Drama, Debate, and Forensics concludes season

Five Wrangell High School students attended the State Drama Debate and Forensics meet at East Anchorage High School the weekend of Feb. 15.

Ben Florschutz, Tyler Eagle, Matthew Covalt, Molly Prysunka and Malachi Cole all performed, debated, and interpreted their way to the Alaska finals. Unlike other school activities, Drama, Debate and Forensics, or DDF, doesn't divide schools into different divisions based on school size. The Wrangell team thus competed alongside teams as large as 15 students.

Florschutz qualified for both extemporaneous commentary, in which a presenter has a limited amount of time to research and draft an original speech, and expository speaking. His expository commentary subject was the physics of time, part of which he delivered to the Wrangell School Board Feb. 17.

"The first fundamental of the theory of relativity is that time and space are interlinked, that they work as one," he said. "Basically, time and space stretch with our movement."

He described the 1971 Hafele-Keating experiment with atomic clocks, in which clocks flown around the world recorded different times than stationary clocks.

"At the end of the experiment, the clocks were different in the hundredths of billionths of a second," he said. "The clocks were no longer synchronized, proving this fundamental of the theory of relativity, that time and space stretch with our movement."

Florschutz had the best state meet, placing in the top half of all performers with his speech, but this year's meet was more about learning than it was about results, said team coach Steve Prysunka.

Other performances include Molly Prysunka's humorous interpretation of a lecture to an ill-behaved dog, also performed before the school board.

"Dog, you're wrong about holes," she said. "Holes are hardly ever important, especially not the ones you make. Have you ever paused while digging a hole and wondered 'What is the purpose of this? What does this hole mean in the grand scheme of things? Would my life be any different if I wasn't doing this?'"

"Surely you have some experience that this is just going to end with you shamefully hiding under the table so I won't see all the guilt and dirt on your face," she added.

Covalt and Eagle qualified as a team for debate. Unlike previous tournaments, where debate topics are selected by online vote and announced shortly before the tournament starts, the state tournament kept the same topics as the regional topics, giving Covalt and Eagle, as well as other debate teams, time to prepare.

Cole presented an original oratory about television coverage of trials, according to Prysunka.

The Wrangell team has some of the toughest criteria to qualify for the state event among all Alaska high schools, Coach Prysunka said. Students must final in two events throughout the season in order to qualify, he said.

"It's been a huge learning experience for the kids," Coach Prysunka said.

This was also a learning experience for the coach. Steve Prysunka is in his first year as DDF coach, and turnout for the team has consistently beat expectations. In all, 15 students regularly participated in DDF throughout the season, which started in September.

The team hopes to build on this year's high turnout and enthusiasm through next season, Coach Prysunka said.