Program of Lies

Interpretation, in the majority of the events available, is known to have one piece of media and you act it out to shed light on a topic that matters to the performer, or to make an audience feel good and laugh. However, Program of Oral Interpretation, commonly known as POI, is an outlier. You have to make a story weaving together 2 or more media pieces to have a call to action or spread awareness of a topic. 

As a quick note, I don’t mean to attack the very basis of POI, as the concept of using multiple sources is unique and brings some amazing pieces to flourish. But, each time a new program is created, someone’s crafted story is chopped down and cut out of its original meaning to fit into a performer’s cookie-cutter standard of what their story is to become. 

So, using the personal accounts of the pieces I’ve watched, I present to you a ‘Program of Lies’, to tell the masses of people who watch and those who compete in POI about the erasure of songs, books, movies, poetry and so many more written forms of media, to spread their message and to earn their 1’s in a room with competitors who do the same thing as them, but it’s just a contest on who can twist the narrative the best, cut out all of the color in a story, and make it a film of black and white. All to earn a trophy. 

However, I believe that one of the biggest constraints in POI is time. As in all of the events, you have 10 minutes with a 30-second grace period. Now, it would be virtually impossible to change, as it is an embedded format in Interpretation as a whole. And with such little time, it is really difficult to mash together 4 to 5 pieces and try and make it cohesive. But, what exactly does this have to do with the written arts? It’s quite simple. With such little time and hours and hours worth of content, one must sacrifice the majority of its plot for their 2 paragraphs.

Time isn’t the only factor that can hold the creators of these programs back. It’s oneself that is the driving factor as to why these stories become so hollowed out, dull, and sucked out of the life that the original authors breathed into it with every single word. Now, I cannot say that I am an innocent saint, I am a part of the community of fellow competitors that have unfortunately cut up and stole the stories of the people who took time to craft these pieces. It’s a harsh reality that sometimes it’s hard for me to grasp as I perform my piece. But, I believe this is a result of POI becoming so challenging to stand out in. With every negative ballot with half-hearted ways to improve and a low score in a room, you have to learn how to conform and appeal to your judges. 

This can be via a different topic, something broader, less niche, a subject that can be palatable to your audience, or the more commonly talked about topic of low scores: the way your script is cut. A lot of judges had commented on my script last year that it didn’t “flow” right, that the story was hard to understand, and that a lack of cohesiveness was apparent. 

But, in that script, I hadn’t cut out anything. I used the full texts of poetry I had hunted for, full songs, and whole scenes from episodes. I tried to keep that sacred integrity, respecting the author’s choices and keeping their works whole like it was supposed to be used, but I was shot down from trying that again. I became forced to realize that to succeed in POI and have a chance of getting a bid to NIETOC or a ticket to Nationals, I had to erase some parts of these people’s works, either fictional or reality. This is a common story for many people who compete in this event, out far and wide. In such an event that was created to hone people’s creative side and their ideas, it is difficult to try and be creative when such a closed template is

established in one’s circuit, and straying from this can be the reason someone doesn’t make it to a break round, and their efforts get poured down the drain. 

Take in mind this, competitors have the power to create their path in any event, and POI shouldn’t be any different. Allow for more complexity in your script, and add a layer of nuance. And the way to do this is to allow the selected pieces of media to blossom into something that allows all of the meanings to combine, and to make a story that still holds true to you. But, what does “being true to you” mean? 

It means that the whole point of POI is to make something that matters to you, a topic that you deeply care about. Always remember who is the reason that your story can be created, and be mindful of the authors, the writers, and the singers that are the foundations for your piece. Respect them, respect their stories. Don’t destroy the meaning of it, but rather try to incorporate it with your message, and make it into something that has both harmony and purpose. At the end of the day, your piece will have more depth as you have respected this author’s wishes. Their works have been crafted for a purpose. 

The journey through POI isn’t just about competing. It’s an opportunity to try and communicate and honor the voices of original creators. By understanding the strain between maintaining the integrity of the stories and the demands of performance, we can attempt to embrace the nuance of the works we interpret, we could create unique stories that capture the judges whilst respecting their wishes. The way to understand the issue in POI, and the solution to the issue lies in combining these diverse stories into a complex web that reflects our intentions while preserving the original works. This not only adds a layer of uniqueness to our performances but also enables a relationship with the broader world of literature and art. By remembering the authors and their intentions, we can make our pieces into something that is both meaningful and impactful, contributing to one of the most unique events that honors all voices involved.