Homeschool Shakespeare Contest

Homeschoolers may be interested to visit 
William Ordway Partridge's statue of a
seated William Shakespeare (1894);
moved to Lincoln Park after being on
display at the World's Columbian Exposition
in Chicago in 1893.  
Children (and teenagers too,
have been known to climb atop 
him to sit in his lap!

SELAH hosted it's first Shakespeare Recitation Contest on Monday night with three contestants, three judges, and 13 audience members in attendance.  But the size of the event did not underestimate the proportion of work that went into this event for the contestants or SELAH.  The three students that participated had to prepare and memorize a speech which would include a monologue from one of Shakespeare's plays and a sonnet.  Criteria for this contest stated that they demonstrate to the judges their ability to portray:

~ the sophisticated meaning of their speech and it's context
~ an excellent understanding of all words, metaphor or imagery in the speech as well as the poetic elements (rhythm, rhyme, etc.)
~ an accurate portrayal of the character with a detailed understanding their point of view, status and emotional state
~ a clear appropriate physical expression filled with choices that fully reflect the character and his/her intentions
~ impressive confidence/poise with a skillful use of performance energy that both constantly maintains a connection to their character and captivates the audience.

Students performed monologues from Twelfth Night, Othello, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

It should be noted that these students undertook the challenge to compete with just four weeks notice to prepare and execute the above standards.  Besides their own personal research on this project, they also met for two weeks after a full day of classes at SELAH and practiced before each other, acting as a peer review, critiquing each other and improving their work.

(from left to right:)
Emma Knabe, 3rd Place
Kirsten Baity, Runner Up
Hannah Bielicki, 1st Place Winner

Meanwhile, SELAH secured a location for the contest at Family of Faith Church in Monee.  They also recruited two judges from the Drama Group, in Chicago Heights and utilized a board member as the third judge.  All judges had a knowledge of the above criteria having studied, directed or acted in Shakespeare productions. 

When the results were announced, Hannah Bielicki with her monologue from A Midsummer Night's Dream took the first place rank and will advance on the Roosevelt University to compete in the regional branch of the Shakespeare competition.  At this next level, she will compete for a chance to win cash prizes and possibly a trip to the finals at the ESU branch in New York.

Follow this post for updates on the next leg of this competition and also consider competing next year as SELAH will once again host a "Homeschool Shakespeare Recitation Contest" in the fall of 2013, more details to come!

Giving their best "Delsaret" pose! 

This competition was a considered a local school competition to qualify students to advance to the local English-Speaking Union Branch Competition.  See information about the Homeschool Shakespeare Contest and The English-Speaking Union at their website.