CENTER VALLEY, PA- Last Saturday, several North Penn theater students and thespian director Mrs. Andrea Roney traveled to and took first place at the Pennsylvania High School Shakespeare Competition at DeSales University, which is separate from DeSales itself, but under its umbrella.

This competition started in 2008, and the first year was invitation only. Since then, it has opened to all high school-aged students. Fortunately, North Penn have been regular attendees to this event.

“We were invited to go [the first year] because of my connection with being a graduate of DeSales and I also worked for the Shakespeare Company for four years, and they knew our theater program,” said Roney. “They have it every year, and even though it is a competition, the emphasis is really on education and growth and loving Shakespeare.”

Each team must go through three rounds of competition, with each school allowed to bring up to 12 people. This year, North Penn took seven students, who performed three monologues and two scenes. Elizabeth Jebran performed a monologue from All’s Well that Ends Well , Liam McKee and Maura Slater presented a monologue from As You Like It, Catherine Winner and Abriel Smith performed a scene from As You Like It, and Elizabeth Tyree and Dan Wescoe recreated a scene from Romeo and Juliet.

Each monologue and scene is assigned to a panel of judges, who assign both a ranking and an individual score.

North Penn won first place in team, which means that all of the students form North Penn did really well, consistently, in all of their rounds, even though they may not have won individual trophies. Winner and Smith were first place in scene, and were asked to showcase. Slater was also asked to showcase. Winner and Smith were also both offered $2,000 scholarships.

The part Roney really likes about the competition is hearing the feedback from the judges, and hearing the vocabulary they use to help better the actors they have watched, so she can use that same vocabulary in the classroom, and keep up to date with what people that are acting and directing right now, in the real world, use. Although she knows that most her students will not continue with acting and directing after they leave high school, for those few that do, she tries her best to keep up to date with what’s happening in the acting world to help benefit them.

At the end of the day, the competitors were able to watch an original DeSales Greek play, Electra. One of the judges for that day was the director of that play as well, giving the participants the opportunity to see a judges own work.

“What I love about the competition is that you get direct feedback from the judges, you get to choose a workshop (verse, improvisation, stage combat) that allows you to work with the judges, and I watch, not just with our students, but with all the participants, I watch such growth during the course of the day-both in their work and in their confidence,” said Roney. “The emphasis is on the work, and the feedback, and the sharing of your work, and sharing the love of Shakespeare. The emphasis is less on the competition and more on the work, which I think is wonderful.”