ONLY WCDR MEMBERS MAY ENTER.

The WCDR SUMMER SLAM is a writing AND performance competition.

ANY form of writing is permitted: poetry, prose, humour, grocery list, monologue, stand-up routine, whatever…

To get you in the swing of things the WCDR has a special guest for the Slam:

David Silverberg has been involved in Canada’s spoken word community since 2001. He helps run Toronto Poetry Slam, where he currently serves as host and artistic director. He has also curated spoken word programming at Word on the Street, the Luminato Festival of Arts & Creativity, the Brampton Indie Arts Festival, the Words Aloud Festival in Durham, Ont., the Wavelength music series, the Harbourfront Centre and many more. For four years, he has brought spoken word performances and workshops to schools across Ontario.

His most recent book of poetry is Bags of Wires (LyricalMyrical) and he’s the editor of Mic Check, an anthology of Canadian spoken word from Quattro Books. His non-fiction work has been published in the Globe & Mail, The Toronto Star, DigitalJournal.com, Broken Pencil, NOW, High Times, Ryerson Alumni and other publications. His other passion is citizen journalism, and he is director of Product and editorial at DigitalJournal.com, a citizen journalism news site based in Toronto.

THE 10 RULES OF the WCDR SUMMER SLAM:

1. You are only allowed to perform ONE piece of material.
2. The piece you read/perform must have been written by you.
3. You must perform the piece by yourself. No other humans or other life forms are allowed on stage during your performance
4. Your performance of the piece must be THREE MINUTES or less in length. (This includes EVERYTHING you say. The clock starts when you engage with the audience. i.e. make eye contact, wave, start talking. All performers are given a 10 second grace period, BUT once you go 10 seconds over the 3 minutes you are penalized for every 20 seconds you go over)
5. Only your voice and body may be used in the performance. No props of any kind are allowed. (except the microphone, mic stand and anything containing your reading material. See note on memorization)
6. No costumes. No nudity.
7. No musical accompaniment.
8. Although some singing is permitted, the singing must not exceed 25% of the performance. Judges have final say in this regard.
9. You are not permitted prompting from anyone
10. No racist, sexist or unusually profane language is allowed.

NOTE: The organizers and judges have the right to disqualify or penalize contestants who contravene these rules.

JUDGING:

SEVEN finalists will be chosen at the July 4thAuditions.

The AUDITION JUDGES will base their decisions on the following THREE CRITERIA:

1. Quality of the writing
2. Quality of the Performance
3. IMPACT on the audience

At the July 14th WCDR SUMMER SLAM, all audience members will be given a ballot containing the names of all SEVEN slammers and asked to secretly circle the one name they think should win the WCDR SUMMER SLAM TROPHY and $100.00 in PRIZE MONEY. Ballots will be collected and tallied by an independent group of WCDR members not involved in the competition.

It’s WINNER TAKE ALL!

SECRETS OF SLAM:

1. EXPERIENCE has proven that MAKING AN EMOTIONAL IMPACT or INSPIRING THE AUDIENCE garners VOTES.
2. MEMORIZING your piece is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
2. MOVE YOUR BODY
3. USE YOUR VOCAL RANGE
4. TIMING is CRITICAL – Your performance MUST BE 3 minutes or less
5. PRACTICE with a MICROPHONE
6. THE AUDIENCE PICKS THE WINNER