Sean Patrick Connor, MA1
1 Assistant Professor, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Introduction
In 2005 I was introduced to the activity of speech and debate through a friend that was currently a member of both the speech and debate team and the theater program. As a self-described “theater geek,” my initial perceptions were skeptical that an activity necessitating debate would inform my understanding of what it meant to be a “good actor.” I simply could not comprehend the educative overlap between what appeared to be a rigorously academic center of speech and debate and the aesthetic center of theater. My misconceptions, however, met a swift demise.