Vanella performing the 2018 POL finals. Photo by Ana Pirosca.
MHS junior Jenna Vanella will be representing Malden High School in the English Speaking Union Shakespeare Monologue competition.
The English Speaking Union Shakespeare Monologue competition is for high school students in drama programs. Vanella is competing with an opportunity to move on to the State Finals in Boston and with a chance to move on to Nationals in New York and then to London. At first, she explained she was “very nervous” to take on the role, because “[English teacher and Play Production Director Sean Walsh] had chose [her] out of the rest of the class, and Malden High.”
Since the beginning Vanella would practice this monologue with the English teacher and Play Production Director Walsh, and he would “walk [her] through scenes of the sonnet and give her pointers”, and from there it was just practice and practice. She explained she started working on this monologue about a month ago and ever since then she’s been practicing diligently every day.
Vanella will be performing a monologue from Two Gentlemen of Verona. She explained that she “really liked researching the character and finding out interesting things about the play”.
Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare. It is about the adventures of two bosom buddies, Valentine and Proteus. Proteus falls in love with his best friend’s girlfriend, and the two best friends find themselves torn between their friendship and romance. Vanella stated “[she] had a lot of fun looking into what [she] was playing”. Vanella wants to thank Walsh for providing her with this experience.
