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The Rules of the Competition

SENIOR

The purpose of the Shakespeare Competition is to help you develop your understanding of Shakespeare and your ability to communicate that understanding. You are therefore encouraged to bring Shakespeare to life in your own way and to express his words with feeling, clarity and a full sense of their meaning and intent.

• You will memorize, interpret and perform one monologue, and if applicable, a sonnet.
• You should identify your selections before you begin your presentation. Any introduction should be limited to two sentences. You may perform your pieces in any order you prefer.
• You will not be allowed any costumes or props of any kind, including chairs, hair and hair clips, articles of clothing, and jewelry. You should select clothing that allows you to move freely. Some styles of heavy contemporary footwear can be distracting and can limit your movement.
• Prompting, if necessary, is allowed.
• You should speak naturally, not with an artificial voice. We urge you to use American speech rather than affect a British accent.
• You must reside permanently in the U.S. and be enrolled in the 10th, 11th, or 12th grade. You cannot have been paid to appear in a professional performance during the current academic year.

JUNIOR

Applies to 7th, 8th, 9th grade. Rules same as above.

GETTING STARTED

The first step in the Shakespeare Competition is to choose a monologue to memorize and perform. You may select a monologue from a list provided by The English-Speaking Union. Remember that choosing the part you will play is important and you need to be actor and casting director at the same time. For example, do you think you would be a more convincing Juliet or Cleopatra? An Iago or a Prince Hal? Also remember that actors research their roles: it would be a rare thing to perform convincingly a monologue without knowing the character who is speaking, inside and out. That means knowing the entire play well. Your chosen monologue must not exceed 20 lines (verse or prose) according to The Riverside Shakespeare (1997). The English-Speaking Union will adhere strictly to this rule, and the presentation of a monologue exceeding these limits will result in disqualification. If you are searching outside the selected list, aim for consecutive material with a beginning, middle, and end. While it may occasionally be appropriate to cut the lines of another character in a shared dialogue, try to avoid cutting within speeches. The winner of the school contest will also memorize a sonnet (10th, 11th, 12th grade) to add to his or her performance at the Branch competition. Ideally, your sonnet will complement your monologue and help demonstrate your interpretive range.

Suit the Action to the Word, the Word to the Action

Every great actor is praised for being "natural". However, what actors do is master the tools of vocal and physical expression so completely that they seem natural. This should be your goal, too. Explore the range of expressive possibilities of voice and movement. You might experiment with with emphasis, phrasing, volume vs. economy of gesture, and facial expression. As you do, you will begin making decisions about which means of expression best fit the tone and character of your pieces. Allow your work to grow and change. Elizabethan actors were "players". You too should bring playfulness to this process.

THE SELECTIONS

The Monologue

A monologue is a speech by a single character set within the context of a play. One very important aspect of interpreting a monologue is remembering that action (whether implied, reported, or presented) has preceded and/or will proceed from this speech. The words spoken by your character will generally fit within the larger framework of the play in one or more of three ways:

1. They will reveal something about the character's personality or goals
2. They will be used by the character to incite others to action and move the plot forward.
3. They will set the scene or close the action, as in prologues and epilogues.

Having read the play, begin to study your monologue by placing yourself in the circumstances faced by your character, paying particular attention to what happens immediately before the monologue begins. Then begin to explore the words--the character's thoughts--with your voice and body. Remember, your goal is to make the character your own, and , in doing so, to convince the audience to accept you as that character and to believe in the message you are delivering. Avoid the temptation to "blow the audience away" with an excess of emotion. In acting, more is often less. An actor who "protests too much" rarely convinces.

As you work on the monologue, ask yourself:

The Sonnet (10th, 11th, 12th grade)

A sonnet captures one moment in a poet's journey through his life. At that moment, he or she expresses intimate thoughts in words. Love, death, art, and the passage of time are among the themes Shakespeare explores in his sonnets. A sonnet differs from a monologue in that it must express a complete thought or action within fourteen lines. As a playwright, Shakespeare could modify or transform a character after a monologue through the action of a play, and you, as the interpreter of the monologue, must consider both the past and future of y our character. As a poet, however, Shakespeare had to fit any changes in thought, feeling or action into the limits of the sonnet form. You may find it helpful to be conscious of these distinctions as you prepare your sonnet. A sonnet is also a tightly structured statement, and most of Shakespeare’s sonnets follow this pattern, although their themes might be different. When performing your sonnet, it is very important to understand this structure. A Shakespeare sonnet is divided into three quatrains (four-line units) and a concluding couplet. Often, though not always, the thought changes direction with the third quatrain. The final couplet, though it sometimes completes or summarizes what has gone before, may just as readily modify or contradict it.

As you study your sonnet, try to clarify this understanding by summarizing your sonnet in the shortest sentence possible. Then work on achieving the same clarity in delivering Shakespeare's words. As you work on your sonnet, ask yourself:

In past years, movement during the sonnet had been discouraged. The rules of the National Shakespeare Competition have changed to allow competitors to use movement and gesture if they feel it will enhance the delivery of the sonnet. As mentioned before, your sonnet will, ideally, complement your monologue and help demonstrate your interpretive range.