I enjoyed dramatic interpretation to the fullest extent during my high school years. My favorite presentation ever was an individual event I did with my homeschool group, Classical Conversations.
The rules for the presentation were simple: take another author’s work and put it into a speech of your own.
I chose Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer. I have always been a fan of Twain’s dry humor. He’s a master storyteller: Tom Sawyer was real and alive to me from the first time I read the book.
The passage I selected was one of pathos, tenderness, pain, and humor all in one. It featured Tom’s first kiss with Becky Thatcher, and their eventual breakup all in one. The challenge was to put myself in both character’s shoes at the same time.
Tom and Becky are completely opposite characters. Tom is a renegade who never does anything right; Becky is the model of an angel. It’s your typical bad guy- good girl combination, but in juvenile form.
The scene starts with Tom flirting with Becky, finally getting her to kiss him. He makes the mistake, however, of mentioning his previous love, Amy Lawrence. Becky cries. Tom consoles and coddles as many men do, but fails utterly. He even offers her his prized andiron knob, but Becky throws it down. Solemnly, Tom leaves, but recovers soon enough. Becky, however, reconsiders and tries to find her young lover. When he is nowhere around, she changes her mind once more and decides to hate him forever.
Young love. It’s so real and understandable in the scene. I had a blast memorizing the story (I spend 2 hours a day for several weeks practicing). And my time paid off: my presentation was flawless, according to my tutor’s grading.
I just had several points docked off because I ran over the maximum time limit per selection.