Dynamic Duos: Junior competitive speech and drama duos navigate their competitions while building friendships

After a few deep breaths, Junior Lucinda Hendrickson said in a loud, commanding voice the very first line of their script.

“With some people, the game is a pastime…with others, an addiction.” 

And with that, Hendrickson and junior Eliza King’s 2025 competitive speech and drama —also known as forensics — season began.

The pair had spent the past couple of weeks prepping for this first forensics tournament of the year. There, they’d compete against other students in speaking and acting performances, specifically in the duo category, where they would get a platform to spread awareness about deeper topics such as female empowerment. 

Despite their immense preparation, Hendrickson was still repeating her first lines in her head, and King’s hands were sweating, with the typical pre-round anxious thoughts looming before the round.

“It’s a mix of intense dread, fear and then a little bit of confidence,” King said. “So, I have to gaslight myself every time. I’m like, ‘Eliza, the most confident person is going to do the best.’ So, I strut with my heels clicking, and I walk in, and I just pretend it’s gonna be good. I don’t know if it’s gonna be, but I just try to fake it till I make it.”

After overcoming those beginning nerves, they placed first at that tournament. But since then, King and Hendrickson have had to work extra hard and rely on each other to overcome judges who are biased against the feminist messages in their script.

Hendrickson and King compete together in forensics — not with fingerprints and dead bodies — but the forensics where students compete in speaking and acting performances. Students can compete in multiple forensics events, ranging from mock-Congressional debates to poetry. Hendrickson and King compete in the duo interpretation event.

This year, their duo recreated “Queen’s Gambit,” a story following orphan chess prodigy, Elizabeth Harmon, cut down to a 10-minute script that focuses on female empowerment and addiction in the story.

King and Hendrickson began planning their performance at the beginning of the year. They had no limit on the various movies and books they could form a duo from, ranging from funny to action-packed. But the two wanted a more dramatic piece and to spread a message they cared about.  

The pair plays multiple characters, changing voices and personas repeatedly. They spend hours after school each week perfecting their blocking and working with their assistant coach, Austin Shively, to make sure they account for every detail before acting in front of a judge.

Despite the late nights going over lines together in King’s bedroom or practicing chess moves, the two have run into an obstacle this season that’s difficult to fix with practice — bias. Some conservative judges don’t align with the duo’s message.

Judges are often warned beforehand not to let pre-existing biases influence their rankings and to only focus on which student performs their piece the best, however, they don’t always stay neutral.

The duo’s script follows Harmon’s experience as she tries to become a chess master, and is judgmental towards the sexism and unequal gender roles that many women experience.

“Two girls getting up there and being like ‘we are women and we’re powerful,’ a lot of judges don’t like that,” Hendrickson said. “We have been deducted points because of that, and they’ll have no other reason except that they don’t like the message that we were trying to portray.”

Forensics students have creative freedom to choose their narrative, but with that freedom comes the risk of conflicting views. Shively, however, enjoys that King and Hendrickson decided to dive into deeper topics despite the risks.

“I love it. I think the main point of Speech and Debate is that, as an activity, it’s advocacy,” Shively said. “So I love when kids choose pieces or choose topics for their speeches, that is something that’ll resonate with them, or they have a personal connection to share with the audience.”

Forensic competitions have three preliminary rounds before a final round. In each round, judges rank five to eight competitors. The top performers advance to the finals, also known as breaking to finals. According to Hendrickson, the two typically are ranked high, but a biased judge can come in and tank their average. 

While the two could’ve changed their routine to a more general topic, they believe the message they’re sending is important, no matter how the judges react. Even with biased rounds, King and Hendrickson’s friendship has evolved to the point where they can rely on each other to push through the ups and downs.

“You can’t be any closer to a person because you see each other in your most vulnerable state,” Hendrickson said. “Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, and it’s like those moments, you need someone who’s gonna be there to hype you up and keep you going. And [King] has morphed into that second half of me.”

King and Hendrickson are now preparing their duo for state on May 2. According to Hendrickson, their goal is to perfect their acting and movements to the point that their talent can outweigh any bias. And although there will be minor changes to wording in the script to make it more “digestible” for some judges, the two don’t plan on changing their overall message.

“It’s the exact reason that pieces over feminism need to be done because there are people out there who will drop your score just for doing it,” Hendrickson said. “They’re so anti-women that they’ll give you the six just because you’re trying to get up here and make a difference.”

Junior Janie Hoskins recited one of her lines in the deep commanding voice of SQUIP — an evil supercomputer and one of her many characters — as she kicked a soccer ball to sophomore Hank Dodderidge. He stopped the ball at his feet and responded with his own line before passing the ball back.

Two teenagers kicking a soccer ball around in a basement while practicing lines from their duo script on a Thursday night wouldn’t look like nationally-qualified competitors to most outsiders, but just because they’re dedicated to practicing for hours doesn’t mean they can’t have fun while doing it.

Whether it’s in Dodderidge’s basement, the forensics room during class or the library after school, the pair work to practice and perfect their routine

The two may have just started competing as partners in duo interpretation together this year, but their ability to balance their friendship while staying dedicated to their competitive goals for the season has created an atmosphere for the two to succeed and potentially continue that success in the state tournament. 

“We’re really good in terms of team chemistry, we’re pretty in sync,” Hoskins said. “We both have an equal interest in winning. We’re both equally competitive, so it’s not really a matter of one person trying harder than the other.”

When deciding what the duo would perform this year, both Hoskins and Dodderidge knew they wanted to act out a humorous piece. Shively came up with the idea of “Be More Chill” — a comedic musical about high school struggles and the importance of individuality. Once the piece was decided, it was time to get to work.

Hoskins and Dodderidge spent the week leading up to their first tournament running through lines after school, memorizing countless positions and perfecting different character voices, from SQUIP to Christine, the high school crush.  When the day came to perform the two placed first.

“I have high expectations for myself, so I just really don’t want to lose,” Hoskins said. “Also, like, that’s just embarrassing, why would you want to lose if you could win?”

The two have never left a tournament without a medal. They’ve made it to finals in every tournament they’ve entered this year, and they’ve placed first in their past four competitions.

But despite all of this success, neither Hoskins nor Dodderidge had any experience in theater or acting before they started forensics. They’d originally started out taking the fall debate class in their freshman years, it wasn’t until the debate and forensics teacher, Trey Witt, recommended forensic that they decided to join.

Their inexperience didn’t matter thanks to their shared passion to perform, according to Witt, since they were showing up to work nights after school, taking feedback from coaches and always improving their pieces. 

“Kids have to be intrinsically motivated to succeed,” Witt said. “So I love to see people excel in the activity, and past experience can be helpful, but it kind of has to be on them to want that themselves, to seek it out and have some grit.”

The duo qualified for the National Speech and Debate Association Nationals, where they’ll be competing against duos across the nation in June, but their focus is on keeping up their winning streak in the state tournament.

“Both of the duos have experienced enough success throughout the season to be a good indication, I think they have a very good chance of doing very well at state,” Shively said. “But it’s so random, like you’re paired with random competitors, you never know who the judge is going to be, anything can happen at a tournament like state. So it’s always an exciting journey to be on.”

Shively also believes Dodderidge and Hoskin’s individual strengths help them blend well as a duo and has created an atmosphere for success throughout the season and for upcoming tournaments.

“Janie is one of the funniest kids I know,” Shively said. “She also has strong opinions and is so hardworking. She brings a great, positive element to the squad. And then Hank,  I call Hank the Troy Bolton of the squad. He’s one of those sports bros, and he plays his tennis, and he has his video games, but he’s also so willing to try something new, and he’s still great at it.”