The 2024 ESU National Shakespeare Competition Finals will be held on Monday, April 15 at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater in Lincoln Center! 
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PrintTeenager from Hawaii wins 2016 English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition
National News
The three winners of the 2016 English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition on stage at Lincoln Center in New York City. (l to r – Third place winner Cecilia Harchegani, First place winner Ari Dalbert, and Second place winner Zoë Oliver.
With a performance of a sonnet and monologue from Shakespeare on stage at Lincoln Center in New York City, ARI DALBERT from Honolulu, HI, a student of Betty Burdick at Hawaii Homeschool Association in Honolulu, won the 33rd annual English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. The Competition took place on May 2, 2016 with 55 semi-finalists from as many ESU Branch competitions nationwide. Ari previously won the ESU Hawai'i Branch competition.
As the winner of the 33rd English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition, Ari received a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Young Actors Summer School in London, England, this summer. The second place winner, Zoë Oliver, representing the Greenwich Branch, won a scholarship to the American Shakespeare Center Theatre Camp in Staunton, VA, while third place winner, Cecilia Harchegani, from the San Diego Branch, received $500 from The Shakespeare Society.
The finalists were:
Tristan Whitney - Nashville Branch
Madison Breske - Delaware Branch
Jordan Ford - San Francisco Branch
Rachel Hartner - Research Triangle (NC) Branch
Devin Bean - Boston Branch
Jake Mulé - Desert (Palm Springs) Branch
Abel Garcia - New York Branch
Watch videos of the 2016 Competition Finalists.
On May 2, 2016, more than 50 high school students from throughout the United States will converge at New York City's Lincoln Center to compete in the 33rd annual English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. With the competition, the ESU celebrates the legacy of William Shakespeare as part of Shakespeare400, theinternational yearlong celebration of Shakespeare's works in 2016. This year, the ESU National Shakespeare Competition marks the milestone of exceeding 300,000 student participants since its inception in 1983. Among the winners and finalists of the Competition who have gone on to national acclaim are actor and director Joe Sofranko, whose Hulu series Complete Works is, in fact, based on the National Shakespeare Competition; actors Emily Bergl (Desperate Housewives, Southland); Tyler Hilton (Walk the Line, One Tree Hill); Heather Lind (Boardwalk Empire, Turn: Washington's Spies); Bronwyn Reed (Law and Order: SVU); as well as Broadway's Matt Harrington (Twelfth Night, Matilda) and Adam Wesley Brown (Once the Musical).
