Student Celebrations
All the world's a stage for Roosevelt High School teen
Student a semifinalist at national Shakespeare competition
Roosevelt High School student Benjamin Briggs was a semifinalist at the 30th season of the English-Speaking Union (ESU) National Shakespeare Competition in New York City.
Briggs, right photo, a student of language arts teacher David Grosskopf, captivated audiences with a performance of a sonnet and monologue from Shakespeare.
The competition was held April 22 at Lincoln Center Theater in New York City for 58 winners of ESU branch competitions nationwide. Briggs had previously won the ESU Seattle branch regional competition.
The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition is a school-based program to help students develop their speaking and critical thinking skills and their appreciation of literature as they explore the beauty of the language and timeless themes in Shakespeare’s works.
In three progressive competition levels, students memorize, interpret, and perform monologues and sonnets in their own schools, at ESU branch-sponsored community competitions and at the National Shakespeare Competition.
The ESU provided the branch winners with two full days of educational and cultural activities, including an exclusive acting workshop at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and a performance of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Julius Caesar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The teenagers had the opportunity to spend a weekend in New York City with other students from across the country who share a love of theater, language and, particularly, Shakespeare.
The English-Speaking Union of the United States is a non-profit, non-political educational organization whose mission is to celebrate English as a shared language to foster global understanding and good will by providing educational and cultural opportunities for students, educators and members.
The ESU carries out its work through a network of 70 branches, sponsoring a variety of language and international education programs.