The Seattle branch of the English Speaking Union held its 22nd annual high school Shakespeare competition March 8 at the Frye Art Museum. Fifteen schools from Seattle, Bellevue, Bellingham and Everett participated. Each contestant had already won their own school competition and presented a 22-line long monologue from one of the plays and a sonnet of their choice.
This year the standard was extremely high with the gentlemen very much in the forefront. In fact, the first three winners were of the male persuasion, led by Sam Tilles from Overlake High School, who presented a monologue from Richard III and sonnet #91. His presentation was excellent. In second place was Christopher Ballou from Bellingham High School who presented Edmund from King Lear and sonnet #141. Third place and the people's choice went to Josh Davis from Garfield High School with a monologue from Henry IV and sonnet #57. Sam received $500 and an all expense paid trip to New York to join 58 other branch contestants for the semifinals. The final winner will attend Shakespeare classes in England. His teacher, Sarah Fitzpatrick also received $500 and attended the teacher's workshop in New York. Sam thoroughly enjoyed his trip to New York.
One of the highlights was meeting and making contact with all the other contestants who were high school seniors sharing common interests and love of Shakespeare.
The ESU National Shakespeare Competition celebrated its 26th anniversary this year. It is the country's preeminent in-school program connecting American high school students with Shakespeare through performance. It is designed to help students develop their speaking and critical thinking skills and their appreciation of literature as they explore the beauty of the language and the timeless themes in Shakespeare's works. It also provides them with a dramatic opportunity to demonstrate their personal achievement.
Since its beginnings in 1983 with 500 students in New York City, the competition has inspired more than 250,000 young people of all backgrounds to discover Shakespeare's writings and to communicate their understanding of his language and message.
Sam didn't make the top 10 but had a thoroughly enjoyable trip to New York, took a workshop at New York University Tisch School of the Arts, had a gala dinner at a New York club and shook the hand of Gene Wilder, one of the prestigious judges for the competition this year.
Other judges included Shakespeare scholar Maurice Charney, Rutgers University Professor of English, directors Barry Edelstein, of the Public Theater Shakespeare Lab and Michael Sexton, of The Shakespeare Society, Manhattan Theatre Club Casting Director, Nancy Piccione, actor Peter Francis James, and Louis Sheeder, Director of the Classical Studio, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University.
Sam will be pursuing a career in the theater. He will be attending Boston University, which has an excellent drama department with emphasis on Shakespeare.
He is extremely grateful for the opportunity afforded him by the ESU. We look forward to seeing great things from him in the future. Sam reported his adventures in New York at Seattle's Annual General Meeting on May 15 at the Seattle Yacht Club. Everyone was most impressed and wished him best of luck.
TTFN until next time when I'll tell you more about the AGM and the 80th anniversary of the Seattle branch of ESU.[[In-content Ad]]
