Sivan Battat, a senior at New Haven’s ACES Educational Center for the Arts (ECA), will represent Connecticut at the National Shakespeare Competition in May. Tuesday, Battat won the regional competition, which was held at the Greenwich Library.
Battat recited Constance’s speech from King John and Sonnet 43.
“I was always drawn to that particular Constance speech,” Battat said, and, in choosing a sonnet, “I wanted it to really nicely contrast my monologue.”
The National Shakespeare Competition is a program of the English-Speaking Union of the United States, which describes the competition as “a curriculum-based program designed to help high school students develop their speaking and critical thinking skills and their appreciation of literature as they explore the beautiful language and timeless themes in Shakespeare’s works.”
Sixteen participants competed Tuesday in Greenwich, the state’s only branch of the English-Speaking Union. Ingrid Schaeffer, chair of Educational Center for the Arts’ theater department, arranged for Battat to compete in Greenwich as a representative of both ECA, an afternoon high school program, and Amity Regional High School, which she also attends.
Battat will compete at the national level on May 2 at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. The winner of the national competition will earn a scholarship to study during the summer at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Talking about her preparation for Tuesday’s regional competition in Greenwich, Battat said, “I guess I’ve been preparing since my freshman year at ECA.”
While she studied the character of Constance and broke down the text of her speech, Battat said Shakespeare “really answers all of your questions.”
Battat said her introduction to Shakespeare was a two-week camp at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., which she attended during middle school. Battat said she did an internship with the New Haven-based Elm Shakespeare Company during the summer between her freshman and sophomore years in high school. Each of those experiences focused on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which Battat said was performed at Educational Center for the Arts during her sophomore year — a production in which she played Snout.
Schaeffer described Battat as “an exceptional student.”
“She is the first student that we ever felt that we had to create a program for,” Schaeffer said. That program was a teaching-assistant role in a workshop of Columbinus, a play based on the tragic events that unfolded at Columbine High School (Colorado) in 1999.
“She was instrumental in making that class successful,” Schaeffer said of Battat.
