High school students earn top spots at statewide Shakespeare competition

Almost every high school student across the country has to read and study at least some Shakespearean works, but two Haddonfield Memorial High School students have taken understanding the bard to a new level.

At this year’s Princeton branch of the English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition, senior Ryka Khanna earned second place, with first place going to sophomore Hannah Cohen.

Khanna and Cohen are part of the high school’s Shakespeare Troupe, with Khanna serving as co-president. Both also participate in school theater productions and Cohen also works with an acting coach on Drexel’s campus. 

“We went through all the sonnets and we picked one out that we thought would suit me best. And then the monologue that I chose, we had been working on for probably, like, a year or so. So that was where I just went with the ones that I knew best,” said Cohen. 

Both students were competing against students from across the state of New Jersey. 

The national branch of the competition has been occurring annually since 1983. The contest is based on how well high school students are able to perform monologues and sonnets in front of judges and an audience. 

“I was just reading through a bunch of monologues, and I wanted to pick one that I could immediately understand, just because I knew if I could understand it, just by a glance … I knew once I really got into it, obviously it helps. The more you can convey to the audience. So my monologue that I did is kind of like a comedy and I could envision myself what staging I would do,” said Khanna. 

The competition takes place over three rounds, beginning with school-wide competitions in the fall, statewide competitions in the winter and culminating in the national competition on the Juilliard campus in New York City that will take place on April 28 this year.

“We have our school-wide competition. So all the way back in, like, beginning of the year, October, November, I just kind of went, sifted through all the monologues and sonnets and just kind of picked one that I thought would be fun to just perform, and then practiced a lot for the school-wide competition,” said Khanna. 

As the first-place winner of the Princeton branch, Cohen has the opportunity to represent Haddonfield Memorial High School while performing at the national competition against the 40 other branch winners from around the nation. 

After all 40 perform, the top 10 performers from the group then perform against one another for the No. 1 spot. 

“Even though Haddonfield is a very sports-prominent town, there’s a lot of talent in the Shakespeare troupe and a lot of talent in the drama club. And I think that it’s really great that we have such a supportive community where we can foster that artistic passion,” said Cohen. 

Cohen plans to pursue performing arts in college, specifically looking into musical theater or acting programs. 

Khanna will be attending college in a few months, after graduating in June. While she does not plan to academically pursue the performing arts in college, she does plan to continue participating in groups as a hobby.