In the News

New York City: With a performance of a sonnet and monologue from Shakespeare, Malenky Welsh from Branford, CT, a student of Carolyn Ladd & Ingrid Schaeffer at ACES Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, won a place as one of the 10 finalists  in  the  34th  annual  English-Speaking  Union  National  Shakespeare  Competition in New York City. The  Competition took place on May 1, 2017 on the stage of the Mitzi Newhouse Theater with 54 semi-finalists from as many ESU Branch competitions nationwide. Malenky previously won the ESU Greenwich Branch competition.

More than 20,000 high school students nationwide participated in the 2017 English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition at the local, regional, and national levels. Among the winners and finalists of the Competition who have gone on to national acclaim are actor and director Joe Sofranko, whose Hulu series Complete Works is, in fact, based on the National Shakespeare Competition; actors Emily Bergl (Shameless, Desperate Housewives, Southland); Tyler Hilton (Walk the Line, One Tree Hill); Heather Lind (Demolition, Boardwalk Empire, Turn: Washington’s Spies); Bronwyn Reed (Law and Order: SVU); as well as Broadway’s Matt Harrington (Twelfth Night, Matilda) and Adam Wesley Brown (Once the Musical).

This winner of the 34th English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition, Ogechi Egonu, representing the San Francisco Branch, received a full scholarship to attend the American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp in Staunton, VA, this summer.  Second place winner, Brandon Burk, from the Kentucky Branch,  won a cash prize of $1,000 from The English-Speaking Union, while the third place  winner, Trevon Wainwright, representing the Kansas City Branch of the ESU, received an award of $500 provided by The Shakespeare Society.

This year, actors Kate Burton and Dana Ivey served as judges, joining a roster of former judges that includes such luminaries as Sarah Jessica Parker, Sam Waterston, Phylicia Rashad, Blythe Danner, Jesse L. Martin, Cynthia Nixon, Richard Thomas, Courtney B. Vance, Dianne Wiest, and Helen Hayes.

The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition is a school-based program designed to help students develop their speaking and critical thinking skills and their appreciation of literature as they explore the beauty of the language and timeless themes in Shakespeare’s works. In three progressive competition levels, students memorize, interpret, and perform monologues and sonnets in their own schools, at ESU Branch-sponsored community competitions and at the English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. Citing its 34th season this year, the  Honorable Bill De  Blasio, Mayor  of the  City of New York,  proclaimed May 1, 2017 as William Shakespeare Day in New York City. Laura Hickey, the British Deputy Consul-General in New York, read the proclamation, and Paul Beresford-Hill, CBE, KSt.J, Chairman of the English-Speaking Union, awarded certificates to the competitors.