Performance vs.
Occasion
The occasion
sets the tone, pace, atmosphere for any given performance. Every performance is
effected by the type of audience in attendance, the situation surrounding the
performance, etc.
In high school,
I was the Helping Other People Everywhere (HOPE) chair. This role required me
to give several speeches at a culminating assembly in December. This occasion was
a special one. It is where I got the privilege to announce the final totals for
all of our 12 different collection drives (cans, toys, FHF, coats, etc.). In
addition to the entire student body and staff, news stations and the non-profit
organization representatives were present at the assembly. In this situation, I
knew that my speeches had to be uplifting and encouraging. The speech had to
inspire people that even in bad economic times we can make a difference. I was
not only representing myself, but I was speaking on behalf of the thousands of
people we collected goods for that were not ever going to know our names. This
type of speech was based on the occasion.
The above speech
was way different than the speech I gave to the HOPE committee the night before
the assembly. The committee speech was me directly talking to twenty people
about the blueprints of the assembly layout out. I was reminding them of the
importance of achieving excellence because we were representing our school to
the public, but we also our representing all of our hard work.
Both speeches
were motivating. However, in the assembly speech, my diction was much softer
and inspiring. The flow of my speech was much more creative. My appearance was
way nicer. That was because it was a different occasion than the committee
meeting. In the committee meeting, my message was the same pretty much, but I
was shorter and more direct. I did not “fluff” the speech. It was fast and to
the point; this is because that is what the occasion called more. This is just
one example, but if you compare any two performances, you will see a
significant difference simply just because of the occasion.
