The ESU National Shakespeare Competition is a performance-based education program. High school students develop analytical and communication skills by performing Shakespeare at the school, community, and national levels. Since 1983 more than 425,000 students have brought the timeless works of Shakespeare to life. 2024 marks the 41st year the ESU New York City Branch has participated in the National Shakespeare Competition. 

The Competition helps students develop speaking and critical-thinking skills while they explore the beauty of the language and the timeless themes in Shakespeare’s works. By preparing a monologue and sonnet for public presentation, students bring Shakespeare to life in their own way and learn to express his works with understanding, clarity, and feeling. Approximately 600 teachers and 3,500 students in nearly 45 ESU branches participate each year.

High school students from the New York  City area (Grades 9-12) will be competing for First Place at the New York City Finals with the winner advancing to the National Finals in New York City in April 2024. Students perform and recite Shakespeare monologues and sonnets in three qualifying stages: school, branch, and National levels.

If you are a Theatre, English, Forensics teacher, or administer a home school program, we encourage you to enter to give your students an opportunity to participate in this exciting competition. If you are an interested high school student, please alert your teachers to this valuable program. 

The 2025 ESU National Shakespeare Competition is underway in schools across the country. Following are upcoming deadlines for this year’s competition:

• Branch Registration Deadline – September 27, 2024
• School Registration Deadline – November 29, 2024
• Branch Competitions must be held prior to March 6, 2025
• Branch Winner Packets must be returned to ESU by March 16, 2025

The competition finals will be held at Lincoln Center in NYC in late April (Date TBA)

2025 Prizes Include:

• 1st place: British American Drama Academy Mid-Summer Conservatory Program in Oxford, London
• 2nd place: American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp in Staunton, VA
• 3rd place: $1000

Documents & Forms

All materials including the online school participation form, teacher and student handbooks, and packets of monologues and sonnets are located here.

Branch Contact

Contact New York City Branch Competition Coordinator Maryellen Liotta for questions: mliotta@esuus.org

The ESU National Shakespeare Competition has been recognized by the Globe Center (USA), the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America and the American Academy of Achievement. It is the only national Shakespeare competition in the U.S. and the only such program exclusively for high school students.