STATE ORAL INTERPRETATION: WITHOUT FEAR

JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER

For those who compete in oral interpretation, a superior at the state festival is the crowning achievement. The summit. The top rung on which to hang your hat.

So what does it feel like when you win 11 of them?

Ask Alyssa Fink.

That’s what the Freeman Academy senior has brilliantly done, thanks to a pair of superiors at the 2021 State Oral Interpretation Festival last weekend, where she won top honors in the categories of Humorous and Storytelling. Her 10th and 11th superior come five years after she earned her first as a seventh grader, and she has hit that mark in every oral interpretation category there is.

Furthermore, she is 11 for 12 in state festival appearances; the reader’s theater team she was on in 2019 did not make the cut.

“It’s pretty cool; I definitely didn’t expect to achieve getting 11 state medals when I was in seventh grade starting all of this,” says Alyssa, who turns 18 on Jan. 1. “So looking back and seeing all the work I put in, and the help that my mom gave me, I’m really thankful for the opportunities I’ve had.”

Michelle Fink, Alyssa’s mom and coach, says her daughter may have broken new ground.

“I haven’t had time to check,” she said, “but I’m not sure that’s been done.”

Seventh and eighth graders have only been allowed to compete at state the past 10 years, the coach explained, and only Class B schools allow it. And with the maximum number of events in which an orator can compete capped at three, that means a high school student would have to go 3-for-3 each year to get to 12 superiors.

“Statistically,” Michelle Fink said, “there is very low chance that has happened.”

Regardless, Fink’s double win was part of a larger effort by Freeman Academy that is equally impressive — the school’s 16th Team Excellence Award (two or more superiors) the past 17 years. Also winning top honors at the 112th State Oral Interpretation Festival, held at Huron High School Friday and Saturday, Dec. 3 and 4, was senior Samuela Ndongosieme in Non-Original Oratory and sophomore Jessica Paschal in Serious Reading.

That dynasty reflects a culture of excellence in the fine arts that Freeman Academy is well known for. That’s something that Alyssa has benefited from, for sure, as well as the oldest Fink daughter, Ashley, who earned six superiors from 2013 to 2018.

“First and foremost, it’s an ability to be fearless,” Michelle says. “That comes from a place of safety. I know that going to Freeman Academy has changed their sense of self and sense of safety in the arts. In some schools, it’s not cool to be good as a musician or an actor. At Freeman Academy, that is embraced, so you can go for it. Even if other people don’t, they respect it because it’s recognized. Freeman Academy has that niche.”

Alyssa recognizes that, as well.

“Having so many people encouraging me, and not putting you down for liking theater, has definitely helped nurture me,” she says. “We’re centered around the arts, so it’s been amazing having such resources.”

Finding footing

That “place of safety” Michelle talks about no doubt benefited senior Samuela Ndongosieme, an international student from The Congo who is in her third year at Freeman Academy.

“Her whole time here, she has said (oral interpretation) was outside of her box,” Michelle said, “but her parents felt she needed to get outside of her box to develop her skills.”

While Ndongosieme competed as a junior and won a superior in Non-Original Oratory at the state festival held remotely, this year’s in-person competition provided a new level of nerves, which made her piece, “Falling Forward” by Denzel Washington, all the more fitting.

“It was very personal to her — about the importance of taking risks; that you need to fall forward instead of falling back on safe things,” said Michelle, who notes the vulnerability in Ndongosieme’s self-written introduction, when she says, “Similarly embracing my fears is why I chose to study abroad, join my school’s interpretation team and stand before you now.”

“And at the state level, that is a statement,” says the coach. “This was not the district or region level. This was her at state, giving a presentation in her third language, and she was one point short of a perfect score.”

And the performance was not only received well by the judges, but by those who heard it.

“She actually had a lady approach her after she had spoken and said, ‘I was in the room when you gave your speech, and it was so powerful that I thought you wrote it.’”

Michelle has had a similar reaction.

“I had told her before that I keep forgetting that’s not your speech until you bring in something about acting that is specific to Denzel,” she said.

Freeman Academy’s other superior came from sophomore Jessica Paschal, who missed a perfect score by two points in the category of Serious Reading for her presentation of “Made You Up,” a piece about a high school student who deals with schizophrenia.

“She really connected with the piece and they felt she did a very good job of presenting schizophrenia in an honest way,” Michelle said — “not over-dramatizing it or caricaturizing it.”

One of the judges wrote, “You have an honesty and truthfulness of your portrayal that is refreshing.”

“In Serious Prose, that is a very high complement,” said the coach, “because it’s way too easy to overdramatize tears that aren’t there; anger that isn’t there, because the performer hasn’t actually experienced that kind of trauma.”

Freeman Academy was also represented last weekend by freshmen Jada Buse and Madelyn Anderson, who competed in the category of Duet Interpretation with their piece, “Breakfast,” but fell short of a superior.

“Although it’s a solid piece, it’s about breakfast — a waitress taking a customer’s order — and that in and of itself makes it hard to choregraph,” said Michelle, who notes that the piece that preceded Buse and Andersen was about football presented loudly by two energetic boys. “That played into it a little bit; the design of the piece isn’t as spectacular as two boys yelling about football.”

Still, the coach is immensely proud of her freshmen duo and says they’ll be back.

“Those two girls were very, very well prepared and we talked a lot about the subjectivity of the judges,” she said. “They knew their piece; they had it memorized inside out and upside down and did great.

“If they’re not back as a duet, they will definitely be back as soloists,” Michelle concluded. “The desire is there and the talent is definitely there.”

More on Alyssa Fink

Fink’s 10th and 11th superior earned last week was unlikely earlier this fall, and not just because it’s difficult to do.

She wasn’t even going to go out for oral interpretation her senior year.

With a roster of eight at the onset of the 2021 season and a limited number of available slots in the postseason competition, Michelle Fink wondered if Alyssa would take a pass to give others a chance at advancing through districts, regions and on to state.

“Right away I did the math,” the coach says. “‘Two in duet, five more individual entries, seven girls, and I had eight. Alyssa has already medaled in everything. That’s enough.’ So I asked her if she was OK not doing oral interp this year. She said, ‘Yeah, I’m OK. I can let it go.’”

“I was really hoping she would take the out,” Michelle continued. “Because, as much as she is my daughter and as much as 11 medals would have been amazing, for me as coach, what’s more important is that Freeman Academy continues strong. Alyssa’s leaving. Sam is leaving. Those other girls are potentially next year’s team, and what makes that team strong is them having that opportunity.”

But as the season got rolling, one of the team members decided to take a pass on extra-curriculars and focus on academics.

“Now I have a hole in Humorous,” Michelle said. “I was like, ‘Alyssa?’”

She took the bait and spent four weeks developing a piece called “Lives of the Great Waitresses,” which features a girl who ultimately wants to be an actor but, in the meantime, understands that, as a waitress, she is making a difference in people’s lives.

Then, four days before the district tournament, the team member competing in Storytelling contracted Covid, which created another opening.

“I said to Alyssa, ‘If I could find you a piece and get it cut in the next 24 hours, would you at least take it to districts?’” Fink said. “And she said, ‘OK, but I’m not going to have time to look at it much.’”

The piece was called “The Cat I never Named” and revolved around a teenager in Bosnia dealing with racism and the conflict of war. Alyssa presented the piece “almost cold” at a competition in Yankton prior to districts and ended up third, and advanced through the district and region competition before finishing one point short of a perfect score at state — and that was with the distraction of a cell phone going off.

“Afterward, the guy was like, ‘I’m so sorry,’” Michelle says, “And Alyssa was like, ‘It’s OK. I got this.’”

Alyssa’s steady hand — steady voice — is indicative of a stable program that has been around long before Michelle signed on as head coach five years ago. It grows out of a culture of fine arts that includes Schmeckfest, a broad church community and, once upon a time, the Freeman Area Children’s Choir.

“Those things — you can’t place a price on them,” Michelle says.

The team also works hard to keep things in perspective and focus on the larger picture.

“The other thing that really makes a difference is that we pray, right before they go in, every single time,” the coach says. “That’s something that I have just made a thing. And it’s very powerful for that child to be reminded that God is with them.

“It’s kind of a triumvirate,” Michelle continues. “They bring their own skillset, some of which has been built on by being at the Academy; some of it is they’re willing to receive me teaching them; and ultimately the third one is they know that God is there, that God gave them the talent,”

“And to know that, regardless of the outcome, what they’re doing is for God’s glory and for their skill development to ultimately then use that talent to be a better force for good in the world.”