The Moorpark College Forensics Team, currently ranked the number one community college speech and debate team in the nation, is busy preparing speeches and performances for their upcoming Fall Showcase on Dec. 2 and 3.

The Forensics Team participates in different tournaments throughout the year, performing in two showcases before the last competitions of the semester. The Fall Showcase takes place before the regional tournament as a way for the team to prepare.

“It’s a good chance for friends and family of the speech team members to come and see the team,” said Forensics Team Coach Neal Stewart. “It’s great practice for the team to perform in front of a much larger audience than we normally get at tournaments.”

The event will consist of speeches including impromptu, informative, persuasive, and oral interpretation of literature. Interpretation involves students memorizing a monologue and performing it with a black book to remind the speaker and audience of the author and original literature.

Students are able to join the team through open class registration, but many of the team members are recruited from speech classes. All four couches are full-time teachers, which gives them the ability to recognize the potential in students and recommend their participation on the team.

“It helps them find their voice,” said Stewart. “Every year I see their ability to organize their thoughts, put them into words, and make choices about what emotions they want to convey, while being able to basically do that in front of anyone.”

The Forensics Team’s rehearsal room, surrounded with shelves of trophies, is a place where students review their speeches, gain feedback from coaches, and bond with one another.

“The best part of the team is that you really develop a family-like relationship,” said team member Ryan Fobes. “We spend more time in this room with one another than we do with our actual families. By the end of the year, this really does become like your family”

The Fall Forensics Showcase will take place in the Performing Arts Building and will give Moorpark College students the opportunity to support the team as they demonstrate their skills.

“I think it’s really amazing that we get what every college students wants, which is a forum to say what we think,” said team member Nick Lawrence. “We are taught how to convey our thoughts and who we are as people, and I can’t think of anywhere else in the college experience that happens.”

For tickets to the showcase and more information, visit moorparkcollege.edu/departments/academic/theatre-arts/performing-arts-center.