, Speech=Declam)

Smell ya later!

[Cloud]

1. Hmm

What kind of speech do you have in mind? Unfortunately no ideas come to my mind.

[Breezy du Nord]

2. I was thinking about that

I'm pretty versatile (at least I like to think so) I don't mind real dramatic too much, although things that are light are more to my preference. :)

If you can't think of anything, hey, that's all right, I'll think of something between now and December...

[notadmblnd]

7. Waht about something from Mark Twain?

nt

[displacedtexan]

which events are you entering? prose interp? original oratory?

if prose, your coach should have extensive files of previously cut and edited works. don't peak too soon before your state series competitions. pick an older story for the season's first few invitational tournaments; that way, you can get an idea of the stories on the circuit this year before you work too hard on a story you won't perform all season long.

i coached for 25 years. PM me if you have more questions.

have a great season!

[Breezy du Nord]

5. Yeah, I was going to do original oratory

(We called it creative expression in middle school) but like I said, all the brain juice's gone :). So maybe a prose, I'm not much for poetry.

See, this is my first year at the high school level, so i'm really excited!

[roguevalley]

3. the speech at the end of The Grapes of Wrath

can't go wrong with Steinbeck. :)

Also, some of the descriptive stuff from Lord of the Rings. If you really want to bust some chops and boggle minds, take the silmarillion and tell the Ainulindale at the beginning. Guarenteed A.

[Breezy du Nord]

4. Kid I knew did The Lord of the Rings

He was really good, he always got blue ribbons. He was a bit of an odd duck, however.

You're right though, Steinback's the best. :)

[ima_sinnic]

6. Jack Kerouac, On The Road, Part 4, chapter 6

We shot in inky darkness through the scream of insects, and the great, rank, almost rotten smell descended, and we remembered and realized that the map indicated just after Gregoria the beginning of the Tropic of Cancer. "We're in a new tropic! No wonder the smell! Smell it!" I stuck my head out the window; bugs smashed at my face; a great screech rose the moment I cocked my ear to the wind. . . .

We took off our T-shirts and roared through the jungle, bare-chested. NO towns, nothing, lost jungle, miles and miles, and down-going, getting hotter, the insects screaming louder, the vegetation growing higher, the smell ranker and hotter until we began to get used to it and like it. "I'd just like to get naked and roll and roll in that jungle," said Dean. . . .

[HereSince1628]

8. I don't enjoy doing this but I have to be fair

I ragged on a college kid for asking for help writing an essay earlier today, and it would be hypocritical to let this pass without comment...

I think asking for help is praiseworthy if you are making an admission of needing help. I think it isn't so great if you are abdicating your opportunity to exercise your freewill.

So, while I am sure this is seen as unpolite, enjoy the suggestions here, but sit down and think of things you might want for yourself.

Of all the activities done by humans on Earth, thinking is perhaps the most solitary. Developing your capacity to think independently is a primary objective of education.

Sorry, I know that seems rude.

[proud patriot]

9. I did Kate's speech fromTaming of the Shrew once

Got an A

[trof]

10. I just like this piece.

It may be too short. I posted it Sunday in a thread that didn't get much attention.
trof

When a Man is Small
from Serve It Forth by M.F.K. Fisher

"When a man is small, he loves and hates food with a ferocity which soon dims. At six years old his very bowels will heave when such a dish as creamed carrots or cold tapioca appears before him. His throat will close and spots of nausea and rage swim in his vision. It is hard, later, to remember why, but at the time there is no pose in his disgust. He cannot eat; he says "To hell with it!"

In the same way, some foods are utterly delicious, and the thinks of them and tastes them with a sensuous passion which too often disappears completely with the years.

Perhaps there are little chocolate cookies as a special treat, two apiece. He eats his, all two, with an intense but delicate avidity. His small sister Judy puts one of hers in her pocket, the smug thing. But Aunt Gwen takes a bite from each of her cookies and gives what is left of one to Judy, and what is left of the other to him. She is quite calm about it.

He looks at her with dreadful wonder. How can she bear to do it? He could not, could not have given more than a crumb of his cooky to anyone. Perhaps even a crumb would be too big. Aunt Gwen is wonderful; she is brave and superhuman. He feels a little dizzy as he looks at the bitten cooky in his hand. How could she do it?"

Sadly, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher died in 1991, but her work lives on. Not "cookbooks", but there are a lot of mouth watering recipes. How to eat simply and elegantly. Go here and enjoy.
http://www.mfkfisher.net/