San Diego Youngsters Give Voice to Shakespeare

April 23 may have been the 372nd anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, but the spirit of the Bard was alive and kicking in the Old Globe’s Cassius Carter Centre Stage that day.

Seven high school students showed up there to speak “trippingly on the tongue” through the semi-finals of San Diego’s third annual Shakespeare Recitation Competition, sponsored by the local chapter of the national English-Speaking Union.

When the iambic pentameter cleared, 15-year-old Lou Romano, a sophomore at O’Farrell High School, became the youngest winner in San Diego to walk away with first place, which awards him with round-trip air fare to London for two and a trip to the first National Shakespeare Recitation Competition in the United States.

The winner of the national competition, held in Cleveland May 6-8, will be given a six-week summer course at Wolsey Hall in Oxford.

Jennie Baker, 16, of The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, won second place and a scholarship to the La Jolla Playhouse’s Young Actors Theater Workshop. The stated aim of the competition is to promote interest in Shakespeare.

For the winners, the contest did much more than that. It provided their first exposure to work that had previously intimidated them from afar. Romano, who was all brash aggression on stage as Benedick in “Much Ado About Nothing,” turned shy as he recalled his recent introduction to the Bard.

“Before this, I was ‘Stay away from that, I don’t understand that language,’ ” Romano said in a hushed, barely audible voice. “Now I think he’s a genius.”

Baker recalled a similar experience.

“Before the competition, I always felt I was too stupid to understand Shakespeare. Now I’ve developed a love of Shake speare,” said Baker, beaming as she clutched a bouquet of flowers a friend had given her after the competition.

Baker’s entry was Juliet’s speech about waiting for her wedding night from “Romeo and Juliet.” She said she chose it from the 10 speeches offered in the contest because she identified with it.

“I saw her as me,” Baker said. “I have the same feelings. I know what it is to be totally in love.”

Besides the monologues, each contestant prepared a sonnet and was asked to do a cold reading from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The other finalists were Rachael Mello-Painter of Point Loma High School, third-place winner, Brian Davis of Kearny Mesa High School, Marc Wong of Granite Hills High School, Ronni Gil of Patrick Henry High School and Adam Stein of La Jolla High School.