To paraphrase the Bard’s “Merchant of Venice,” Canyons District theater and music students glistered like gold at the 49th annual national Shakespeare competition.
Hillcrest, Brighton, Corner Canyon, Jordan and Alta high schools won top awards at the Oct. 1-3 competition, which drew nearly 3,000 students from Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Colorado and Wisconsin. More than 300 teachers and coaches also helped prepare the students for the Cedar City-based event, the largest scholastic Shakepeare contest of its kind in North America.
For the seventh consecutive year, Hillcrest was announced as the first-place Sweepstakes winner for its division. Rounding out the top three in the division’s Sweeptstakes were Brighton and Corner Canyon, respectively, making it a clean CSD sweep of the top Oxford division awards.
In Oxford’s Ensemble category, Hillcrest took the first-place award. Brighton won second and Corner Canyons was third.
In the division’s Duo-Trio Scenes category, Hillcrest’s Ginger Witkamp, Nico Hodgson and Sebastian Smith won the first-place honor. Third place was Brighton’s Hyrum Lafeen and Winter Chafetz.
In the Monologue category, Hillcrest’s Arnav Nair was the top winner, followed by second-place honoree, Corner Canyon’s Elle Stotts.
Nair also was the recipient of the $500 Barbara Barrett Award, a scholarship given to competitors junior-age and younger.
In a separate division — Cambridge — Jordan theater students captured the third-place Sweepstakes award.
The Beetdiggers won second place in the Ensemble Scenes category, and Jordan’s Henry Keele took third place in Monologues.
In music, CSD performing student-artists walked away with armfuls of hardware for major wins in the large-school division.
Corner Canyon won the first-place Sweepstakes trophy and Jordan and was announced as the third-place Sweepstakes winner.
The Charger choirs won first place in the Troubadour, second in Canzonetta and Madrigal, and third place in Minstrel to capture the top award. The Beetdigger choirs also impressed the panel of judges with their vocal skills and talents.
Jordan took home third-place awards in Madrigals and Troubaour categories.
Jordan’s choir was also selected to perform Madrigals and Troubadour pieces in the showcase performance. Jordan’s dance troupe also took fourth-place in Ensemble and the Duo/Trio categories.
The final competition was in the technical theatre area. These categories are for students who work behind-the-scenes creating sound, lighting, props, scenery, make-up, and costumes. In the portfolio area, students were given the chance to have their technical and/or design portfolios evaluated by professionals in technical theatre.
In the “Tech Olympics,” Hillcrest’s Eli Skinner won in Lighting, Alta’s Lena Seely won in Props, and Corner Canyon’s Isaac Nichols won Rigging.
Hillcrest’s tech team received the “Gold Drill” award for the fastest time. Hillcrest’s Rowan Willis from won the Tech Portfolio category. A runner-up was Hillcrest’s Kaden Vidovic-Jones.
To give the community a chance to hear the award-winning piece, Jordan High’s Troubadour song will be performed Tuesday, Oct. 27 at Canyons District’s 17th annual Apex Awards, a ceremony at which CSD presents the highest awards given in the District. The event starts at 6:30 p.m. at Mount Jordan Middle, 9351 Mountaineer Lane.
