STUDENTS from 16 high schools islandwide are in preparation for the regional rounds of the Shakespeare Schools’ Championship.

They will be presented to the public at an event scheduled for the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel on Wednesday.

The schools include: Glenmuir High in Clarendon; Waterford and Cumberland High Schools in St Catherine; Munroe College in St Elizabeth; and Papine High, Campion College and Kingston College, which is teaming with St Hugh’s High School in the Corporate Area.

The educational institutions have been clustered and will compete in the semi-final rounds in June at the Dennis Scott Theatre at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts. The top six schools will advance to the finals in September at the Little Theatre in St Andrew.

Some of the country’s finest actors, theatre professionals and playwrights will be providing advice and guidance as mentors. They are Alwyn Scott, Leonie Forbes, Andrew Brodber, Aston Cooke, Rayon Mclean, Paul Issa and Dr Brian Heap, who will act as chief mentor.

Dr Heap said the plays will give the students an opportunity to strengthen their acting abilities, noting that talent is very often judged in theatre by an actor’s ability to perform Shakespeare, credibly. Beyond that, he said: “The competition provides an opportunity to bring life to the plays.”

“A lot of the times our children are subjected to Shakespearean plays as text. You have to read it and the teachers gloss it. However, these plays were always intended for performance,” he remarked. “You have to lift the text off the page. You’ve got to perform them…if you want the students to understand the context and nuances of the plays.”

The winning Jamaican school in the Shakespeare Schools’ Championship will tour schools in London, Birmingham and Manchester in the UK. They will also perform their play at Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, and participate in the International Shakespeare Festival with students from around the world.