After making it to the semifinal round of the California High School Speech Association State Championship in April with the La Jolla High School speech and debate team, students Sarah and Mira Lehman were finalists at the recent National Speech & Debate Tournament, also known as “the stage.”
The twin sisters compete in the Duo Interpretation division, in which pairs of students must pick what they see as the most important elements of a book, script or poem and narrow it all to a 10-minute production. Furthermore, they must perform the piece without props, looking only at each other or the audience.
Each year, high school students from across the country compete in their home states for the chance to attend the five-day National Speech & Debate Tournament, which this year was held June 16-21 in Des Moines, Iowa. California sent 21 Duo Interpretation teams.
With 255 teams nationwide competing, the Lehman sisters withstood six elimination rounds judged by 49 coaches to be among the six teams reaching the finals. They placed sixth in the tournament.
“Duo Interpretation is what I like to describe as competitive acting,” Sarah said. “What’s striking about the Duo Interpretation category is that, when people think about speech and debate, they think briefcase; you picture future lawyers trying a case. But all Interpretation is competitive acting. There is Humorous Interpretation, which is a lot of fun. There are a lot of avenues if you are not into debating or current events. It’s about finding your niche. There is a spot for everyone if they have their niche.”
Mira said Duo Interpretation is “distinct is that it’s more like TV acting than in a play. Things tend to be similar and you look at the audience.”
As in the state tournament, the Lehmans’ text was from the 2021 memoir “Crying in H Mart” by Michelle Zauner, which they chose because it reflects their personal stories and passions as Korean Americans.
“It spoke to us for a number of reasons,” Mira said. “One, we could relate to the bicultural experience she discusses. She navigates the differences that first-generation and second-generation immigrants face. We grew up in America with a Korean background and our dad is Jewish. [Zauner] sets out to learn who she is and how she fits into her culture, which we related to. We also love Korean food, and her details were on point.”
To bring the 256-page book down to a 10-minute presentation, “we zeroed in on the conversations with her and her mom,” Sarah said. “That helped get rid of a lot of sections. Also, we have a few sections of monologues and we felt those sections best tell the story.”
Mira said the two dedicated a tremendous amount of time to perfecting and refining their performance.
“It was a huge commitment,” she said. “We went to a speech summer intensive in Austin [Texas] that focused on cutting the script for competition. For almost a year, it was this continuous process of cutting, blocking, performing, competing, but taking feedback and cutting and reblocking because there are scenes that have a lot of anger and sadness and it took us all season with our characters. We came home every day and reworked the scenes.”
For the Lehmans, putting in all the work was well worth it.
“It’s a life-changing experience,” Mira said. “It can be difficult to get recognition for what you do, but we had 4,000 people watching us. So afterward, people recognized us and commended us for our performance.”
Sarah added that “aside from giving you so much confidence and an ego boost, for better or worse,” being on the Duo Interpretation circuit has enabled them to see the country and watch how teams from other states perform.
But the biggest boost has been to their public speaking skills, which Sarah said can benefit students throughout their educational and professional careers.
“Public speaking is something that is going to follow students wherever they go,” she said. “Any profession will involve public speaking. You have to interact with people, so it’s great for people to have that introduction through something like this.”
For students interested in joining a speech and debate team, “curiosity in a certain subject is really good,” Sarah said. “A passion for something is also good because you focus on a message and can share something with other people. Interpretation is unique because it’s acting, but with pieces that have a takeaway. So you are reaching people in a unique way.” ♦
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