By Anne W. Semmes
The talented Connecticut high school youth so chosen by their teachers to perform an excerpt from a Shakespeare play and a sonnet brought captivating creative energy to the stage of the Berkley Theater at Greenwich Library, a week Wednesday afternoon. The occasion marked the 41st annual Shakespeare Competition, sponsored by The Greenwich Branch of the English-Speaking Union (ESU), The Smith Club of Greenwich and Stamford, and the Friends of Greenwich Library.
Anne Hall Elser, co-chair of the Shakespeare Competition from the ESU, shared there were eight Connecticut schools represented with 12 students competing. Four winners would be chosen: First, second, third, and honorable mention. And across the country, she noted, “over 16,000 students in over 800 schools have participated, and 45 ESU branches have organized a similar competition to the one you’re seeing here today.”
Elser highlighted the ESU’s commitment of “promoting scholarship and the advancement of knowledge through the effective use of English in an expanding global community.” She welcomed and thanked Hilary Martin Lea, chairman of the Friends of Greenwich Library “for hosting.” “Thank you,” said Lea, “It is our mission to support literacy in all forms, including cultural literacy. “
What the prizes will be for winners
Those upcoming 12 performers sat nervously along a side aisle as Elser shared the 2026 national prizes for the four winners. “First place, study at the British American Drama Academy Midsummer Conservatory Program in Oxford, England. Second place, study at the American Shakespeare Center’s Theater Camp in Staunton, Virginia, and third place $1,000. All four winners will receive cash awards. First place, $300, Second place, 250, Third place, 200, and honorable mention 150.”
And lastly, “The four winners will be invited to perform for members of the ESU Greenwich Branch at the King’s Birthday Garden Party at the Belle Haven Club in Greenwich on Sunday, June 14.”
Co-chair Caterina Kavanagh of The Smith Club shined light on the attending teachers “who run the school competitions and give our students the encouragement and support and inspire them to be on stage today.” She then introduced the “distinguished panel” of three judges: Mark Shanahan, artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse, actress Angela Reed, and actor Todd Servers. “As students perform, she told, “we’ll proceed without a break… No applause after each student! We’ll wait till the end, then give everyone together a big round of applause.”
Following the passion-filled and energetic performances of the 12 students introducing their Shakespeare selections, there was that resounding applause followed by a tense break for “refreshments” as the closeted three judges determined their “difficult decision” of the four winners. But with everyone returned to their seats, judge Mark Shanahan – as distinguished director, actor, and professor – took to the stage to address those student performers.
Mark Shanahan praises the students’ performing bravery
“It was a thrill to sit here,” said Shanahan, “and see the bravery it takes to stand on a stage to say, ‘I think this is what I found out from speaking these words and this is what I want to share with everyone… Shakespeare gives you all the words and tools and thoughts and emotions you need to be an interpretive artist, to find your way and navigate through text.”
“Today,” he continued, “I saw all of you test your ideas beautifully on the stage. It is where actors come and they shine, and they help in troubled times in a hard world we live in to help us all think about thoughts, to commune with your bravery and figure out what that means.”
“And you don’t always have to be an actor too,” he added. “You can be a writer, a thinker, or just someone who loves the language… I hate to say this. Today doesn’t matter half as much as the journey that you’re on… It stays with you. It’s in your back pocket forever now. I guarantee you’ll be at a dinner party when you’re 80 years old and say, ‘I can do a speech for you.’ Pick it up, show them all.”
Shanahan introduces the four prize winners
First place, Abby Kesmodel of Greenwich Academy, having acted out with vigor and verve a monologue from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She began, “My mistress with a monster is in love. / Near to her close and consecrated bower, / While she was in her dull and sleeping hour…” Her Sonnet 147 began, “My love is as a fever, longing still/ For that which longer nurseth the disease, / Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, Th’ uncertain sickly appetite to please…”
Second place winner Rowan Simonelli from ACES Educational Center for the Arts, performed as Jaques in a monologue from As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7 and Sonnet 144.
“A fool, a fool, I met a fool i’ th’ forest, A motley fool. A miserable world! As I do live by food, I met a fool…” Her Sonnet 144 began, “Two loves I have of comfort and despair, / Which like two spirits do suggest me still / The better angel is a man right fair…”
Third place winner Kara Starkey, also from the ACES Educational Center for the Arts. She performed Rosalind’s monologue from As You Like It, Act 3, Scene 5, and Sonnet 102.
She began, “I see no more in you than in the ordinary / Of nature’s sale-work. ‘Od’s my little life, I think she means to tangle my eyes too…” Her Sonnet 102 began, “My love is strengthened, though more weak in seeming; I love not less, though less the show appear. That love is merchandise…”
Honorable Mention winner was Roby Sickles of Brunswick School. He performed a monologue as Iago in Othello, Act 3, Scene 2, followed by Sonnet 73. “And what’s he then that says I play the villain? / When this advice is free, I give and honest, / Probal to thinking and indeed the course / To win the Moor again?” And of his Sonnet 73 he began “That time of year, thou mayst in me behold, / when yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang / Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, / Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet bird sang.”
