Meeting Minutes available here: Link to Minutes

Supporting Documents
2019 Meeting Minutes
2020 Part 1 Meeting Agenda
2020 Part 1 Exec and Board of Governors Reports
2020 Part 1 Treasurer Report

Gregg Sawyer and members of the MSHSL One Act Play Advisory committee will host this meeting to provide updates on any information the League has for one at this point. We will also be using this time to listen to concerns and ideas regarding one act in 2020 and beyond.

SpeechWire founder Ben Stewart will demonstrate some of the video platforms for synchronous speech tournaments that can work with SpeechWire, asynchronous speech tournaments on SpeechWire, and will answer questions regarding tournaments in the coming season.

America's ongoing social shifts require our attention as citizens, but teachers have an extra mandate to educate themselves about social changes to better help students navigate them. Sometimes it's hard to know to know how to offer support to those who face discrimination. Sometimes it's hard to help non-affected students stand with their persecuted peers. No one has all the answers, but this panel will provide some educated tips on getting started with offering solidarity (different than help, different than allyship) to our students who may need it. The panel will also offer resources for more education.

Join us for this opportunity for teachers and leaders on the school board to share the successes and challenges in this teaching world.

Congratulations on stepping up and taking on the wonderful field of coaching competitive Speech. We want to meet, share and offer our ideas for finding literature and topics for the 13 different speech events. One of the most challenging aspects of coaching Speech is the task of guiding and finding valuable stories and topics for your team to perform.

We know the transformative power of theater when it comes to addressing some of the most pressing issues of our time. This summer, the fight for racial justice was re-ignited worldwide after the murder of George Floyd, amidst the context of a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting BIPOC communities, and radically shifting both education and performance into new, distanced forms. In this context, New Dawn Theatre Company created A Breath for George. The film was crafted from individually recorded performances of monologues, songs, poems, movement, and interviews by local black and POCI artists and scholars, and then woven together and projected onto the exterior of theater buildings across the Twin Cities. In this session, join NDT’s Artistic Director Austene Van and Perpich's Stephanie Lein Walseth for an online screening of A Breath for George, followed by a virtual Q&A and dialogue session.

This study attempts to clarify some of the mystery behind what forensic judges’ view as reliable sources and explores source credibility in forensic speeches. Since coaches act as both guides of the students when researching and writing speeches and as judges at tournaments, the opinion of coaches regarding source credibility is what ultimately frames how the forensic community views certain sources. This paper will start by reviewing the relevant literature in source credibility, then outline a scale method to gather data regarding coaches’ opinions on sources, present findings from the survey, and conclude with implications for the entire forensic community.

The One Act Play Advisory committee will provide an update on the MSHSL One Act Play Festival 2021. Information will be shared and a discussion will be led by the committee.

Sally Wingert has been an actor in the Twin Cities her entire career; an audience favorite at the Guthrie, Theater Latte Da, The Jungle Theater, just to name a few. Sally will talk about her career, share stories, and speak to the state of theater today. Participants will be able to ask questions and engage in conversation with Sally.

This session is geared at giving coaches tips and tricks for coaching students to perform online, synchronous or asynchronous. These coaches have learned through trial and error, and have all successfully coached students to the online final rounds of TOC and the NSDA in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. We will cover platforms, space use, performance tips, equipment, and more!

Supporting Documents
Prezi Link
Resources Coaches May Choose to Purchase (email Julie Walker (julie.walker@smsu.edu) with more resources to share!)

Review of 2020-21 Discussion Outline packet, examination of any thoughts/issues/concerns about the category.

A look at how to begin to bring all the elements together create a world where the story can be told.

Supporting Documents
Assignment Description-Design Project

Speech teams travel during the speech season attending meets across different regions of the state. This panel will facilitate a discussion about platform options to seek, if possible, a common platform or format for meets that can be used across the state so we aren't readjusting each weekend.

Supporting Documents
NSDA Campus
NSDA Campus Training Materials

Teaching sentence combining is found on MN state standards grades 2-12; however, texts offer grammar based lessons divorced from the writing process so that teaching sentence combining turns is actually teaching grammar.  Research shows grammar instruction does not affect writing; however, sentence combining does. Come gain tools to teach students to write confidently and competently by learning simple, easy to understand equations which help focus their attention to content rather than how to communicate content within a limited range of writing patterns. Explore the relationships of clausal pairs/groups (compound, complex, compound/complex sentences) as well as their relationship to phrases and interjections that we know how to say but not write.  Come and learn how 1+1 actually does = 1!

In this session, panelists will share their experiences with in-person theater practices and performances since the pandemic began. From outdoor musical theater productions with physically distanced audiences, to shifting distance-to-hybrid curriculum, to virtual streamings of readers’ theater performances on school stages, and more, gather insights from the challenges and successes of myriad models as they have played out over the past eight months. Because there is no one-size-fits-all solution to theater-making in a pandemic, this snapshot of the range of possibilities from elementary to college level theater education can help you feel better equipped with multiple possibilities moving forward.

Theater Activities with Kris Holsen
Face Shields Link from Karen Wilson

America's ongoing social shifts require our attention as citizens, but teachers have an extra mandate to educate themselves about social changes to better help students navigate them. Sometimes it's hard to know to know how to offer support to those who face discrimination. Sometimes it's hard to help non-affected students stand with their persecuted peers. No one has all the answers, but this panel will provide some educated tips on getting started with offering solidarity (different than help, different than allyship) to our students who may need it. The panel will also offer resources for more education.

Supporting Documents
Helping White Students Understand the Stages of Racial Development
Clip Explaining Micro Aggressions (Contains Curse Words)
Unpacking the White Knapsack
Unpacking the Heteronormativity and Cisgender Backpacks
National SEED Project (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity)
Explaining White Privilege

Speech coaches, if you're like me, you've got at least a dozen different Google Sheets that help you manage different aspects of your team. From managing changes in the team's roster, practice schedules, and tournament registration/attendance; to keeping track of students' progress throughout the season; to managing the personnel of judges, and assistant coaches; to finally having to communicate and keep students, coaches, and parents informed as the season ebbs and flows. It's a never ending list! I spent this offseason building a mobile app using Glide to help me centralize and manage my team in a single Sheet. I'll provide a demonstration of the different speech team management capabilities in a prototype Glide Application. I will freely share this prototype with participants who want to try managing their team with it this season.

Join us for a roundtable discussion in which panelists share case studies of theater for social justice and/or theater that centers student voices. While work by, for, and about students and their communities is always a vital thread of culturally relevant theater education, our current socio-political moment opens up exciting possibilities for this kind of theatrical practice. Hear about rich examples from middle school through college level, and leave inspired to create work with your students that addresses their concerns, identities, and experiences.

"We take the world as it is and reflect it back." -Rebecca Meyer-Larson

While not traditionally thought of as a prominent form of advocacy, stand-up comedy has always enabled performers to critique and skewer oppressive norms and ideologies. Comedians from Bruce to Bamford have utilized their craft to protest injustice, educate their audiences, and create a lasting connection with their fans. Similarly, forensic competitors have used their platform for activism. With a pandemic raging and public advocacy saturating the zeitgeist, students will undoubtedly continue to seize the opportunity to speak up for what they believe in. In the spirit of making connections, this presentation draws on stand-up comedy and anti-stigma advocacy literature to argue that forensic competitors looking to engage in public advocacy can learn something from their comically critical peers.