Students Take On Shakespeare Competition

To be or not to be a part of the National Shakespeare Competition? That was the question answered in the affirmative by seven Rivers students recently as they each recited a monologue from one of the Bard’s plays, in hopes of capturing the school crown and moving on to the state semifinal round.

Upper School English teacher Juliet Bailey has overseen Rivers’s participation in the competition for at least 15 years. In years past, Rivers students have performed well at the state level, with two – Miles Jacoby ’07 and Dominique Marshall ’18 – going on to represent Massachusetts in the national competition, held at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Bailey is always impressed by the caliber of student performances, and this year’s event, held in Rivera Recital Hall, was no exception. “All the kids did a really good job,” she said, which made it difficult to select a winner. Reciting from memory in front of their peers and the two judges – Bailey and English teacher Jennie Jacoby – and without benefit of props or costumes, the contestants performed their parts with brio, confidence, and only the occasional flubbed line. The competition, mounted under the auspices of the English-Speaking Union, follows the organization’s guidelines, which include a list of allowed monologues and a rubric for judges that breaks down such categories as understanding and expression.

Two of the seven student contestants recited Hamlet’s famous “To Be or Not To Be” speech, but the ultimate winner landed on a far more obscure choice for her performance. Maggie Monaghan ’19 picked a monologue from The Winter’s Tale, a speech by Hermione that begins, “Sir, spare your threats.” Monaghan, who has competed every year since ninth grade, says, “I wanted to try something different.” She hoped to convey the wronged queen’s pain, and Bailey described her performance as moving and emotional. “She really captured the character,” Bailey says. To prepare, Monaghan recited the speech in front of the mirror and wrote it out by hand, the better to envision it as she memorized the lines. Monaghan will go on to compete in the state semifinals on February 2.

Bailey says the experience isn’t all, or even mostly, about competition. “Shakespeare can be intimidating,” she notes, and they key to understanding the sometimes unfamiliar and archaic language, she believes, is speaking it aloud. “You can’t perform it unless you understand exactly what you’re saying,” she says – and vice versa. When her ninth-grade English class reads Romeo and Juliet, every student participates in performing a scene from the play. “The first day, I get the kids on their feet, just getting the Elizabethan in their mouths. That’s the biggest hurdle. By the time we read it, it’s not so scary.”
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