A unique competition, centred on the adaptation of William Shakespeare’s plays, has been launched for Jamaican high school students.

The initiative The Shakespeare Schools Championship, developed by Dr Tony Sewell, CEO of the charity, Generating Genius, was launched on the grounds of the British High Commission on Trafalgar Road, St Andrew recently.

The one-year-long schools competition is sponsored by the Jamaica National Building Society and will be see students producing abridged 30-minute versions of Shakespeare’s plays, using Jamaican themes and contexts. However, the language of the plays will be maintained.

The competition kicks off next month with workshops for the 18 participating high schools across the country. The competition will then go into a series of regional rounds across the island and a grand final in Kingston, where the winning school will receive an all-expense-paid tour of the United Kingdom as part of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

The championship is being staged in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Culture, the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts.