Success for George and Archie at the ESU Performing Shakespeare Final

George Slater and Archie Grace left their Third Form Residential early to attend the Grand Final of the ESU Performing Shakespeare Competition Over 4,000 students took place in the competition and George and Archie's breath-taking fight scene between Macbeth and Macduff was one of only 12 performances to reach the Grand Final. George and Archie represented the very best of national acting talent.

The day began with a tour of The Globe Theatre with a professional actor, followed by a fantastic drama workshop on performing Shakespeare and connecting with your audience.

Then parents and friends, along with Mrs Shaw-Young and Mr Pillow joined a packed auditorium at the Sam Wannamaker Theatre to watch the competition which was streamed live.  Six prestigious judges were on the panel, including Rowan MacKenzie, who had visited King's the day before, to talk about teaching Shakespeare at our Sixth Form Conference. Also, actress Abigail Cruttenden, currently in the comedy series 'Not Going Out' was also a recognisable celebrity on the panel!  

George and Archie performed a gripping scene, full of tension and growing rage from Archie as Macduff, and realisation from Macbeth that the witches had tricked him into believing he was invincible. The audience loved their scene the most and as they were able to vote for their favourite scene, George and Archie won the Don Miller Choice Award, based on the audience vote.

A brilliant achievement for them both!

The boys gained two medals each: the Don Miller Award and the one for reaching the Grand Final. 

We received the following message from the ESU following the ESU:

"We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to everyone for making this year’s Performing Shakespeare Grand Final such a tremendous success. To all teachers, parents, and guests, we offer our heartfelt thanks for your wonderful support.

Furthermore, we would like to give our congratulations to all of our student participants, who did a spectacular job, and should be immensely proud of themselves. We would also like to give particular praise to our winners representing The Robinson Drama Academy, Ishvari and Kishori Mutty, for their hilarious performance from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We would also like to give special recognition to our runner-up, Eli Morris from Hitchin Boys’ School, and to the Don Miller Audience Choice Award winners, George Slater and Archie Grace from The King’s School, Gloucester.

We hope everyone in attendance had as memorable and enjoyable a time as we did"