Students from Pottsville Area High School have only participated in the National Shakespeare Competition the last two years, but the school has produced two winners.
Patrick “P.J.” Moran, a 16-year-old junior, won this year’s branch competition hosted by the Central Pennsylvania Branch of the English-Speaking Union on Feb. 13 at Lock Haven University, Lock Haven. The competition was open to ninth- through 12th-grade students. Competitors had to prepare a 20-line monologue of their choice from any of Shakespeare’s plays and their choice of one of his 154 sonnets.
Moran chose the porter’s monologue from “Macbeth” and sonnet 23.
“I’ve always just been fond of it and doing it on my own accord,” Moran said about the monologue. “There’s a lot of duality, a lot of back and forth.”
He said “Macbeth” was the first of Shakespeare’s plays that he read in its entirety.
“I’ve always enjoyed the language and the culture of the times, but learning it is always a challenge,” Moran said.
It was the first time he competed in an event like that, Moran said.
“It was really enjoyable watching everyone else,” Moran said. “I watched myself in the mirror 100 times, so seeing their’s was fun.”
Moran had some help preparing for the competition from last year’s winner, Arrianna Daniels, 17, now a senior at Pottsville Area, and Maria Malek, Shakespeare and drama teacher at the school.
“The characters and themes are universal,” Malek said about Shakespeare. “It’s feelings, philosophy that have carried on since the beginning of time and into the future. It’s just the language that’s different.”
“I said to just close your eyes, take a deep breath and pretend you are in the classroom,” Daniels said.
Daniels won last year with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and sonnet 55. She said that she didn’t even look at the event as a competition, but rather an opportunity to sit and listen to other students perform and “just pop into character when they get on stage.”
The winner of the branch competition then go on to nationals on May 2 at the Lincoln Center, New York City. In addition to the competition, the all-expense-paid, three-day trip also includes Shakespeare workshops, sight-seeing and more.
The national winner’s prize is a two-week trip to London for drama classes, paid by the ESU. Second place wins a scholarship to participate in the American Shakespeare Center’s Theatre summer camp and third place wins a monetary award.
“It was just incredible. I can’t describe it,” Daniels said about last year’s national competition.
Her advice to Moran: “Don’t think of it as a competition. It is more so an experience,” Daniels said.
Malek said the school is proud of their students’ success.
“I think it’s a testament to how hard our students work and take their craft seriously and trust the instructions we give them,” Malek said. “It is truly an honor for us to happen two years in a row.”