Shakespeare in Action - Canada's Leader in Shakepeare Education

Shakespeare Student Festival
TBA

AIM
To foster the appreciation and performance of Shakespeare's works, by arranging Regional Student Festivals of Shakespeare in the Schools.

Guidelines - How the Festival works:

Provincial Regional Heats: to be held in April throughout the school districts and regions of Province. These provincial regional are broken down into large districts within the provinces. Each of these large districts would then hold a series of (Heats), for the competing schools, throughout the month of April. These (Heats) would produce twenty finalists, from the larger districts, who would then playoff in a Provincial Festival final.

Shakespeare Student Festival
The Shakespeare Student Festival would then be held in early May in Toronto at, one of the following locations: York University, U of T or the Stratford Festival. This event would involve will over a hundred students and teachers from across the province and be held over three days. This would give participants the opportunity to share performances, lectures, workshops and discussions as well as time to socialize and visit professional theatres. Three finalists would be selected from the festival and receive an opportunity to travel to Shakespeare's Globe in London to attend a Globe-Links Shakespeare International Student Festival featuring groups from NZ, Australia, Germany, Japan, and the United States.

Criteria

Scene selection

Scene(s) from any one of Shakespeare's plays may be performed.

Text

Scripts must remain faithful to Shakespeare's text, but may be edited.
Strong text-based performances are encouraged.

Time

Fifteen (15) minutes must not be exceeded. Regional Festival assessors will stop the performance after 15 minutes has elapsed and will not select any piece, which exceeds the 15-minute limit.

Monologues

Soliloquy, monologue, sonnet, poem from Shakespeare's works.
Maximum length 5 minutes.
Monologues will be performed between schools' scene performances.
A student from each region may be selected at the Regional heats to perform at the Shakespeare Student Festival.

Props and scenery

Only chairs will be provided.
Hand held props are permitted.
Minimal additional scenery may be brought provided that, within two minutes, it can be set up before, and cleared up after, the performance.

Lighting

Performances will mostly be in daytime.
Very basic lighting is available and an operator will be supplied.
Blackout of the hall will be used.

Music

Sound can only be operated from the wings.
Piano, cassette recorder and CD players may be used.
The use of own instruments and original music is encouraged.

Assessment Procedure:

Provincial Regional Festival Heats

At least one Assessor will view the performances and select the group or groups to attend the Final.

The Entry Fee for a student scene is $40.00 payable at the Provincial Regional level only. The fee for a soliloquy, monologue, sonnet, poem from Shakespeare's works is $10.00 payable at the regional level only.

In order to assist with expenses, students who perform on stage are requested to pay a $2.00 levy each, technical and backstage people are not required to pay this. This applies at Regional Festivals entry level only.

* Schools may charge audiences an entry fee to Regional Festival Heats and performances, to cover local expenses and help the selected schools attend the Provincial Festival Final.

Shakespeare Student Festival in Schools Awards:

Shakespeare Student Festival Awards

* All the awards assessors will view the performances and some will meet with students and teachers to discuss and comment on presentations. Written reports will be sent out.

Sam Wanamaker Award for: Most Promising Actor
Shakespeare Globe Centre Canada Award for: Outstanding Presentation from a Tragedy
The Globe and Mail Award for: Outstanding Costume And Design
The William Hutt Award for: Best Comic Performance
The C.B.C. Speech Communication Award for: Outstanding Delivery of Text
Shakespeare In Action Award for: Most Innovative & Imaginative Production
Stratford Festival Award for the: Most Elizabethan Production
The Christopher Plummer Award: Outstanding Performer
And many more!

Workshops for students and teachers offered at the National Festival:

Acting and the Voice
Student Directing
Physical Theatre
Stage Combat
Dance & Movement for the actor
Acting Monologues
Teaching Shakespeare's Language

For information regarding this program please contact
Artistic Director, Michael Kelly
(416) 703-4881
mkelly@shakespeareinaction.org

info@shakespeareinaction.org