NATIONAL SHAKESPEARE COMPETITION
FEBRUARY 16, 2017 // LOCATION TBA
This competition is for middle and high school students. Competitors recite one Shakespeare sonnet and one fifteen to twenty-line passage from a Shakespeare play. The goal is not to develop polished actors, but to increase understanding of Shakespeare's poetry among students who would not necessarily otherwise be exposed to spoken Shakespeare. The winner of the ESU Charlotte Branch (community) Shakespeare Competition advances to the National Competition in New York City.
Registration Fee: $10 Registration Deadline: TBA Requirements: TBA |
SHAKESPEARE RESOURCES
Playing Shakespeare
John Barton & the RSC (1984) Join John Barton as he directs actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. Explore various concepts, nuances, and structures present in Shakespeare's verse that the actor can use to bring the text to life.
Episode 1: The Two Traditions
Episode 2: Using the Verse Episode 3: Language and Character Episode 4: Set Speeches and Soliloquies Episode 5: Irony and Ambiguity Episode 6: Passion and Coolness Episode 7: Rehearsing a Text Episode 8: Exploring a Character Episode 9: Poetry and Hidden Poetry The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Look for the perfect monologue online. MIT provides the full text of every single Shakespeare play. (Please compare this version to the Folger Shakespeare Library version before using for competition!)
Hamlet's Advice to the Players
William Shakespeare, Hamlet |
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- Speak the speech trippingly on the tongue.
- Do not saw the air too much with your hand.
- Use all gently, for in the very torrent, tempest, and whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.
- Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor.
- Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature.
- The purpose of playing is to hold the mirror up to nature.
- Let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them.
- Go make you ready.