The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition is a performance-based education program in which high school students nationwide read, analyze, perform, and recite Shakespeare’s works. Through the program, students develop communication skills and an appreciation of the power of language and literature. In the Competition’s three progressive levels, students perform in their own schools, at ESU Branch community competitions, and at the National Shakespeare Competition in New York City. Since 1983, more than 400,000 young Americans of all backgrounds have taken advantage of this opportunity to bring the timeless works of Shakespeare to life and learn to express his words with understanding, feeling, and clarity.
Any local high school student may participate. Ideally, you participate at your home school. If your school is not already hosting its own competition, and you cannot find a teacher to sponsor the event at your school by January 1, then you may participate in the Traveling Players competition. The competition consists of each student performing two pieces of Shakespeare – a monologue and sonnet that you select from the packets.
The winner of The Traveling Players competition advances to the regional competition hosted by The Madeira School on February 25, 10 am - 2 pm, which the first runner-up also attends. The winner of the regional level advances to the national level to perform at NYC's Lincoln Center April 28.
Traveling Players' Founder & Producing Artistic Director, Jeanne E. Harrison, is offering a coaching session before the competition where she will help participants pick material for the event and/or work on their selected material.
Anne Bowles (she/her) has worked as an actor for over 20 years. Credits include: Broadway (Inherit the Wind, Collected Stories, reasons to be pretty), Off-Broadway (Make Believe at Secondstage) and many regional theatres including The Kennedy Center, Baltimore Centerstage, Ford’s Theatre, Studio Theatre, Olney Theatre, Asolo Rep, Florida Rep, Folger Theatre, Pioneer Theatre and others. TV credits include: The Good Wife, Law & Order: SVU, FBI: Most Wanted, House of Cards and Turn. Anne received her BA from Catholic University. She is also a graduate of the Second City Conservatory program.
Daniel Stroeh (he/him) is an award-winning writer, educator, and storyteller. His plays include it is no desert (which won the Kennedy Center’s Michael Kanin National Playwriting Award), 10 a.m. Signing (which was commissioned by Boston’s Alarm Clock Theatre Company), and The Chess Club (which was commissioned by The Kennedy Center’s Education Department). He has been a visiting artist at the Sundance Theatre Lab, the John F. Kennedy Center, and the Mark Taper Forum. Daniel’s work has been published by Samuel French Inc., Heinemann Press, Smith & Kraus, and Back Stage Books. He’s taught workshops and master classes at numerous high schools and universities and has also spoken at many spiritual conferences for youth and young adults. Most recently, he served as a judge for the Kennedy Center’s David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award and mentored young writer-performers for the Kennedy Center’s VSA Program. In December 2009 Daniel became the first-ever recipient of the Carpe Diem Award presented by the Boomerang Fund for Artists. He lives with his wife in Northern Virginia and is currently working on his first book.
Judith Walsh White (she/her) is an award-winning teacher, playwright, poet, director, and actor specializing in ensemble-guided playwriting and work with young artists. Profiled in The Washingtonian in 1987 as one of DC’s ten best teachers, Judith taught drama and speech for over 20 years at the Holton-Arms School, where she trained Veep’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She taught drama to Jeanne Harrison, Traveling Players’ Producing Artistic Director, starting at age 4, and served six years on Traveling Players’ board of directors. She mentored teachers through the Center for Inspired Teaching (run by Aleta Margolis, another of her former students). As an actor, her range has included Off-Broadway to dinner theatre. She did graduate work at Oberlin, American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), and as a Northwestern University Fellow. She was most recently directing at St. Patrick’s School.
A student of ancient myth, she has written twelve plays based in world mythology, including eleven commissioned by Traveling Players: Pandora’s Fire, Perseus and the Rock Star, Monkey King, Atum’s Eye, Ariadne’s Thread: the Adventures of Theseus and the Minotaur, Persephone, Atalanta, Heracles, Eros & Psyche, Orpheus & Eurydice, and Arachne. Two of these were subsequently published by Theatrefolk, listing our first Mythology Ensemble as Original Cast, and have since received performances in Australia, Saudi Arabia, China, Canada, the UK, and Gibraltar, as well as throughout the US, including The Actor’s Theatre of Louisville.
Traveling Players Studio
Tysons Corner Center – DL01
1961 Chain Bridge Road, Tysons, VA 22102
P.O. Box 1315
Great Falls, VA 22066
