Audition

We will be accepting new members for our 2023-2024 competition season starting in August of 2023! Please contact mtpresident@unl.edu for more information.

We will be hosting an informational meeting at 6:00 PM on Tuesday August 29th in Louise Pound Hall Room 2! While attending the information meeting is not required, it is a great way to learn more about the team and the audition process. If you are able, we highly recommend that you stop by!

If you want to join Mock Trial at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, you will need to audition. This year, the audition will consist of three parts, all occuring during your 30 minute audition time slot. The first two parts, a short interview and a direct examination, will be mandatory. The third part, a short monologue or speech, will only be required for people that wish to be considered for an opening or closing attorney role. Opening and closing attorneys are the attorneys that are responsible for giving the short speeches (4-9 minutes) at the beginning and end of the mock trial competitions. While we do not require that everyone completes the brief monologue/speech, we do highly recommend it, regardless of which role you would like to be considered for.

This year, we will be holding auditions Sunday August 27th - Friday September 1st. The team will be announced shortly after auditions, in the beginning of September. This year we will also be having a welcome room to prepare for auditions, enjoy refreshments, and meet other mock trial members during auditions. This room will provide the opportunity to meet members of the team, learn more about the organization, and prepare for your audition. When you sign up for an audition slot, you will recieve an email confirming that you are signed up and more specific information about location.

Please use this link to sign up for an audition slot. If you have any problems accessing the sign up sheet or none of the available audition times work for you, please email mtpresident@unl.edu, and we will find an alternative audition time.

Audition Process

Part 1 - Interview - Mandatory

The first part of the audition process will be a short interview. This interview will be casual, and will be our opportunity to learn more about you and what you are hoping to gain from the mock trial experience.

Part 2 - Direct Examination - Mandatory

The second part of the audition process will be a direct examination. A direct examination is something that occurs several times at each mock trial competition. In a direct examination one person - the witness - plays a character and answers questions. The other person - the attorney - is the person asking those questions. All of the information that is used in a direct examination is found in an affidavit, a legal document where a person can explain everything they know about a case. For this audition, we will be providing you with a shortened version of an affidavit, for you to create a character and answer questions with. We will be asking you 10 questions in this portion of the audition, 7 which you will recieve beforehand and 3 impromptu questions. For the 7 prepared questions, you will need to read the affadvit, then write answers to the questions using the information from that affidavit. Remember that you are playing a character, so your answers should be written as if you are the person that you are playing. For the three impromptu questions, we will ask you three questions that you will need to come up with a response for during this portion of the audition. You should still answer as if you are the character that you are portraying. We ask that you please do not use notes during the audition, so we are able to gauge your memorization skills and so the answers sound less scripted, however the use of notes will not disqualify you from the audition. While it is important that you read all of the provided affidavit, you do not need to memorize it or quote it in your answers. You will only need to generally know the information. You will be able to find the affidavit and the seven prepared questions at the bottom of this page. A copy will also be emailed to you when you sign up for an audition slot. If you have any questions about this section of the audition, please reach out to our recruitment chair, Calen Bernbeck at mtrecruitment@unl.edu or our president, Grace Turner at mtpresident@unl.edu! We will also be posting examples of this section of the audition on our social media accounts closer to the start of auditions!

Part 3 - Monologue/Speech - Optional

The third part of the audition process is only required for those who wish to be considered for an opening or closing attorney role. Opening and closing attorneys are the members that are responsible for giving short speeches (4 - 9 minutes) at the beginning and end of our competitions. Although no one else is required to complete this portion of the audition, it is highly recommended. For this section of the audition please prepare a monologue or speech between 1-3 minutes to present at the end of your audition. You can write your own speech or find a monologue that you would like to recite. We will be strictly enforcing the three minute time limit. We ask that you do not use notes, however notes will not disqualify you from the auditions. We encourage you to pick a creative speech or monologue that showcases your speaking abilities!

We are looking forward to seeing everyone at auditions this fall! If you have any questions about the audition process, email our President, Grace Turner, at mtpresident@unl.edu, or reach out to our recruitment chair, Calen Bernbeck, at mtrecruitment@unl.edu!

Affidavit and Questions

Affidavit of Sam Arnould

My name is Sam Arnould, and I work as Midland’s most prestigious food service provider. After high school, I left home to chase my dream of becoming a celebrity chef. I attended Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked in some of the very top kitchens in France. I was to be promoted to breakfast Sous Chef at Le Petit Nice, but eventually decided that my talents would be better used opening my own restaurant to introduce the people of Midlands to fine French cuisine. I’m happy to share the long version of the story another day (or if asked). The very short version is that Midlands, or perhaps the world, was simply not ready for Sam Arnould’s Breakfast Salad Café. I had to close my restaurant six months after opening, but I still believe in my heart of hearts that the very finest meal is a properly cooked egg on a bed of lightly dressed greens, properly seasoned of course. While my dream had been delayed, I still needed to make ends meet. I knew I couldn’t return to France, so in 2020, I started a food service business which caters to special events of all sizes in Rapid River Valley. I serve as Executive Chef (naturally) and spend my time working with clients to design the perfect menu for their event.

I first met Harper Martini in 2016. Harper Martini was the owner of Peony Estates, a local winery here in Midlands. In 2020, Peony Estates was celebrating its one-year anniversary, and Harper decided to throw a lavish party, fully catered. Harper decided to go with us. The party was a huge success. Everyone loved my food, especially my world-famous beet soup. I owe a lot of my success to Harper and Peony Estates, though I obviously owe most of my success to my own cooking ability.

Through my work with Peony Estates over the years, I have gotten to know Harper pretty well. In November 2022, Harper called me to tell me that Casey Soto, Harper’s only child, was getting married! I was thrilled! Weddings are the top of the food service event pyramid. I told Harper that I would be honored to craft the menu for the big day. Harper also asked me to cater the rehearsal dinner for the night before the wedding. I was twice as thrilled! We soon found time to chat so that I could begin planning the menu for the wedding. While I was expecting to get started on the menu right away, Harper instead wanted to talk almost exclusively about Genesis Petrillo, the person Casey was marrying. Harper expressed how Genesis was selfish and immature. I ignored the irony of the gossip and tried to steer the conversation back to the tasks at hand. But Harper simply wouldn’t stop complaining about Genesis. Harper appeared visibly upset and grew more vocal and more agitated as we talked. I remember that, as I was walking out of the kitchen, Harper slammed a bowl down on the counter. I turned back, and Harper said, “Anyone but Genesis, literally anyone!” Harper wasn’t looking at me, so I thought it best to leave. Harper even said that everything would be so much easier and so much better if Genesis wasn’t around.

After deciding the menu, I didn’t see or talk to Harper or anyone else about the wedding until the morning of the rehearsal dinner on June 7, 2022. I stopped by the winery at around 11 a.m. I entered the kitchen to find it disorganized and a little chaotic. What I was able to ascertain was that Harper was insistent on the kitchen being empty as Harper was working on finalizing gifts for some of the wedding guests. As I talked with Harper, I could see that Harper was working with several bottles of the 2021 Horizon, one of Peony Estates’ most popular wines. However, I could see one bottle with a unique label, which caught my attention. I asked Harper about that particular bottle, and Harper explained that it was a bottle of Cara, an unreleased Peony Estates’ wine. I had never seen or heard of the 2022 Cara, which is unusual since I frequently scour Peony Estates’ wine cellar for the next best wine to pair with my catering. I asked Harper where Harper had been hiding the Cara. Harper explained that Harper had been working over the last several months to create and bottle a unique red blend (Cara), so the entire cask of Cara had been housed in the bottling area this whole time. Harper also explained that the bottle of Cara was for Genesis. Harper said that Genesis was getting “something special” that Harper hoped would take care of their problems forever. Harper asked if I could bring out these bottles of wine later in the evening and present them to Genesis and the wedding party, and I agreed. Harper reiterated that the bottle of Cara had to go to Genesis while everyone else would get a bottle of Horizon. I told Harper that I would be happy to do that. As I left the kitchen, I noticed a canister of pesticide sitting on one of the counters. I asked Harper why it was there. Harper said, “To kill pests like Genesis! Just kidding, of course.” I also noticed some corks sitting on one of the other counters. I’m confident that all of the bottles that Harper was working on (including the bottle of Cara) were corked at all times that I saw them. Though, with everything going on, I wasn’t paying close attention to the corks on random wine bottles, so if someone were to have uncorked and then recorked any of those bottles, I wouldn’t have noticed.

Later that night, it was time to give out those bottles of wine. As I presented the wine bottle to Genesis, Harper really emphasized that the wine was just for Genesis, and Genesis should wait to drink it when Genesis was alone. Despite this, Harper signaled to me to uncork the wine bottle (which I did), and Harper poured Genesis a glass of that Cara wine. I don’t recall whether I saw Genesis drink that glass that wine.

I was set to return the following day for the wedding reception, but that of course didn’t happen. Around 10:30 a.m. the next morning, while I was on my way to Peony Estates, Blaire Osborne, the wedding planner, called me and told me that Genesis had to be rushed to the hospital late the night before and had tragically passed away! I was stunned to say the least. My first thought was about the food I served Genesis and whether it may have caused Genesis’ death. However, aside from Genesis, I have not heard of any other person becoming ill after eating the food I prepared. While I was relieved for myself, I still found the entire ordeal to be terribly sad. I had spent most of the rehearsal dinner focused on catering the meal, so I don’t recall taking note of what anybody was drinking that night, other than the champagne I had served. I know that no one became ill after drinking the champagne (other than Genesis), but I do not know and cannot testify whether or not Genesis or anyone else drank from the “special” bottle of wine that Harper gave Genesis.

Questions

Tell me about yourself.
How did you become a chef?
How did you get involved with the wedding?
What did you plan for the wedding?
What do you remember about planning the wedding?
Did anything stand out to you while you during the rehearsal dinner?
Did Harper Martini say anything odd to you before the rehearsal dinner?