Dramatic Reading Competition

To celebrate the increasing interest in audio books, the joy of reading to a toddler, and the fun of retelling a story to friends, a performance-style reading competition was added to the DemiCon activities in 2013.  The response was strong and the competition returns for DemiCon 25.

This competition is called "Say What???" and will take place on Friday of the convention at 5:00 p.m. in the Illinois Room.  Check the program grid for any last-minute changes to location and time.

No advance preparation is required, but pre-registration for the competition is being accepted.  Simply send an email to contests@demicon.org with your name (badge name, too, if applicable) and the title of your selection, with “Say What” as part of the subject line.  The competition is limited to eight participants.  Sign-up at the convention will be allowed if spaces remain available.  If you pre-register, you need to be in the panel room no later than 10 minutes after the start of the competition or your space may not be held.  If there are no more than four participants, each contestant will give two readings.

“Punks of the Steam Age” is the theme of this year’s Dramatic Reading.  Punk evokes images of young men rebelling just because they don’t fit into the culture where they are caught.  However, punk is also dry tinder used to create the fire that turns water into steam.  For the reading selections, the concept of punk was expanded to include adventurers challenging the status quo as being too limiting for their ambitions.

Click on the story title below to go to the excerpt chosen for the competition.  The selections are approximately 1000 words long and will take about five minutes to read.

Judging will be based on how well audience attention is captured, characters’ lines are delivered, and descriptions are conveyed. Pacing of the story will also be taken into consideration.

Questions may be directed to contests@demicon.org.

Enjoy!  And good luck to all.

Reading Selections

Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1908)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (1889)

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)

After London, or Wild England by Richard Jefferies (1885)

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (1912)

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)

A Prisoner in Fairyland by Algernon Blackwood 

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (1864)