A drama competition for schools in Hackney, run by inclusive theatre company Hackney Shed, returns next week with a full audience for the first time since the pandemic.
Eight students from four schools are to compete in this year’s Hackney Shed Slam, which will take place on 8 December at BSix Sixth Form College. The competition, now in its fifth year, is open to students in years 9 and 10 who are required to compose and perform a two-minute monologue on a subject of their choice.
The schools competing this year are The City Academy, Hackney; City of London Academy Shoreditch Park; Our Lady’s Catholic High School and Skinners Academy. All have taken part in the competition in previous years.
Júlia Couto, the organiser, said the aim of the event is to “inspire and encourage young people to showcase their talent”.
Next week’s competition is the first since the pandemic to take place with a full live audience – the 2020 event was moved online, with a reduced audience in 2021.
Speaking to the Hackney Post, Couto praised the supportive atmosphere generated by the audience: “In the past, we had one school who wasn’t able to bring anyone [to support]. We told everyone ‘look, they don’t have anyone supporting them’ and everyone started cheering for them equally.”
Eve Dillon, a drama teacher at City of London Academy Shoreditch Park, said the competition offers “students throughout Hackney an amazing opportunity to develop, share and feel confident in their skills as young performers”.
Performances are scored out of 10 by a panel of judges, including professional performers. The student with the highest score wins a featured role in Hackney Shed’s upcoming short film project.
Although entrants already study drama as part of their school curriculum, Couto said the competition offers an opportunity for creativity beyond the rules usually imposed as part of a LAMDA exam.
“We always encourage them to choose monologues with characters that are close to their age. [But] we had someone win the competition before with a monologue that was a divorced woman talking about her frustrations. That’s far from a 15-year-old, but she did it with a lot of truth.”
