Senior Qualifies for Speech Nationals

EUGENE, Oregon - One year ago, Peter Norland started his career as a competitive public speaker with a splash. Two weeks ago, he went back in the water like a cannonball.

Last year, Norland traveled to his first speech and debate tournament at Linfield College and took first place in novice persuasive speaking, an impressive finish for a first-timer. This month, the Northwest Christian University Speakin' Beacons took four competitors to the annual Steve Hunt Classic speech and debate tournament at Lewis and Clark College in Tigard. Canby sophomore Eric Fromm entered persuasive speaking in junior division and finished second, demonstrating his potential and the promise of future greatness. But it was Norland's performance in dramatic interpretation that put NCU on the map in a whole new way.

In his first attempt at oral interpretation of literature, Norland competed in the open division, against competitors from the College of Idaho, George Fox University, and the University of Mississippi. Many of the competitors had up to ten years' experience in this event. When the judging was finished and the results were in, Norland edged out all but one of his rivals, placing second overall. Because of the tournament's size, a finish in the top three in open division qualified Norland to enter his dramatic interpretation in the National Forensic Association's national championship tournament, held this year at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He is the first NCU forensics competitor to make it to nationals.

Norland's piece is Big River, a musical adaptation of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was first staged on Broadway in 1985, winning the Best Musical Tony. It was revived in 2003 by Deaf West Theatre in a new production featuring deaf performers who delivered the lines and lyrics in American Sign Language (ASL). Norland, who is fluent in ASL, performs Huck Finn as a hearing person, delivers Jim's lines in ASL, and sings excerpts from the songs, to depict for audiences the growing relationship between two companions who are "together, but worlds apart," as a lyric explains.

Powerful speaking skills have set apart NCU graduates since the school's earliest days. The School of Oratory, headed up by David Kellems, began training student speakers at Eugene Divinity School in the eighteen hundreds, and ever since that time, the NCU Communication program has trained students in rhetorical effectiveness in furtherance of all three parts of the school's mission statement: integration of excellent academic programs, a foundation in the Christian faith, and a focus on teaching leadership and ethics.

Contact:
Doyle Srader (dsrader@nwcu.edu)
Northwest Christian University
828 E 11th Ave
Eugene, OR
97401
Ph: 541-684-7216