Over the past few months, various English competitions were held at New Hyde Park Memorial, including the Poetry Out Loud competition, Spelling Bee and Shakespeare Monologue Contest. The events showcased a diverse range of talents among the student body and gave students the opportunity to join others who shared their desire to perform. They presented a chance to compete with other students in a different setting and to advance to a higher level of competition. Each event was extensively planned, organized and judged by members of NHP’s faculty, and saw an impressive turnout with a large number of attendees who were enthusiastically willing to participate.
The first of these events was the Poetry Out Loud competition, which took place after school on December 12. The program aims to help students improve their public speaking skills by allowing them to pick and perform a short poem. The two winners from each school then advance to regional, state and national level competitions.
This year’s event drew a large number of students who had worked over the past few weeks to memorize a poem under 25 lines. Each contestant had to select a work to recite from the Poetry Out Loud database, which allows access to 1,200 performable poems. Every person who recited a poem had a different motivation for picking the one that they did, but they were largely driven by the poem’s meaning and how suitable it would be for recitation.
“I have had my poem memorized for a while due to having worked on a project regarding it. In terms of prose, the poem is extraordinarily well constructed, and it adapts well to a dramatic tone, which is perfect for poetry competitions,” junior Liam Cavanagh said.
Cavanagh and fellow junior Fatima Naysa advanced to the next round of the event—a regional competition which took place in late February at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in Huntington.
The second event to occur was the Spelling Bee, a school event that culminates in a nation-wide contest. The preliminary rounds of the spelling bee took place earlier in the school year, with students in 7th and 8th grade participating to try and earn a spot in the competition that took place during the school day on January 30. Seventh grader Kimberly Krafchik and seventh grader Eimaan Nauman were pronounced the winner and runner-up, respectively. Krafchik will now prepare to advance to the regional semifinal.
The final competition, held after school on January 30, was the Shakespeare monologue contest. This contest is held in over 800 high schools around the country by the English-Speaking Union (ESU). For this competition, students had to select one of over 260 monologues from a variety of Shakespeare’s plays and perform it in front of a panel of judges. Successful students compete at the ESU Branch or Community level and then the national level, which has attracted actors such as Kate Burton and Christopher Reeve as judges. Junior Anirudh Arvind triumphed in the school-wide competition and is now scheduled to compete in the ESU Branch competition, which has participants prepare and perform a sonnet in addition to the monologue.
The events were a big success across the board, with students expressing a positive attitude towards the events and the environment they created, along with the support provided by the other competitors.
“I feel like the monologue contest was very welcoming, and everyone was really nice and supportive,” sophomore Priya Baring said. “It was a good way to become introduced to and work on public speaking because there wasn’t a lot of pressure. There was a very relaxed and fun atmosphere.”
“I found that the two events I attended were well-organized, and there was a high degree of student and teacher involvement. The atmosphere seemed very welcoming, and I would say both events went great,” junior Anirudh Arvind, the winner of the monologue contest, said.
Teachers who judged or helped run the competitions shared the same sentiment, with many hoping the success of the events this year inspire others to take on the challenge and participate in the years to come.
“Commit to doing it. You’ll surprise yourself with how fun it is and how well you do,” English chairperson Dr. Otton said.
