Stratford Challenge
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Welcome to the 2012 Stratford Shakespeare Challenge
If you're an Ontario student in Grade 9 to 12, grab some friends and a video camera and film your performance of a scene from a Shakespeare play. Your video will be adjudicated by an expert panel of actors and directors and the top five groups get to perform their scenes live in Stratford for final judging. The top prize is $10,000 out of a total purse of $20,000!
What if you're not an actor but you love Shakespeare? Here are your two ways to join in.
1. The Stratford Writing Challenge: Write us up to 500 words on the topic "Shakespeare and his relevance in the 21st century" and you could win $1,000.
2. NEW! The Stratford Original Works Challenge: Write an original one-act play inspired by a Shakespeare play. Each Original Works submission must be the creation and writing of a single playwright. The original work must be a reading length of no more than 30 minutes and no less than 20 minutes. Each original work must be submitted with a cover letter that contains a brief synopsis of the play and includes an account of the correlation between your piece and its classical counterpart. You could win $2,000 and an opportunity to hear professional actors read your work on April 23, 2012.
Download the Shakespeare Challenge Rules & Regulations here.
Shakespeare Challenge Prizes:
The first-place team will receive $10,000, to be shared by the school and the students involved in the scene. The remaining prizes go directly to the students, to be split amongst members of the teams. Second place will receive $3,000 and third place $2,000. The fourth- and fifth-place groups will receive $1,000 each. Both fourth- and fifth-placing groups will also receive a class set of tickets and transportation to a Festival show in 2012.
DEADLINE! The entry deadline for all three Challenges is 11:59 p.m. on February 29, 2012.
Winners of the 2011 Stratford Shakespeare Challenge
First Prize: Unionville High School, Markham
Second Prize: Etobicoke School of the Arts, Etobicoke
Third Prize: Bell High School, Nepean
Fourth Prize: St. Elizabeth Catholic High School, Thornhill
Fifth Prize: The Country Day School, King
Winner of the 2011 Stratford Writing Challenge
Calvin Akler, Dunbarton High School, Pickering
Read the winning entry
View the official announcement, as seen in the Toronto Star
Watch the 2011 First, Second and Third Prize winners