Scholarship winners are torch-bearers for Shakespeare
April 20, 2012 — Four students were presented with scholarships, courtesy of the Bermuda Shakespeare Schools Festival last year. Berkeley Institute students Patience Lowe and Waverly Moran received $3,500 and $1,000 respectively. Scholarships of $1,000 were given to Somersfield Academy student Camila Papadopoulo and Ruggero Barlaba, who is currently studying abroad.
“The (festival) is encouraging students to get a love of Shakespeare, plus it is also helping them with their GCSE coursework because they do cover Shakespeare,” said Annarita Marion, head of the scholarship selection committee. “What we’ve found over the years—this is our fourth year—is that the students have gotten so much into it. It’s a yearly festival that we hold in October, and the majority of the schools take part. This is our second year of scholarships."
“The money that we raise from the Shakespeare Schools Festival pays for the scholarships, and we also get sponsorship, but the Argo Foundation is our main sponsor for our scholarships. Other sponsors help with the production itself, and we try to keep costs to a minimum. The funds we raise from the festival also go towards a workshop that we put on for students who took part, plus middle school students as well. It’s a three or four-day workshop opportunity in mainly drama and the performing arts.”
Patience is excited about spending a month at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London this summer, studying dance, theatre, film, and drama. “I’ll be learning musical theatre, dance, singing, and some other Shakespearean plays,” said the 18-year-old. “I can’t wait for this different experience. I haven’t been abroad for acting before; I’ve only acted in Bermuda. Yes, I’ve been to the UK; my mom’s British and from London, so I know the area. I would never have thought I would be going to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.”
Waverly, 16, will use her funds to attend the Centauri Summer Arts Camp in Ontario, Canada, in July. “I’m very happy to have got this scholarship; otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to go to this camp,” she said. “This is the first year that they’ve had someone from Bermuda in its 18 years of operation, so I’m very excited to be able to represent Bermuda. It will be stage and film acting, so I guess it will be one week on stage and one week doing film acting, which would be nice because I’ve never done film acting.”
The Shakespeare Festival was an awesome experience, she said. “That was probably one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life. I got to play Puck in *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*. I love Shakespeare, and being able to act in one of his plays was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I loved it.”
Camila, 14, is on the waiting list for New York’s Stagedoor Manor; her scholarship might not come into play until next year. “It is one of the biggest camps, and Robert Downey Jr. and Natalie Portman went there, and they are two of my favourite actors, along with Anne Hathaway, so that immediately took my attention,” she said. “I’m wait-listed, but I’m accepted definitely for next summer, if not this year. Acting is my passion. This is the camp I want to go to.”
Originally published in The Royal Gazette