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The winners of the 22nd annual contest, which involved about 1,300 students from more than 80 area schools, grades 4 and up, were announced last week.
This year’s competition, actually a two-week affair, began with the preliminary rounds Feb. 4-12, at Downtown’s O’Reilly Theater. Teams of judges chose 42 finalists who competed at a showcase at the theater on Feb. 15.
In the Lower Division (grades 4-7), the monologue winner was Simon Nigam, of Falk Laboratory School, who performed a monologue as Shylock from The Merchant of Venice. The Lower Division scene winners were Will Sendera and Sophia Sousa, of CAPA, who did a scene as Romeo and Juliet.
In the Upper Division (grades 8-12), the monologue winner was Sundiata Rice, of CAPA, who did a piece from Henry V, as Henry. The scene winners were Laela Lumsden and Anna Ungarino, of Hope Academy, performing as Kate and Petruchio from The Taming of the Shrew.
The contest judges were Ted Pappas, the Public’s producing artistic director; Rob Zellers, the Public’s former director of education and outreach, who founded the contest; local theater eminence Richard Rauh; and actresses Kimberly Doreen Burns, Linda Haston and Amy Landis.
The complete list of finalists is here.
This article appears in Feb 17-23, 2016.
