"To be, or not to be?" That's the question some Beaver Area students will be asking themselves at the Shakespeare competition this Thursday.
February 15, a few of our high school students, as well as middle and elementary school students, will travel to the annual Shakespeare Monologue and Scene Competition in Pittsburgh.
For the past three months, eight Beaver Area high schoolers have been diligently preparing for this competition. The students participating have practiced after school twice a week in heavy anticipation for the competition.
Additionally, Mr. Aaron Crutchfield, a teaching artist from the Pittsburgh Public Theater, traveled to our school to coach the participants in a few things about acting.
He was able to teach the group about acting in general which included some acting exercises and techniques, as well as work with groups individually on their scene or monologue.
The eight high schoolers who travel to Pittsburgh to compete this Thursday include freshmen Kaitlyn Kramer, Vivian Gedman, Molly O'Neill, Chloe Saunders, and Bianca Kretchmar; sophomore Annaka Najewicz; and seniors Madeline Boser and Jordan Lohry.
“I did my first Shakespeare competition in sixth grade,” Lohry stated, “I was so excited to come back my senior year to compete again.”
The students’ scenes or monologues vary from Hamlet to Romeo and Juliet; As You Like It to Macbeth. The wide variety of plays explore heartbreaking tragedies all the way to comedies.
Although the high schoolers will be traveling to the competition with elementary schoolers and middle schoolers, the high schoolers will compete in the upper division while middle schoolers will compete in the lower division.
Middle school language arts teacher Mrs. Jessica Hill runs the practices as the Shakespeare coach.
“Everyone has been working hard to interpret their chosen Shakespeare pieces, and I could not be more proud of the performances they have put together. I am so excited to see them on stage [this] week!” shared Mrs. Hill.