{"id":168,"date":"2022-12-26T11:29:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T11:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esustage.wpengine.com\/kansas-city\/?page_id=168"},"modified":"2026-03-19T03:53:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T03:53:04","slug":"shakespeare-competition","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"ESU National Shakespeare Competition &#8211; Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section id=\"kc-nsc-block\" class=\"content-over-image show-overlay\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/06\/Shakespeare-Competition-scaled-e1748822599433.jpg');\">\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n                <h5 class=\"title\">THE ESU NATIONAL SHAKESPEARE COMPETITION &#8211; SEATTLE<\/h5>\n        \n                <div class=\"subtitle\">A performance-based educational program serving grades 9-12<\/div>\n        \n        \n        <div class=\"buttons\">\n                    <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<section id=\"seattle-nsc-program-overview\" class=\"esu-basic-full-width\">\n\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"wrapper\">\n\n                            <div class=\"tagline heading-5\">\n                    PROGRAM OVERVIEW                <\/div>\n            \n                            <div class=\"title heading-2\">\n                    Seattle Shakespeare Competition                <\/div>\n            \n            \n                            <div class=\"content\">\n                    <p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1217 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/06\/PXL_20230226_223540592-1024x691.jpg\" alt=\"Shakespeare competiton\" width=\"1024\" height=\"691\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/06\/PXL_20230226_223540592-1024x691.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/06\/PXL_20230226_223540592-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/06\/PXL_20230226_223540592-768x519.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/06\/PXL_20230226_223540592-1536x1037.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2025\/06\/PXL_20230226_223540592-2048x1383.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>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 360,000 students have brought the timeless works of Shakespeare to life.<\/p>\n<p>The Competition helps students develop speaking and critical-thinking skills while they explore the beauty of the language and the timeless themes in Shakespeare&#8217;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 2,500 teachers and 20,000 students in nearly 60 ESU branches participate each year.<\/p>\n<p>High school students from the Greater Seattle region (Grades 9-12) will be competing for First Place at the Seattle Branch Finals with the winner advancing to the National Finals in New York City in April 2026. Students perform and recite Shakespeare monologues and sonnets in three qualifying stages: school, branch, and National levels.<\/p>\n<p>If you are a drama or English 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.<\/p>\n<p>The following dates will be posted for next year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Branch Registration Deadline<\/li>\n<li>School Registration Deadline<\/li>\n<li>Branch Competition<\/li>\n<li>Branch Winner Packet Submission Deadline&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The competition finals will be held at Lincoln Center in New York City, date TBD.<\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            \n            \n\n                            <div class=\"buttons\">\n                                                                                                                                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/school-participation-form\/\" class=\"btn btn-solid btn-small\" target=\"\">Register your School<\/a>\n                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            <\/div>\n            \n        <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\" \/>\n\n\n\n<section id=\"program-details\" class=\"esu-basic-full-width\">\n\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"wrapper\">\n\n                            <div class=\"tagline heading-5\">\n                    Program Details                <\/div>\n            \n                            <div class=\"title heading-2\">\n                    Everything You Need to Know to Get Started                <\/div>\n            \n            \n                            <div class=\"content\">\n                    <h4>Documents &amp; Forms<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All materials including the online school participation form, teacher and student handbooks, and packets of monologues and sonnets are <a href=\"\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/\"><strong>located here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Branch Contact<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact Seattle City Branch Competition Coordinator and Seattle Branch President Julie Pheasant-Albright for questions: <a href=\"mailto:jdpheasant@gmail.com\"><strong>jdpheasant@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            \n            \n\n                            <div class=\"buttons\">\n                                                                                                                                            <a href=\"\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/\" class=\"btn btn-solid btn-small\" target=\"_blank\">More information about NCS<\/a>\n                                                                                    <\/div>\n            \n        <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n\n<\/section>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\" \/>\n\n\n\n<section id=\"history\" class=\"esu-basic-full-width advgb-dyn-d41d8cd9\">\n\n    <div class=\"inner\">\n        <div class=\"wrapper\">\n\n                            <div class=\"tagline heading-5\">\n                    History                <\/div>\n            \n                            <div class=\"title heading-2\">\n                    Seattle Shakespeare Competition                <\/div>\n            \n            \n                            <div class=\"content\">\n                    <p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The ESU National Shakespeare Competition has been recognized by the Globe Center (USA), the Children&#8217;s Theatre Foundation of America and the American Academy of Achievement. It is the only national Shakespeare competition in the United States and the only such program exclusively for high school students.<\/span><\/p>\n                <\/div>\n            \n            \n\n                            <div class=\"buttons\">\n                                                                                                                                                                            <\/div>\n            \n        <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"parent":17,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-168","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ESU National Shakespeare Competition - Seattle - Seattle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ESU National Shakespeare Competition - Seattle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Seattle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-19T03:53:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/\",\"name\":\"ESU National Shakespeare Competition - Seattle - Seattle\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-26T11:29:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-19T03:53:04+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/shakespeare-competition\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What We Do\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esuus.org\/seattle\/what-we-do\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"ESU National Shakespeare Competition &#8211; 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