The Shakespeare Crew
This past Wednesday, the RASG Hebrew Academy High School held its first Shakespeare Oratory Contest. English teacher Mrs. Ingrid Constantine introduced this competition to the school and coordinated the event. She was inspired to bring the contest to Hebrew Academy because she had organized similar competitions for over 15 years while working at other schools.
“It gives me great pride to see people relishing in the language of the Bard,” said Mrs. Constantine.
Ideally, Mrs. Constantine wanted the school to compete against other local schools. Unfortunately, however, there were not enough schools from Miami-Dade county willing to participate in the competition and because of this, they were limited to an in-school contest. In the end, participants and observers enjoyed it very much.
Stanzas from Shakespearean works such as Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Tempest, and more were performed by the competitors. When the dust settled, judges Mr. Jeremy Adams, Mrs. Sarah Berman, and Mrs. Leah Handwerger named three of the ten students participating in the contest as the winners. Yael Sterenfeld (10th grade) won the competition with her performance as the Jailor’s daughter from Two Noble Kingsmen. Yakov Schwab (10th) finished in second place playing Marc Antony from Julius Caesar and Adira Kahn (10th) finished third after her rendition of Lady Macbeth from Macbeth.
“I love the addition of this competition. In my years at this school, we have never done something like this as far as I can remember,” said Adira Kahn.
Many students said they valued this opportunity to share their creative side in a fun and unique way.
“It allows students to expand their comfort zone as performing Shakespeare is something that some of the students participating in this event have never done before. Personally, I find the language of Shakespeare to be fascinating.”
By: Noah Dobin (10th grade)
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