Competition Overview
The English-Speaking Union's National Shakespeare Competition is a curriculum-based program designed to help high school students develop their language skills and dramatic talents. Skills are fostered and developed through the memorization and interpretation of a Shakespeare monologue and sonnet. Teachers use the program as a tool to encourage and enhance the study of Shakespeare.
Started in 1983 with 500 students in New York City, the program now includes 16,000 students and 2,000 teachers in 58 communities nationwide. The number of competitors continues to grow each year.
In late winter each year, the San Francisco branch hosts the Bay Area semi-finals, a day-long competition between contestants from many local high schools.
How it Works
Step 1: School Competition The first stage takes place in individual high schools, where teachers incorporate the program into their Shakespeare curriculum. These classroom activities typically culminate in a school-wide competition, for which students are required to memorize and present a monologue of 15 to 20 lines.
Step 2: Branch Competition Each individual winner of the school competitions then go on to the next stage, the local San Francisco Branch finals, where they are asked to present both a monologue and a sonnet in front of an invited panel of judges. The Branch Competition typically has two judging rounds.
Step 3: National Competition The winner from the Branch Competition goes on to the final stage, the National Competition, an all-expenses paid weekend in New York City. At the National Competition, where students compete from all over the country, all contestants perform at Lincoln Center. Those students selected as finalists from the 60 Branch winners perform a “cold reading” in addition to their monologue and sonnet. The purpose of this impromptu reading is to test the students' understanding of Shakespearean language, and the ease with which they can convey it.
