Your opinion?

[Serena]

Hi there.

I am relatively new to forensics, but have been doing well and enjoy it a lot. I am currently prepping for States and Nationals in DI, and I have a question I'm hoping you guys can help me with:

Which is more important in a piece (rankings-wise) - emotional progression, character development and the feeling one puts into the piece, or the more technical aspects, such as dialogue and character voices?

I've been doing a piece called "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield. I like it a lot, and I think it's high quality writing. The only problem is that although it focuses intensely on one character and has incredible emotion, there is next to no dialogue. Will this keep me from doing well at higher-level competitions?

Thanks for the input. :-)

[Forensicator]

emotional progression, character development and the feeling one puts into the piece is definently the way to go in DI. The Tech, and the voices are more in tune with HI's. that is one major difference between HI's and DI's

[Cinderella]

Clean, polished tech that makes sense goes a looooong way in DI. Create an environment.

key phrase: MAKES SENSE!!!!!

I have seen WAAAAY too many "I'm in a random kitchen just to have tech" DI's. Or "I'm in a car just becauase I can" --- Tuck was VERY correct in saying that it's SO important to create an environment, so we can SEE where you are, but tech just for tech's sake is always a bad idea.

[Captainhook]

I agree with Jessica (hi, by the way). I think that tech is a very important element in DI, but not superfluously. Too many times this year i have seen DI's that have Sound Transitions JUST TO HAVE THEM, and they don't really add to the peice, or make sense.

Ben Huth is a great example of a DI in which a large portion of the peice is a monolouge, but the tech is fantastic. It's not labored. It shouldn't look like its a great effore to be doing the tech, and IT SHOULD NOT TAKE AWAY FROM THE PEICE. If you're tech is distracting, its a big problem.

My biggest complaint is meaningful tech. The beginning half of my peice is tech heavy to show how my character is eventually incapacitated by his disease. Ben's tech sets up the neurotics of his character. Kelly Balkhe's tech this year shows how her character cares more about the world around her, rather than the world (literally) inside her.