The top three finalists at a Shakespeare competition held at Churchville-Chili High School were (left to right, first to third) Myles Forsett, James Wezelis and Madeline Jones. Provided photo Freshman Myles Forsett was crowned Churchville-Chili’s first-place finisher at the school level of the National Shakespeare Competition, sponsored by The English-Speaking Union of the United States.
Forsett, a freshman, brought a new tone to a monologue from Macbeth to capture the title. He moves on to represent Churchville-Chili at the Rochester competition on Saturday, March 3 at 1 p.m. at the Multi-use Community Cultural Center (MuCCC) on Atlantic Avenue.
“I feel great,” said Forsett. “My practice and hard work paid off. Now, I am going to practice, practice, practice for the city competition.”
Forsett prepared thoroughly for Saturday’s competition, performing for family and friends. He even posted the monologue in one of his most frequented locations.
“I put the monologue on my fridge at home,” said Forsett. “I figure I’m there a lot and I need to practice so it was perfect.”
At the city level event, Forsett will perform a sonnet, in addition to his monologue, while competing against students from Rochester and the surrounding area. The last time that a Churchville-Chili student advanced to the national level was four years ago when Jennie O’Leary made the trip. O’Leary was one of this year’s three judges.
Ten Churchville-Chili students from grades 9 through 12 performed a Shakespeare monologue of 20 lines or less without the use of props, costumes or affected speech. Second-place finisher and Chruchville-Chili junior Jamison Wezelis performed a monologue from one of Shakespeare’s comedies, “The Tempest,” and had the audience in stitches.
“It was definitely difficult deciding between Jamison and Myles,” said O’Leary. “Jamison has brilliant comedic timing and his body language was flawless. Myles did a great job bringing a different attitude and flavor to Macbeth, which can be quite dry at times.”
Madeline Jones’ performance of Isabella from “Measure for Measure” earned the lone senior in the competition third place.
“Madeline as poised and sweet. She really charmed us judges,” said O’Leary.
Also competing in the event were freshmen Lauren Burr, Allison Crist and Christian Johnson; sophomore Skye King; and juniors Courtney Kuhn, Samantha Longfellow and Alexa Turton.
The Rochester winner will go on to compete in April in New York City at Lincoln Center against student from across the United States. The U.S. winner will be awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to study acting in Shakespeare’s homeland, England. Monetary prizes will be given for the second and third place national finishers, $1,000 and $500, respectively.
