15 Minute Shakespare 2010

This year our Community Drama Artist Kate Black was one of the judges for the annual Citizens Theatre Society 15 Minute Shakespeare competition. She blogged about her experience from the two days:

"As a first time judge I expected the judging to be a lot easier than it was. All the pieces performed over the two days were incredibly well performed.

We used the word ‘mature’ a lot when summing up because we couldn’t believe how well the performers understood the text they were delivering and how good the characterizations were in many of the pieces. St Roch’s ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’ made me laugh so much, St Paul’s energy and chemistry as a group in Romeo and Juliet was impressive, the pace of Shawland’s Othello was so engaging with some of the acting really quite remarkable, the funky fairies of Govan High were brill, as were the others ( I can’t believe that they were first years and they don’t have a drama department. Can you believe that 3 English teachers and a group of 1st yrs would be able to pull off something so good!!).

All secondary competitors. Photos by Helen Black

Bannerman High’s performances of King Lear and Hamlet were so sophisticated and polished and as they were first up on each day, they really set the bar high for the others to follow. St Magaret Mary’s, I thought really pulled the rabbit out of the hat as they managed to make Macbeth funny as well as dramatic and Ross Hall’s performance of Macbeth was so intense with the relationship between Mac and the wife brill (and again mature) for such young people.

I actually felt quite humbled as Shakespeare isn’t really my bag and all the performances pulled me in and left me wanting more. What more can you ask of any piece of theatre?

Kate"

This years' winners were:

Lower Secondary Competition - Rosshall Academy with Macbeth


Upper Secondary Competition - St Margaret Mary's Secondary School, also with Macbeth!

Winners pictured with Jeremy Raison (Joint Artistic Director) and Kathleen Hamilton (Citizens Theatre Society)

Well done to all competitors. Another great year of work. If you weren't lucky enough to take part this year (or even if you were), we would welcome additional submissions to our Shakespeare Shortz project. This competition ran last Autumn for members of the public to submit video of themselves "doing some Shakespeare", but you can still submit clips via YouTube to be published on our website.

Hx

And the winner is...

The last couple of days have seen the theatre foyer filled with excited groups of secondary pupils from schools across the city, who were competing in the Citizens Theatre Society's 2009 15 Minute Shakespeare Competition.

A judging panel of Directors and theatre professionals from the Citizens and TAG, were joined by two very special guests from Chicago, visiting artists, Meade Palidofsky and Khanisha Foster.


Back L-R: Roddy Macpherson (Citz Chair), Neil Packham (Community Drama Director), Louise Brown (Drama Project Worker). Front L-R: Kathleen Hamilton (Citizens Theatre Society), Meade Palidofsky (Visiting Artist), Jeremy Raison (Joint Artistic Director) and Khanisha Foster (Visiting Artist).

On Wednesday we welcomed students from S1-3 from the following schools:

Bannerman High School - Scenes from Macbeth
Hillhead High School – 3 scenes from A Midsummer Nights Dream
Jordanhill High School - Act 2 Scene 3 & Act 3 Scene 1 from Much Ado About Nothing
Saint Paul’s High School - Edited scenes from Act 2, scene 1, scene 2 and Act 3, scene 1 from A Midsummer Nights Dream



Lower Secondary Competitors

The prize was awarded to Bannerman High School. This is the second year running that Bannerman have won in this age group.


Bannerman High School collect their award

On Thursday we welcomed students from S4-6 from the following schools:

Knightswood Secondary School - Act 5, scene 1 from A Midsummer Nights Dream
Saint Margaret Mary’s Secondary School - Act 1, scene 2 from King Lear
Saint Paul’s High School – Edited scenes from Act 1 scene 1 and Act 3 scenes 4, 6, 7 from King Lear
Shawlands Academy - Act 1, scene 3 and Act 4, scene 1 from The Merchant of Venice


Upper Secondary Competitors with Baillie Liz Cameron

Judging was particularly difficult in this section, with the panel requiring extra time to debate the decision. The award was finally presented to St Margaret Mary's Secondary School.


St. Margaret Mary's - Upper Secondary Competition winners

A special guest Baillie Liz Cameron appeared for the Thursday competition and offered words of encouragement to all.

The standard of entries was excellent this year and we'd like to say a massive well done to all student and teachers involved.

Great work. We look forward to seeing you next year!

Hx

15 Minute Shakespeare Competition

Each year the Citizens Theatre Society run an annual secondary schools' competition called 15 Minute Shakespeare, where, guess what...each school performs any 15 minutes of any Shakepeare play they wish, either in one complete section or a number of scenes.

The winning schools in two age groups will be presented with a Quaich of Words. Both of last year's winners Bannerman High School and Knightswood Secondary School are back with a vengeance to compete again.



The final preparations will be well under way in each of this year's competing groups:

Wednesday - Lower Secondary School
(1st to 3rd Year)

Bannerman High School
Hillhead High School
Jordanhill High School
Saint Paul’s High School

Thursday - Upper Secondary School
(4th to 6th Year)

Knightswood Secondary School
Saint Margaret Mary’s Secondary School
Saint Paul’s Secondary School
Shawlands Academy

Good luck to all schools involved!
I'll post info about this year's entries later in the week.

Hx

15 mins - Upper Secondary Competition

Thursday saw the second part of the Citizens' Theatre Society's 15 Minute Shakespeare competition. Four schools competed for the Upper Secondary award.

Competing were Hillpark Secondary (with an extract from The Comedy of Errors), Knightswood Secondary (with an extract from Romeo and Juliet), St Margaret Mary's Secondary (with an extract from Twelfth Night) and St Paul's High (with an extract from The Tempest).


Hillpark


Knightswood


St Margaret Marys


St Pauls

The prize went to Knightswood Secondary School and was presented by Kathleen Hamilton from the Citizens Theatre Society. We were delighted to welcome honoured guests Baillie Liz Cameron and Cllr Dornan.


Citizens Theatre Society committee with Baillie Cameron, Cllr Dornan and Roddy Macpherson.


Roddy Macpherson (Chair of the Citizens Board) with Baillie Cameron and Kathleen Hamilton (...and Shakespeare himself!)



Well done to everyone who took part! See you next year.

Hx

15 Minute Shakespeare (Lower school winners)

Today the Citz was a-buzz with the Lower Secondary part of the Citizens Theatre Society's 15 Minute Shakespeare Competition.



Three excellent entries were watched by members of the Society, members of the public, other school students and three Director judges from the Citizens Theatre - Jeremy Raison, Guy Hollands and Neil Packham.



Today's competing schools were Bannerman High School (with an extract from Richard III), Drumchapel High School (with an extract from A Midsummer Night's Dream) and Rosshall Academy (with a 15 minute version of Twelfth Night).


Drumchapel


Rosshall

After much deliberation, the Quaich of Words was awarded to Bannerman High School.




The winners - Bannerman

Well done to everyone who took part! Tomorrow will see the senior part of this competition. Call Box Office on 0141 429 0022 for tickets.

Hx

Literature, Intrigue, Blood, Sweat and Tears…

A whirlwind of magic and excitement blew through the Citizens’ foyer this week as kings, queens, fairies, traitors, mimes, a donkey, maids in waiting, clowns, soldiers, witches, murderers, musicians, politicians, sisters, enemies and teachers collided for the Citizens’ Theatre Society’s 15 Minute Shakespeare Competition.

We didn’t think it could get more dramatic or surreal until real blood dripped from Titania’s knee as she left the stage – that; my fellow thespians; is the wonder of showbiz! Talk about commitment! PS: Congratulations to Saint Margaret Mary’s and Saint Paul’s secondary schools – this year’s winners!!!!

15 minute Shakespeare Event

We have just completed the 2nd and final day of this competition and the winners have been announced. This year we held a competition for the younger end of the school as well as the upper end. St Margaret Mary's won yesterday with their very classy, witty and mature production of one of the mechanicals scenes in Midsummer Nights Dream. Today we were offered Macbeth, King Lear and Othello, the later performed by St Paul's High School came out on top, with some strong performances from The Moor, Desdemona and Iago. All the schools contributed handsomely to an entertaining couple of days and of course 'it's not the winning but the taking part!' Well done to all the young Shakespearean players, I look forward to us meeting again next year at the battle of iambic pentameters !