Love the Bard? Want to win cash prizes and scholarships?

Semifinalists chosen at the Interlochen competition on March 1, 2025 will travel to New York City in April 2025. They will compete against students from across the nation as a representative of the state of Michigan for cash prizes and scholarships to international summer theatre programs.

2025 National Shakespeare Competition Prizes

   1st Place: British American Drama Academy Mid-Summer Conservatory Program at Oxford
   2nd Place: American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp in Stanton, VA
   3rd Place: $1000

For Schools
Schools wishing to host school-level competitions should fill out the School Participation Form, available will be available August 10.

For Individuals with No Local Participating Schools
Individuals with no participating schools in their area may enter the online competition will be available on August 10.

Resources
View monologue and sonnet packets, student and teacher handbooks, and other helpful documents will be available on August 10.

All schools participating in the Michigan Shakespeare Competition at Interlochen must hold their contests and submit winner forms no later than January, 2025.

Competition Structure: School → Branch → National

School
School-wide monologue competitions are held in the Fall/Winter semester at local high schools throughout Michigan.

Branch
The School Competition Winner(s) advance(s) to the Branch (Community) Competition—in this case the Michigan Shakespeare Competition on March 1 at Interlochen Arts Academy. There, the student(s) perform(s) their monologue and one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

National
The Branch Competition Winner advances to the National Competition held in New York City in the spring. All of the winners perform a monologue and a sonnet at Lincoln Center in front of their fellow contestants from across the country.

At the local/school level, each student must select, memorize and perform one monologue from one of Shakespeare’s plays. At the Branch and National levels, each student should also perform one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Please review the following rules and eligibility guidelines.

School/Home School Eligibility

• The school must register with its local ESU Branch via the School Participation Form.
• The School Competition must be open to all students enrolled in the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades or the equivalent for home school students.
• The School Competition must involve a minimum of three students. Home school students must also advance from a competition of three or more students.
• School and Home School Competitions must be judged by a panel of at least three individuals familiar with Shakespeare’s works.

Contestant Eligibility

All students participating in the competition must meet the following criteria.

• Contestants must be enrolled in the 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade or the equivalent for home school students.
• Contestants may not act for pay on television, the stage, or in film during the current or previous school year.
• Contestants should be available to represent their school at the National Competition. If, for any reason, the Branch Winner is unable to participate, the branch should send the First Runner-Up.
• Previous School and/or Branch Winners may participate each year they are eligible (regardless of results in past competitions). Schools and/or branches may not limit contestant participation except for the above mentioned eligibility requirements.

Selection Eligibility: Monologue and Sonnet

The selections you perform must meet the following criteria.

• Students must select their monologues from the Monologue Packet, provided by the ESU. The packet has been updated and now includes over 260 monologues from more than 120 characters in all 38 plays. The selections offer a variety of monologues, of 15 to 22 lines a piece; students may select any monologue, regardless of gender. Selections have been taken from the Folger Digital Texts resource (folgerdigitaltexts.org). No alterations may be made to the monologues. They must be performed as written in the packet.
• Sonnets must come from Shakespeare’s 154 sonnet cycle. These are all listed in the 2023 Sonnet Packet and are available at folgerdigitaltexts.org. Students must perform the complete sonnet; no alterations are allowed.

School Competition Rules

• Each student must select, memorize and perform one monologue from a Shakespeare play.
• Students’ order of performance should be determined by lot.
• Students should introduce themselves by name only.
• Students should identify their selection before they begin their performance.
• Students may not wear costumes or use props of any kind (including chairs, jewelry, items of clothing, and hair/hair clips). The use of props is grounds for immediate disqualification.
• Students should speak naturally in their own voice (rather than affect a British accent).
• Students are expected to memorize their pieces. If necessary, however, prompting is allowed. If a student requires prompting, they must say “Line.”
  • A prompter must be available to students during the competition. Another student (one who is not participating in the competition) may fulfill this role.