Karl E. Mundt Oral Interpretation Tournament

October 18, 2017

The 35th annual Karl E. Mundt Dakota Invitational Oral Interpretation Tournament will be held Saturday, October 21, at Dakota State University in Madison, S.D.

Over 250 students from 25 Eastern South Dakota schools will be participating. Fifty judges will adjudicate the students, who will compete in three rounds in the morning, and final rounds in the afternoon. Students perform in various categories including poetry, oratory, humor, storytelling, drama, duet and reader’s theatre.

The tournament is named after former South Dakota Senator Karl E. Mundt, a high school speech and debate coach who came to Eastern State Normal School (now Dakota State University) in 1928. He served as head of the speech department at Eastern State, where his students excelled at national and state speech competitions. In addition, Mundt was a founding member of the National Forensics League, a society promoting high school speech and debate activities. Mundt served as the organization’s president from 1932 to 1971.

The Dakota Invitational is sponsored by the DSU College of Arts and Science along with a grant from the Karl E. Mundt Foundation.