All the World's a Stage at the Lycée Shakespeare Competition

The English Department was delighted with the triumphant return of the Lycée Shakespeare Competition, one of our favorite events of the year. Students from grades 9 to 12 worked hard to prepare some of the Bard’s best monologues, which they performed in our auditorium on Wednesday, January 26. The winner will go on to compete in the city-wide event sponsored by the prestigious English Speaking Union.

Moved by our students performances, I wrote a sonnet to honor them. The bubonic plague hung over much of Shakespeare’s life and writing:

Today, on stage, you brought not only cheer,

But love and war, and laughs (“O spite! O Hell!”).

Yet more than that, you were to all our ears,

A balm, a salve. You cast, in fact, a spell.

A plague, remember, marred The Bard’s time, too;

In face of it, he wrote all that he could.

Believed, he did, that what would get them through,

Was words. Performed on stage, they could do good.

They’d sweeten air made rank by foul disease,

And bring together people rent by plight.

That’s what you gave us (with such seeming ease).

Your faces, unobscured for once, brought light.

You took us from a world of being alone,

And made instead a Globe to call our own.

Watch the winning performances, and the entire broadcast of the final, here:

And if you’re craving more Shakespeare, watch the “Break with the Bard” series on our Instagram account for award-winning performances from last year’s competition.

About the Author :

David Freeman

David Freeman joined the Lycée English Department in January 2011. Prior to his arrival at the Lycée, Mr. Freeman taught for two years at Winchester College, an all-boys private boarding school in England. He attended Boston University, where he received degrees in both English and education, and Teachers College at Columbia University, where he received a masters degree. He hails from Rhode Island and is an avid Boston sports fan.