{"id":43303,"date":"2026-05-28T13:58:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=43303"},"modified":"2026-05-28T13:58:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T17:58:41","slug":"county-shakespeare-festival-brings-students-together-at-uptown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=43303","title":{"rendered":"County Shakespeare Festival brings students together at Uptown!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Students from Penn\u2019s Grove School performing \u201cHow Sharper Than a Serpent\u2019s Tooth\u2026\u201d (King Lear Parody).<\/p><\/div>\n

The 37th Annual Chester County Shakespeare Festival returned on Wednesday, May 20, welcoming students from elementary, middle, and high schools across Chester County to the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center in West Chester, for a day of performance, storytelling, and Shakespearean tradition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Organized by the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) in partnership with Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center and sponsored by CCRES Educational and Behavioral Health Services, the festival celebrates Shakespearean literature while providing students with the opportunity to perform their modern renditions of classic tales.<\/div>\n

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This year’s festival featured a first-ever addition: high school students reciting sonnets and soliloquies, culminating in a new Sonnet and Monologue Competition. The High School Sonnet and Monologue Competition recognized outstanding individual performances across three award tiers. First-place winners earned the opportunity to perform their winning piece at an Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center opening event, along with a $500 credit toward classes at the center. Second-place recipients received a $200 class credit, and third-place honorees received a $100 class credit.<\/div>\n
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Moth O’Leary of Downingtown West High School took home the inaugural title. \u201cI got to perform a beloved piece I had recited many times in front of a fresh audience in a whole new space. I felt like I connected with my fellow performers, gained more knowledge surrounding Shakespeare and his legacy, and have become more confident in understanding and performing Shakespeare\u2019s works thanks to this wonderful opportunity,” said O\u2019Leary.<\/div>\n
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Aaron Greenslade of PA Leadership Charter School took second place, and Abby DePietropaolo of Downingtown West High School took third place. Roni Salinas-Evans of Downingtown West High School received an honorable mention. All award recipients were recognized with a ribbon celebrating their achievement.<\/div>\n
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In addition to the student performances, the audience enjoyed a performance by Andrew Rahm, actor and musical theatre performer, who emceed the event, engaging the crowd with Shakespearean trivia and sharing facts about William Shakespeare’s life and work to enhance the entertainment and education of the event.<\/div>\n
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The festival also featured grade-specific workshops led by a distinguished panel of judges, each with extensive backgrounds in the arts and theater. Ray and Jamie Hilton of War of the Roses Theatre Company, along with Gina Stickley, actor, director, and teaching artist, served as judges. They brought their expertise to the stage, providing students with thoughtful and enriching workshop experiences tailored to each age group. The workshops, coordinated through Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center’s Education team, under the direction of Therese Walden-Murphy, director of education, ensured that every student left with more than just a performance. They left with a deeper love of the arts.<\/div>\n
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Mia Fries, a Brandywine Virtual Academy (BVA) instructor and festival judge, reflected on the impact of the event: “This year’s Shakespeare Festival was so amazing. This event creates an environment for students to showcase their talent and improve their acting skills. It also challenges them to memorize advanced dialogue, which increases their retention skills. In addition, it helps students with public speaking and performance mastery.”<\/div>\n
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Fries, who has a personal passion for theater and Shakespearean plays, noted: “A highlight this year was the inclusion of high school students reciting sonnets and monologues. Their heartfelt performances were extremely memorable, as were the performances of the elementary and middle school students who impressively recited Shakespeare without error.”<\/div>\n
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“It was truly a privilege to work alongside the CCIU Special Events team and Uptown’s Education team to bring this event to life,” said Heather Grayberg, executive director of Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center. “As Chester County’s premier multi-disciplinary performing arts center, I believe deeply in partnering with organizations and individuals whose work aligns with our mission and commitment to arts education and community impact. It was also incredibly rewarding to collaborate with the CCIU, as well as many members of our broader theatre community through Uptown, to provide high-caliber workshops, thoughtful adjudication, and, most importantly, a meaningful and memorable experience for Chester County youth as they celebrated the Bard. I’m grateful for the partnership and look forward to continuing this collaboration for many years to come.”<\/div>\n
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“This year’s festival was truly special,” said Jay Della Ragione, special events coordinator at CCIU. “Not only did we have the privilege of partnering with Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center and hosting the event at their amazing facility, but we also welcomed back high school students to the stage for the first time in years. Watching them perform alongside our elementary and middle school students was a powerful reminder that Shakespeare and the arts are a shared language; one that speaks to every age, every stage, and every story.\u201d<\/div>\n
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When students were not on stage, they had the opportunity to enjoy Shakespearean adaptations delivered by other schools and learn from their peers. Although not a competition at the elementary and middle school level, individual and group awards were presented to recognize noteworthy contributions to the stage, celebrating creativity and collaboration.<\/div>\n
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Each spring, the Chester County Shakespeare Festival brings together approximately 200 bright and talented students from elementary and middle schools, and beginning this year, seven individual high school student participants from across the county. The Chester County Shakespeare Festival features two divisions of performance. In the elementary and middle school division, participating schools present creative group interpretations of Shakespearean plays, with each school allotted 15-25 minutes of stage time. The high school division invites students to perform memorized selections from carefully curated lists of monologues and sonnets. High school participants may choose to compete in the Monologue Competition, the Sonnet Competition, or both. To learn more about the Chester County Shakespeare Festival, please visit www.cciu.org\/shakespeare<\/u><\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 37th Annual Chester County Shakespeare Festival returned on Wednesday, May 20, welcoming students from elementary, middle, and high schools across Chester County to the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center in West Chester, for a day of performance, storytelling, and Shakespearean tradition. Organized by the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) in partnership with Uptown! Knauer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[967,14980,6269,10639],"class_list":["post-43303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-chester-county-intermediate-unit","tag-chester-county-shakespeare-festival","tag-featured","tag-uptown-knauer-performing-arts-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43303"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43305,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43303\/revisions\/43305"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}