By Hannah Porter '15
On Saturday, March 16, five Shakespeare-loving high school students performed sonnets and monologues from Shakespeare’s various plays, vividly embodying characters from King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Winter’s Tale, and Julius Caesar. This event, the 2013 English-Speaking Union Shakespeare Competition, took place in the Sem chapel and was hosted by the Niagara Frontier/Buffalo Branch of the ESU. The regional competition included five students from Sem, Starpoint, Hutch-Tech, Williamsville East, and Kenmore West. They performed their work for a panel of three judges: local actors David Autovino, David Lundy, and Lisa Vitrano. Our own Eliza Hopkins ’13, who performed Sonnet 129 and an Edmund monologue from King Lear, won first place. Next, she will travel to New York City for the national ESU competition at the end of April, where she will compete with around 60 other high school students from across the United States.
Last year, Eliza competed in the regional event, and also placed first. This will be Eliza’s second time traveling to NYC to compete on the national level with many other passionate actors and actresses at Lincoln Center. Eliza admits how nervous she was to perform nationally last year and how this year, she is excited to “soak in the whole experience, not just the competition itself.” While in New York, Eliza will partake in acting classes and various workshops with many other young people excited by Shakespeare’s genius.
Eliza Hopkins '13 performs at the 10th Annual Shakespeare Competition. Photo by Hannah Porter '15.
Our own theatre teacher, Ms. Susan Drozd, has contributed greatly to Eliza’s winning regional performance. The Sem senior says, “It’s all because of her that I've learned to love Shakespeare.” Since coming to Sem as a new sophomore in 2010, Eliza has participated in five school plays, two of which were Shakespearean. Her first-ever experience on stage performing live theatre was her role as Friar Lawrence in her first Sem production: Romeo and Juliet. Since then, she has taken part in many shows, as well as Ms. Drozd’s Advanced Shakespeare class, and this year, played the role of Antipholus of Syracuse in the spring show The Comedy of Errors. In addition to school productions, Eliza is taking an advanced drama class, Searching for Shakespeare, offered by Ms. Drozd, in which students read, respond to, and perform the playwright’s many pieces of timeless writing.
When asked what she loves most about performing Shakespeare, she comments, “I love the feeling I get of connecting to all the other performers before me who have performed the same monologue, scene, or sonnet. His work is old, and it's exciting to realize you're carrying the torch of his work forward into the next generation.”
Congratulations and good luck to Eliza as she travels to New York City to compete on the national level!
Buffalo Seminary, or Sem, is located at 205 Bidwell Parkway in the historic Elmwood Village neighborhood of Buffalo, N.Y. Founded in 1851, Sem is Western New York’s only independent high school for girls, and the only all-girls school in the area with a residential program. We offer an independent, nonsectarian, college-preparatory curriculum and are a member of The New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS), The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS) and The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS). Sem is also a charter affiliate member of The Online School for Girls (OSG). To learn more, visit www.BuffaloSeminary.org.