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Ranney MS Hosts Forensics Festival

On Saturday, April 2, 2011, more than 80 students from four area schools competed for top awards at Ranney’s Annual Middle School Forensics Festival – a widely anticipated event that spotlights a variety of public speaking opportunities for students grades six through nine. Schools attending in addition to Ranney included Oak Hill Academy of Lincroft, St. Jerome’s in Long Branch, and St. Veronica’s from Howell. Categories of competition included storytelling, humorous and dramatic interpretation of literature, and humorous and dramatic pairs.

“As the film The King’s Speech revealed, even kings who rule empires and seemingly possess everything might not have the courage to speak in public like these students who performed on Saturday,” said forensics club adviser Nancy Wade. “They deserve our deepest respect.”

Judges consisted of professional actors and other theater art professionals from professional venues and theater-education programs such as the Count Basie Education Program, Two-River Theater, New Jersey Repertory Company, and Actors’ Playground Studio, to name a few. Each student received critiques from three judges, who selected a Most Outstanding Performance (first), Distinguished Performance (second), and Commended Performance (third) from the following categories: Dramatic Pairs, grades six through eight; Humorous Interpretation of Literature, grades six to seven and eight to nine; Dramatic Interpretation of Literature, grades seven to nine; and Storytelling, grades six to seven and eight to nine.

According to Mrs. Wade, public speaking continues to appear at the very top of lists of things that frighten people most. “The very act of speaking in front of a group looms large as the most difficult thing people ever have to do,” said Mrs. Wade. “For this reason, we applaud these students who embrace the forensics program with enthusiasm and who work so hard to master their skills.”

Ranney students gave exemplary performances, as evidenced by the following list of award winners:

Most Outstanding Performance Winners:
Matthew Torpey & Liam Fitzmaurice - Dramatic Pairs (Grade 6)
Nikhil Lakhani & Matthew Kumar – Dramatic Pairs (Grade 7)
Chrissy Michael & Audrey Effenberger – Dramatic Pairs (Grade 8)
Evan Schultz – Storytelling (Grade 6)
Steven Jacobson – Storytelling (Grade 9)
Jerome Cohen – Humorous Interpretation (Grade 7)
Jillian Villany – Humorous Interpretation (Grade 8)
Alexandra Natsis – Dramatic Interpretation (Grade 8)

Distinguished Performance Winners:
Evan Kumar & Keenan Maher – Dramatic Pairs (Grade 6)
Sabrina Park & Chloe Triolo – Dramatic Pairs (Grade 8)
Sallie Haas – Storytelling (Grade 7)
Elizabeth Roberts – Storytelling (Grade 8)
Karl Brand – Humorous Interpretation (Grade 7)
Hailey Maher – Humorous Interpretation (Grade 8)
Whitney Kelly - Dramatic Interpretation (Grade 9)

Commended Performances Winners:
Taylor Zenner & Michael O’Hare – Dramatic Pairs (Grade 6)
Michelle Krameisen – Humorous Interpretation (Grade 7)
George Timmins – Storytelling (Grade 8)
Kristen Guyler – Humorous Interpretation (Grade 8)
Alexis Auletta – Dramatic Interpretation (Grade 8)

Honorable Mention Awards:
Marissa Mahoney & Ayodele Oladeji – Dramatic Pairs (Grade 6)
Sophia Jackman – Dramatic Interpretation (Grade 7)
Sabrina Arbes & Ryan Eaddy – Dramatic Pairs (Grade 8)
Samantha Picard – Storytelling (Grade 8)
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society. 

We envision Ranney School as a nurturing learning community, in which families, faculty, alumni, and all of Ranney’s constituents collaborate to know and value every child, foster individual talents, sustain powerful connections between children and adults, and graduate resilient, globally-minded citizens.