Hooch Student Wins Shakespeare Competition

Brian Wittenberg, one of Karen Oberlin’s students  at Chattahoochee High School in Johns Creek, has won the English-Speaking Union Atlanta regional Shakespeare competition. The event was part of the English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. 

Along with Lucy Brooks, Brian had earlier been one of the two winners in Chattahoochee’s own school Shakespeare competition. The ESU Branch competition was held Feb. 19 at The New American Shakespeare Tavern in Atlanta, with 20 school winners from the Metro Atlanta area competing. 

Brian impressed the judges and captivated the audience with his performance of the Son from King Henry VIth Part 3 and his recitation of Sonnet 23. He will go on to represent ESU’s Atlanta Branch as a semi-finalist at National competition, which will be held on April 23 (Shakespeare’s birthday) at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Brian will be awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City for the final stage of the competition, where he will perform onstage at a world-renowned performing arts center. 

The ESU National Headquarters will also provide Brian with two full days of educational and cultural activities, including an acting workshop at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, participation in World Book Night and a visit to the William Shakespeare statue in Central Park. 

Perhaps best of all for Brian will be the opportunity to spend a weekend with 57 other branch winners from across the country, who share his love of the Bard and his works.

Brian will be competing for amazing opportunities this summer in both the United States and abroad.  The first place winner receives a full tuition scholarship to study acting in Shakespeare’s homeland, England; this year the national winner will attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s Young Actors Summer School in London.  The second place winner receives a full tuition scholarship to attend the American Shakespeare Centre’s Theater Camp in Staunton, VA. 

The judging panel at the National Competition consists of actors, directors, Shakespeare scholars and educators.  Past judges have included Andre Braugher, Kate Burton, Maurice Charney, Blythe Danner, Barry Edelstein, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Helen Hayes, Edward Herrmann, Dana Ivey, Kristin Linklater, Peter MacNicol, Jesse L. Martin, Cynthia Nixon, Tina Packer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Nancy Piccione, Phylicia Rashad, Christopher Reeve, Louis Scheeder, Richard Thomas, Courtney B. Vance, Sam Waterston, Dianne Wiest, Gene Wilder and Irene Worth.

The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition is a performance-based education program in which high school students nationwide read, analyze, perform and recite Shakespearean monologues and sonnets.  Through the program, students develop communication skills and an appreciation of the power of language and literature.  In three progressive competition levels, students present the Bard’s works in their own schools, at ESU Branch sponsored community competitions and at the National Shakespeare Competition.  Inaugurated in 1983, the program has given more than 250,000 young people of all backgrounds the opportunity to bring the timeless works of Shakespeare to life and learn to express his words with understanding, feeling and clarity.

The English-Speaking Union is a non-profit, non-political educational organization, whose mission is to celebrate English as a shared language to foster global understanding and good will by providing educational and cultural opportunities for student, teachers and its members.  The ESU carries out its work through a network of 70 branches and affiliates in the United Kingdom and 60 other countries, sponsoring a variety of language and international education programs. 

For information on joining The English-Speaking Union of the United States, visit www.esuus.org or call 212-818-1200.