Middle and high school students advance to Shakespeare finals
Feb. 21, 2022
Middle and high school students advance to Shakespeare contest finals
- Claire Dietiker (Hermia), Lindsey Fitzgerald (Helena), Anvi Vaishya (Demetrius), Mira Murthy (Lysander), Boyce Middle School, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
- Opal Miller (Mistress Paige), Armen Pettit (Mistress Ford), Ishaan Sharma (Falstaff), Upper St. Clair High School, “Merry Wives of Windsor”
A Best Scene and Best Monologue winner will be selected in both the Upper (grades 8-12) and Lower (grades 4-7) Divisions.
More than 400 area students from 60+ schools competed in the preliminary rounds of the competition. Participants submitted video performances of monologues and/or scenes they had chosen from the works of William Shakespeare. Teams of judges evaluated each participant, and selected the Finalists and Honorable Mentions for each division.
The following Upper St. Clair participants earned Honorable Mention:
- Aaron Jiang (Marc Antony), Boyce Middle School, “Julius Caesar”
- Lizzie Myers (Jailer), Hayley Zeringue (Emelia), Augusta Bottonari (Paulina), Fort Couch Middle School, “The Winter's Tale”
- Kaia Petrick (Benedick), Pritika Gupta (Claudio), Sara Gillespie (Don Pedro), Fort Couch Middle School, “Much Ado About Nothing”
- Emily Whiteford (Constance), Upper St. Clair High School, “King John”
Judging criteria include understanding of the text, emotional connectedness, character development, physical and vocal performance, and pacing and the interaction amongst the actors in a scene.