Karl E. Mundt Invitation to be Held in Madison

Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2007

The 25th annual Karl E. Mundt Dakota Invitational Oral Interpretation Contest will be held this Saturday at Dakota State University. More than 270 students will take part in the competition, and nearly 60 judges from 28 South Dakota schools will oversee it.

Seven oral interpretation divisions will be competed in. The divisions include Humor, Drama, Prose, Poetry, Oratory, Duet and Readers Theatre. First through third place trophies will be given to the tops finishers in each category. In addition to individual awards, team awards will also be presented. First and second place teams will be recognized in Class Double-A, A, and B based on total points earned by the top speakers for each event.

Since this will be the 25th year of the contest, a number of new features will be brought to the competition. The DSU-Dakota Invitational Scholarship Awards will be incorporated in celebration of the milestone. First place winner for each division will be presented with a $500 scholarship to DSU, provided by the DSU Foundation. One $750 scholarship will be given to each of the first place sweepstakes winning teams in class. Students from the winning teams will have an opportunity to apply for the competitive awards in the spring.

Another change for this years invitational are the Honor Finals. Usually, the tournament offers Grand Finals for the top five to eight entrants for each division, in addition this year, honor finals will be held for the next tier of top finishers.