Oratorical Interpretation
Oratorical Interpretation is an event in American competitive high school forensics. In 2015 the category was officially renamed to Declamation. Similar to Original Oratory, Oratorical differs in that the speeches performed must be published material, not original material. The speeches given are speeches originally delivered in a public forum. Examples include the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, "I Have a Dream" by Martin Luther King, and any college graduation speech. In a typical round of competition, five to seven competitors will declaim speeches before a judge. After the round, the judge will rank them from best to worst, and assign each competitor a score, which will be used to break ties when the tournament is tabulated.
Like Duet Acting, Oratorical is not a National Forensic League-sanctioned event. It is practiced by other speech leagues, including the OHSSL, NCFCA, NCFL, and California High School Speech Association.
