The semi finals of the 46th Inter School Shakespeare Drama Competition, organised by the Colombo YMCA and the Rotary Club of Colombo North, drew to a close with four schools selected for the finals to be held today at Bishop’s College.
St. Joseph’s College with their rendition of Antony and Cleopatra, Trinity College with their version of Romeo and Juliet, Ananda College with the ever so tough play Richard III and Wesley College with the only comedy for the finals in their version of Twelfth Night were chosen as finalists for 2019.
The competition this year was fierce and the bar was most definitely elevated as a majority of schools performed exceptionally well with interesting concepts used to project their story.
The much coveted award for Best Actor was presented to Niven Nanayakkara of St. Joseph’s College for his portrayal of Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra.
The award for Best Supporting Actor was interesting. For the first time in history, three actors of the same school Wesley College were presented with a joint award - Anuk Fernando for his portrayal of Malvolio, Adham Hilmy as Maria and Akmal Hamid as Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night.
Milinda Randeniya from St. Peter’s College was also nominated for the award, incidentally, for his portrayal of Malvolio.
Meanwhile, Trinity College was presented with the Award for Best Stagecraft. This award is given based on the technical aspects of a play. It includes rigging scenery; lighting, design and procurement of costumes, make-up; stage management and procurement of props.
The Award for Best Novice was skipped this year due to the absence of first timers.
Among the schools that did not make it to the finals, St. Benedict’s College and Royal College put up stellar performances. St. Benedict’s College returned this year with their eyes on the prize after finishing Runners-Up last year, with their rendition of Richard III. Richard, Duke of Gloucester was played by Dimithry Jayawardena, who was the reigning Best Actor from 2018. Royal College managed to showcase quite a different take on the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet. A much more comedic take on the classic ‘Tragedy’ was a twist which was all in all a very refreshing performance with a few lighting issues in between.
The Inter-School Shakespeare Drama Competition is by far the longest running Shakespeare drama competition in the world.
The competition has always been inclusive for all students regardless of where they come from or their capacity of speech. The competition also helps elevate the student’s ability to converse and maintain composure, eliminate nervousness and improve on their overall discipline.
The competition has also produced many local talents including actors, actresses, directors, writers and other artists.
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.
His work, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses of which the authorship of some is uncertain.
His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.