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pedantherPart two of the annual Toastmasters competition season has washed over us. (You may recall that I mentioned entering, and not getting very far in, part one last August.)
Part two again has two contests, one for a prepared speech (on a serious or inspirational topic of international interest) and one for speech evaluation (that is, a prepared speech is given and then each of the competitors gives a brief assessment of its strengths and of the locations of room for improvement).
I entered the local round of the speech evaluation contest; didn't win, but felt good about how I did, and feel that I've improved my evaluation skills in the process. (I actually found it easier to construct an evaluation under contest conditions than I usually do in a real meeting, because contest conditions means you're given five minutes of silence to work on it, while in a real meeting you have to do it while other stuff is going on around you.)
After the local round, of course, the two local winners went on to the area competition -- only they didn't, because this year the area competition came to us. This is a first: all the other clubs in our area are hundreds of kilometres away in the city, and the area competitions have always previously been held there.
The historic occasion went well, and not just because the home team representative won the evaluation contest. He'll be off to the division competition in March, which will of course be in the city -- although plans are already afoot to see if we can't manage another historic occasion when the division competition rolls around again next year...
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The Rep Club's big production for this year is the musical Cabaret (you may know it from the film version starring Liza Minelli, which the director has explicitly instructed us to avoid because it is so different from the stage version).
As you may guess from the fact that I'm among those taking instruction from the director, I successfully auditioned and will being playing a part in the production. But I don't know which one. Nobody does, not even the director.
Before rehearsals start in earnest, there's going to be about a month of singing and dancing workshops, during which the casting panel will be watching the cast and getting an idea of each person's aptitudes, and at the end of which it will be announced who will be playing which part.
I initially found myself suspecting that perhaps they had cast all the important parts, and just weren't saying so to give hope to the people who would end up with smaller roles, but it has been announced that the female lead is still wide open, and they're holding off making a final decision about any of the other major roles so that they can pick people who work well together. So I could, theoretically, still be in the running for the male lead, not that I believe for a moment that I actually am.
Part two again has two contests, one for a prepared speech (on a serious or inspirational topic of international interest) and one for speech evaluation (that is, a prepared speech is given and then each of the competitors gives a brief assessment of its strengths and of the locations of room for improvement).
I entered the local round of the speech evaluation contest; didn't win, but felt good about how I did, and feel that I've improved my evaluation skills in the process. (I actually found it easier to construct an evaluation under contest conditions than I usually do in a real meeting, because contest conditions means you're given five minutes of silence to work on it, while in a real meeting you have to do it while other stuff is going on around you.)
After the local round, of course, the two local winners went on to the area competition -- only they didn't, because this year the area competition came to us. This is a first: all the other clubs in our area are hundreds of kilometres away in the city, and the area competitions have always previously been held there.
The historic occasion went well, and not just because the home team representative won the evaluation contest. He'll be off to the division competition in March, which will of course be in the city -- although plans are already afoot to see if we can't manage another historic occasion when the division competition rolls around again next year...
----
The Rep Club's big production for this year is the musical Cabaret (you may know it from the film version starring Liza Minelli, which the director has explicitly instructed us to avoid because it is so different from the stage version).
As you may guess from the fact that I'm among those taking instruction from the director, I successfully auditioned and will being playing a part in the production. But I don't know which one. Nobody does, not even the director.
Before rehearsals start in earnest, there's going to be about a month of singing and dancing workshops, during which the casting panel will be watching the cast and getting an idea of each person's aptitudes, and at the end of which it will be announced who will be playing which part.
I initially found myself suspecting that perhaps they had cast all the important parts, and just weren't saying so to give hope to the people who would end up with smaller roles, but it has been announced that the female lead is still wide open, and they're holding off making a final decision about any of the other major roles so that they can pick people who work well together. So I could, theoretically, still be in the running for the male lead, not that I believe for a moment that I actually am.
