Elizabeth—The Jewish Educational Center’s Bruriah division has proven its creative prowess as eight seniors secured three of six of the most prestigious awards at the inaugural Envision Shakespeare competition.

The girls were introduced to the competition through the extra curricular club “Seeing Shakespeare” that was founded at Bruriah this year by senior Chaya Willick of Passaic. The girls performed Act 2, Scene 5 of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.

The program was inspired by Shakespeare High (shakespearehigh.org), a film documenting a very successful annual Shakespeare competition program in Southern California, and is the brainchild of Rebecca Lopkin, Founder and Artistic Director of Envision Theater, the premier Educational Theater Company serving New York and New Jersey Day Schools, and Nancy Edelman, senior English department member and Shakespeare aficionado at the Torah Academy of Bergen County.

“Students are always looking for ways to express their creativity and this fun and healthy competition provides just that opportunity,” said Edelman.

The Bruriah actresses sat down with their director to analyze their characters, plus the structure and literary techniques that Shakespeare wove into each of their lines. “Our goal was to succeed in conveying the true meaning of the scene dramatically, without having to explain it,” said Isabelle Stone, one of the cast members.

Bruriah’s inaugural entry took the competition by storm and the students took home an outstanding victory, winning three of the six awards: Best Actress (Shoshi Finkel), Best Director (Chaya Willick), and the overall grand prize, Best School.

Bruriah will be putting on the scene as well as two others in a Seeing Shakespeare’s in-house production called A Little Taste of Shakespeare on March 30th.

By Adina Abramov