Oral Interpretation

The Oral Interpretation session offers classes that will focus primarily on the Interp Events: Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Prose, and Poetry. Students who are interested in putting together a POI cutting throughout the week may be able to do so. Students who are attending camp with their partner from their school may also pursue duo or duet.

During our time at camp, students will develop the fundamental skills to grow as a performer and take on ownership in the performance process. In order to accomplish the students will learn how to:

• Find and select pieces for competition
• Cut a piece for competition
• Identify universality
• Write a meaningful introduction
• Engage in character development and environment creation

Our goal is not to have a piece entirely cut, memorized, and polished in performance within the week. Instead, our goal is to find and cut a piece and develop the base of the performance while focusing on cultivating the skills a student needs in order to continue to develop their material throughout the competitive season, mentor others on their team, and independently develop other events in Interp.

Interp is about finding stories that resonate with you. Interp is about understanding how stories can resonate with everyone. Interp is about creating a world and engaging an audience in an authentic story for 10 minutes. Honor the text. Do the work. Find the heart. This is my own personal philosophy as an educator of Oral Interpretation and as an active participant in the fine arts. I look forward to helping you find and tell your story!

One-Week and Two-Week Programs – An Explanation

The first week will center around finding, selecting, and cutting interp material, writing introductions, as well as basic blocking strategies and character development. Essentially, we will focus on the table work to get a piece up on its feet.

The second week will focus on bringing the performance to life through advanced character development using acting theories such as Shutleff’s 12 Guideposts and Uta Hagen’s 9 questions. We will engage with various performance and rehearsal techniques, working on putting polish on students’ performances and developing a toolkit to take with them to keep their performances fresh throughout the year.

The camp is designed for students to attend the full two weeks, with the ultimate goal of fully preparing an interp performance that is tournament-ready. Students can also choose to only attend one week of the camp. Students who attend one week will develop a cutting with the skills to continue to prepare it for competition on their own. Choose the path that works best for you!

Ultimately, what you will walk away with is: A full cutting and written introduction, memorization techniques to meorize your cutting before the tournament season begins, blocking and character development techniques to bring your performances to life, and fundamental Skills to develop additional pieces throughout your speech career.

Director's Statement

Divisions, Date and Pricing

Division Director

Stefany Cambra

Stefany is a graduate from Drury University, where she earned a BA in Theatre and Communications, along with a myriad of minors in Philosophy, Religion, Asian Studies, and Global Foundations. She is currently pursing her Masters of Communication in Leadership and Organizational Change. She is currently the director of Oral Interpretation at Grapevine High School. She brings with her 21 years of experience in the activity - as a competitor, judge, and educator. She has coached numerous finalists and champions on the local, state, and national level, including the 2021 TFA State Champion in Original Oratory and Informative Speaking. Cambra believes that competitive success lies in a strong educational foundation - teaching students lifelong skills that will bring them success at competition and in their daily lives. In addition, she is the Artistic Director of Proper Hijinx Productions, an independent theatre company that focuses on producing original works by local writers in the DFW metroplex. Cambra works professionally as an actor, director, playwright, and occasional prop designer. She has a lifelong passion for all things communication and performance. If you ask what her favorite event is, she won't be able to just name one. "My favorite event is the event a student is excited about - I am ready to work alongside each and every student to help them discover the power of their own voice."

Division Staff

Enroll Now!

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MGCDI enrollment is begins March 1st, 2023! Follow the link above to reserve your spot in our 2023 summer program. The final deadline for all registration is June 9th, 2023.