Jenna Burns Wins ESU Shakespeare Competition - Sandhills Branch

O’Neal junior Jenna Burns was named winner of the annual Shakespeare competition put on by the English Speaking Union (ESU), Sandhills Branch. The competition took place on Saturday, February 8th at the Village Chapel in Pinehurst. The judges were Village Chapel Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. John Jacobs, Sandhills Community College English instructor Barbara Danley, and Jessica Osnoe, an English teacher at Fayetteville Academy and artistic director of the Fayetteville-based Sweet Tea Shakespeare theater company.
 
The O’Neal Theater program has been an active participant in the competition for the past eight years. Last year, Jenna earned O’Neal’s highest place to that point – coming in second to a two-time winner from Union Pines High School. This year, with her monologue performance of “A Jailer’s Daughter” from one of Shakespeare’s lesser known comedies, “The Two Noble Kinsmen” along with Sonnet 17, Jenna won the Sandhills Branch level competition and will advance to compete against 53 other finalists at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York City in April.
 
The ESU has long promoted education through its 54 nationwide chapters, including the local Sandhills Branch. Their annual Shakespeare competition seeks to “develop high school students’ analytical and communication skills through performing a Shakespearean monologue and sonnet at the school, community and ultimately national level.” At the school level, there are more than 200,000 students in the nation who compete. Then there are 54 branch competitions. The number of school winners competing in each branch depends on the number of schools each branch covers. The Sandhills Branch had nine students to compete representing Moore County’s four high schools. The winner from each of the 54 branches goes to New York to compete on the national level.

“This entire process is an experience of a lifetime!” exclaims Jenna.
 
“I’ve seen Jenna’s growth over the past three years and could not be more proud of her,” says O’Neal Drama Instructor Michael Norman. “Just this year, she gave an incredibly moving performance in “Wit” (for which she earned a Best Actress nod at the NC Theatre Conference Competition) and now this. She’s such a talented, driven and smart actress and I cannot wait to see what happens in New York!”
 
The winner of the national competition will receive two weeks at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

To learn more about applying to The O'Neal School, please click HERE.
 
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