Since 1983, approximately 200,000 students from public, independent and parochial high schools have explored the beauty and scope of Shakespeare's language through the National Shakespeare Competition.

Annually, 16,000 students and 2,000 teachers from 60 ESU Branches participate in a curriculum-based program designed to help high school students develop their communications skills and appreciation of language and literature, through the study, interpretation and performance of Shakespeare's monologues and sonnets. Students participate in three qualifying stages at the school, Branch and national levels. The winner receives a summer study course in the United Kingdom.

The Indianapolis Branch competition will be held on Monday, February 19, 2007 at 7pm on the Upper Stage of Indiana Repertory Theatre.

Click here for complete competition details.

Plans are now underway for the 2010 English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. We would like to express our deep appreciation to those of you who participated last year. You were part of a national effort involving 16,000 students and over 2,000 teachers. If you have not yet taken part in our Competition, we hope that you will consider offering this exciting and worthwhile program in your school.

You will find all the materials necessary to familiarize you with the Competition and enable you to encourage the participation of your students on the ESU website: www.esuus.org. You will find:

An Invitation to Students— This flyer can be reproduced and posted to encourage the participation of your students.

Instructions for School Competition— This document will provide you with the rules and guidelines necessary for organizing your own school competition.

Student Guidelines— This will help students as they prepare their monologues and sonnets.

From the Judges: What They Look For— This will give students an idea of the judging criteria.

2010 Suggested Monologues— The text of each monologue must be limited to 20 lines (verse or prose) according to The Riverside Shakespeare (1997 ed.). The suggested monologues adhere to this rule.

School Participation Form— This form must be returned to the Indianapolis Branch at 4450 Manning Road, Indianapolis, IN 46228 by January 28th, 2010 if your school wishes to participate in the Competition.

Branch Competition Entry Form— This form must be returned to the Indianapolis Branch at 4450 Manning Road, Indianapolis, IN 46228 by February 19th, 2010 with your winner’s information.

The winner of your School Competition will go on to the Shakespeare Competition held by the Indianapolis Branch of the English-Speaking Union. The ESU Branch winner will then be awarded an all-expense-paid trip to New York City for the ESU National Shakespeare Competition at Lincoln Center. In addition to the opportunity to compete, the ESU Branch winner enjoys a weekend of workshops and sightseeing in New York, and the chance to meet 60 other Branch winners from around the country. First prize for the winner of the National Shakespeare Competition is a scholarship for summer study in the United Kingdom. Second prize is a $1,000 cash award, and third prize is $500 from the Shakespeare Society.

Thank you for your interest in the ESU National Shakespeare Competition. We look forward to working with you this year.

Elizabeth Audet
Shakespeare Initiatives Chair,
Indianapolis Branch, ESU
317-216-9539

The increased emphasis on the importance of student performance on standardized tests that measure proficiencies in English Language Arts has prompted the English-Speaking Union of the United States to examine the National Shakespeare Competition in terms of how it can be helpful to students in their study of English Language Arts. Two of the leading educational organizations, the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the International Reading Association (IRA), have adopted Standards for the English Language Arts. A review of their Standards (a complete listing of the twelve standards can be viewed by visiting the NCTE’s web site: www.ncte.org), reveals how participation in The English-Speaking Union’s National Shakespeare Competition can help students develop English Language Arts proficiency.

According to the Standards document, “The vision guiding these standards is that all students must have the opportunities and resources to develop the language skills they need to pursue life’s goals and to participate fully as informed, productive members of society.” The NCTE/IRA standards are recognized across the country as guidelines in the development of curriculum and instruction.

In terms of the ESU’s National Shakespeare Competition, many of the NCTE/IRA standards have a direct or indirect relevance to the Competition. They include the following:

• Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

The universality of Shakespeare’s plays and the commonality of his themes, his exploration of the human condition, from stories of unrequited love and betrayal to politics and war, have continued to attract modern audiences.

• Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

In their classrooms and throughout the Branch competitions, teachers and their students employ a variety of strategies to help make meaning of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, master his language, and to communicate that understanding through the performance of his works.

• Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

As a result of their studies of Shakespeare’s work, students become participants in a variety of literacy communities—as students in their classrooms, as contestants at their school and Branch competitions, and then as semi-finalists at the National Shakespeare Competition. Students go on to continue their membership in an on-going literacy community through technology as they stay in contact, via the internet, with their fellow competitors across the country. It can even be said these individuals are part of a global literacy community that has existed for more than four as centuries as students worldwide continue to find meaning and relevance in Shakespeare’s works. Here’s what our competitors had to say about the Competition:

• “[Shakespeare] offers us a record of the same trials we face now as his generation did. By studying him, we study humanity as a whole.
• “Studying Shakespeare helps with listening and research.”
• “[The Competition] broadened my understanding and allowed me to meet peers with a common appreciation.”
• “The situations [of the plays]…resonate amazingly well today.”

We hope that this information is helpful as you seek to involve more students in the ESU National Shakespeare Competition. We hope you will agree that the competition can be an effective instructional activity that engages students in reading and performing Shakespeare’s plays, and that students can become better readers of literature as a result of their participation. Good luck with this year’s competition.

Over the decades, giving scholarships has been one of our most important activities.

The English-Speaking Union Fellow at Indiana University.
Scholarships for British Students at IU
Since 1951, Indiana University and the ESU Indianapolis Branch have worked together to give scholarships each year to a British student studying at Indiana University, some at the undergraduate level and others at the graduate level. Recent scholarships have been in the amount of $2,500.

British Universities Summer School Programme
Scholarships for High School Teachers for Summer Study in Great Britain
Since 1976, our Branch has participated, through the National ESU, in the British Universities Summer School Programme (“BUSS”). Our Branch awards one scholarship each year, in the amount of $3,000 (plus a $250 Treadwell Memorial Travel Grant from the National ESU). Secondary school teachers from Central Indiana may apply, and recent scholarship recipients have come from a variety of schools, large and small, public and private, secular and religious, big city and small town. Year after year, our BUSS Scholars have told us that their studying at Edinburgh, London or Oxford has been a rewarding and memorable experience.

A program brochure and application form may be obtained from the ESU Indianapolis Branch in January, and the application is usually due by the middle of February. (These dates might change from year to year.) The typical application includes a curriculum vitae, a personal essay, and two letters of recommendation. (A copy of earlier years’ pamphlets may be obtained at any time, to get “a feel” for each program.)

The ESU-BUSS currently includes three (3) summer schools:

• The Scottish Universities’ International Summer School at the University of Edinburgh, which has one program in Modern British & Irish Literature, and another program in Creative Writing
• The University of Oxford Summer Programme at Exeter College, which has one program in History, Politics & Society, and another in English Literature
• Teaching Shakespeare Through Performance, at the new Globe Theatre in London.

In a typical summer, each program offers several three-week terms (our Scholar attends one term). Each of the three programs has its own level of fees (generally, Edinburgh is the least expensive, London the most expensive, with Oxford close to the London level), and they change yearly. For the summer of 2007, the least expensive program’s charge for room, board and tuition will be 1,530 British Pounds, and the most expensive 2,130 British Pounds. At the current exchange rate (plus transaction fees), it takes about two U.S. dollars to purchase a British Pound, so, roughly, the least expensive program will cost about $3,000, and the most expensive more than $4,000. Travel costs and tourist/recreational costs would add to those amounts.

It is noted that although the application is first submitted to the ESU Indianapolis Branch, which picks one applicant to receive a Scholarship, the picked application is then forwarded to the National ESU and to the BUSS Programme, which has the final say on whether an applicant will, or will not, be offered admission (and the Indianapolis scholarship is conditioned on admission).

For more information, please feel free to contact President Keith W. Lerch at Keith_W._Lerch@hud.gov or 317-251-8661.