On January 7, the New Trier Shakespeare Competition was scheduled to be held. Unfortunately, the school was closed for the second day running due to arctic temperatures. Undeterred, the stalwart Shakespeareans held their contest the following day, January 8.

“There was one student who was not back in school because he was stranded,” said Hilerre Kirsch, one of the two teachers involved in the competition. “But we were able to see his audition the next day, during one of the lunch periods.”

A total of seven students auditioned. The winner, junior Brian Weaver, will go to Chicago to compete against representatives from roughly two dozen other Illinois schools. He will be the only New Trier student there; “It’s a very big responsibility,” said Kirsch.

The Chicago winner receives an all-expenses-paid trip to New York for the nationals, where over sixty cities send their champions. The victor at New York will spend the summer at Oxford, studying Shakespeare. In addition, winners at the state level and above receive substantial cash prizes.

Last year’s Chicago winner was New Trier’s very own Hannah Antman, a junior at the time.  “It was really, really fun,” Antman said. “I feel like a lot of people don’t like Shakespeare because they think he’s boring, but Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be performed.” She did not enter the competition this year, however: “I am too busy with college,” she explained.

Kirsch acknowledged that seniors have not competed for several years. “I think it’s overwhelming, because of college and other things that they’re involved with,” she said. The amount of work required to memorize and perform a twenty-line monologue in addition to a sonnet does not mix well with college applications and essays; contestants begin their preparations early in the fall. With New Trier’s contest immediately after winter break, the timing can be rough even for non-seniors, but, Kirsch added, “The ones who spent some time over winter break preparing this and are really ready to go – that tells us who’s really, really dedicated.”

The contest is not a competition per se; rather, the students there were auditioning to be New Trier’s representative at Chicago. Weaver will now receive additional coaching in anticipation of the national competition.

There is another Shakespeare competition soon to come with team events, instead of solo recitations. “There are three group performances,” said Susannah Davis, a senior and one of the heads of Shakespeare Club: a Shakespearean insult competition, a performance of a scene from one of the Bard’s plays sans props or scenery, and another scene in which the entire team is required to participate. “They’re called Bard Brawls,” she laughed. “I’m not kidding!”

“Shakespeare Club, together with the drama department, is attempting to field a team for the Bard Brawls,” said Davis. “It’s pretty unclear what our role will be going forward. We have registered a team, but we haven’t registered individual members.” This is a shift from the club’s usual activities: “We are not a performance club,” she said. “We do perform sometimes, [but] we don’t usually perform in front of people.”

According to Davis, group events range in size from four people to nine. They take place in late spring. Victorious teams will bring home trophies for their school to display.