EDUCATION: Starpoint student in national Shakespeare contest

By Joe Olenick/olenickj@gnnewspaper.com
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

PENDLETON February 09, 2008 01:19 am

— Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by a student of Starpoint.
Borrowed from William Shakespeare’s “Richard III,” the above line could describe how a student’s success is brightening up a long winter in Pendleton. “Toil and trouble,” some may think, when it comes to what she succeeded in: Performing a monologue and a sonnet from William Shakespeare.
After winning a regional competition, Starpoint senior Jasmine May will be competing in the English Speaking Union’s annual Shakespeare competition April 26-29 in New York City. The monologue May gave was from Lady Anne in “Richard III,” choosing from a list the competition provided.
“I feel I like to have a strong presence on stage,” May said. “I chose this because she has a strong presence in the scene, despite being mournful.”
Taken from Act 1, scene 2, Lady Anne is mourning the death of her husband, Prince Edward, and her father-in-law, the former king, Henry VI. Knowing the murderer is Richard, who will become King Richard III, she expresses her hatred of him, and even curses his wife and offspring. In an ironic twist, Richard and Anne become engaged before the scene ends.
May started reading Shakespeare when she entered high school. But after entering Starpoint teacher Al Franco’s English class, her interest in the famous playwright’s works deepened.
“It all started with ‘Romeo and Juliet’,” she said. “That’s the play they started us off with. When I got to Mr. Franco’s class, I started falling in love with Shakespeare, with a lot of the plays we did that year. Mr. Franco’s class helped me to see the humorous side of Shakespeare and the odd side of Shakespeare. It really brought a different kind of view on his writing.”
May also joined “Shakespeare Lives,” an after-school club where the students act out Shakespeare plays. May said the club provides a different way for students to experience the plays. Franco added that the club travels to see Shakespeare plays and has speakers that come in and talk to the students about different elements of the famous playwright.
“What we did is we’ve taken an old, nerdy approach to teaching a worn-out subject,” Franco said. “But we have had 40 kids sign up to be a part of a Shakespeare club, so it’s pretty cool stuff.”
Because of her involvement with the club, Franco suggested May participate in the competition. She couldn’t be in it last year due to an All County Chorus commitment; but this year, the opportunity wooed her. May had been preparing since October for the local competition, the Niagara Frontier Branch of the ESU.
“It’s a pretty neat gig actually; if you win, you spend five days in New York and studying at the Tisch School at New York University, and then you perform at the Lincoln Center to monologue against 58 other schools. And they pay for it all,” Franco said.
And the winner of the national competition wins a full scholarship to the British American Drama Academy’s Midsummer Conservatory Program in Oxford, England, in the summer.
May said having an interest in Shakespeare has helped in her education. She pays closer attention to words and phrases, a great help in English and in writing. She added that it helps in her singing and voice projection, which is needed in acting Shakespeare.
“It helps you to develop patience and pay more attention to details,” she said. “It definitely helps in your acting skills; if you can act Shakespeare, you can pretty much tackle anything.”
Although some people may find Shakespeare difficult to understand or just boring, May said all they have to do is pay closer attention to the writing. Shakespeare has a little something for everyone, whether it’s humor or romance. May said some of the funniest scenes she has read involve the drunken doorkeeper from “Macbeth,” and even some scenes from “Romeo and Juliet. “
“Shakespeare is probably one of the most romantic people you will ever read, especially if you read his sonnets,” she said. “And if anything, girls wish they had a guy to write stuff like that for them now.”
“Back then, he was just an average guy with a higher idea of love,” she added.
A Pendleton resident, May said her parents support her, and her mother is into singing and acting. Her friends support her, and they understand her love of Shakespeare even if they don’t share it.
“They could live without,” May said.
Starpoint superintendent C. Douglas Whelan said it was “tremendously exciting” to have May competing at a national level. The Shakespeare program hasn’t been around Starpoint that long, but it did influence the building of the new high school. The “large lecture hall” was designed with a wider, stage-like area in the front of the room, as the English teachers wanted. It was there that May performed her monologue for some students on Thursday.
“It is an honor to have her represent us,” Whelan said.
May plans to attend the University at Buffalo for pharmacy and music, but for now is preparing for the national contest in April, where she’ll find if the play’s the thing.
Contact reporter Joe Olenick
at 439-9222, ext. 6241.

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