Upper St. Clair students excel at Shakespeare
Teams from Boyce Middle School and Upper St. Clair High School were selected as finalists in the 28th Annual Shakespeare Monologue & Scene Contest at the Pittsburgh Public Theater.
Students performed their scenes in the Showcase of Finalists held recently at the O’Reilly Theater.
Claire Dietiker (Hermia), Lindsey Fitzgerald (Helena), Anvi Vaishya (Demetrius), Mira and Murthy (Lysander) from Boyce Middle School highlighted segments from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Opal Miller (Mistress Paige), Armen Pettit (Mistress Ford) and Ishaan Sharma (Falstaff) from the high school acted parts from the “Merry Wives of Windsor.”
A Best Scene and Best Monologue winner were selected in both the upper (grades 8-12) and lower (grades 4-7) Divisions.
More than 400 area students from 60-plus schools competed in the preliminary rounds of the competition. Participants submitted video performances of monologues and/or scenes they had chosen from the works of William Shakespeare.
Teams of judges evaluated each participant and selected the finalists and honorable mentions for each division.
The following Upper St. Clair participants earned honorable mention recognition:
• Aaron Jiang (Marc Antony), Boyce Middle School, “Julius Caesar”
• Lizzie Myers (Jailer), Hayley Zeringue (Emelia), Augusta Bottonari (Paulina), Fort Couch Middle School, “The Winter’s Tale”
• Kaia Petrick (Benedick), Pritika Gupta (Claudio), Sara Gillespie (Don Pedro), Fort Couch Middle School, “Much Ado About Nothing”
• Emily Whiteford (Constance), Upper St. Clair High School, “King John”
Judging criteria include understanding of the text, emotional connectedness, character development, physical and vocal performance, and pacing and the interaction amongst the actors in a scene.