National Shakespeare Competition Finalist: Judy Durkin

Last Autumn, Judy Durkin (’18) was approached by Teresa Navarrete (’18), who said, “Hey, you do Shakespeare and acting and stuff—Our Shakespeare club’s having a sonnet competition, do you want to come in?”Durkin, being a Shakespeare aficionado who had previously acted in a handful of Shakespeare plays before, gladly accepted Navarrete’s offer. Little did she know that day in Autumn, she would place as a top ten finalist out of 20,000 students all over the country competing in The English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition.On May 1, Durkin walked on to the stage at Lincoln Center in New York, where she performed one of Shakespeare’s great sonnets and one of his great monologues to an audience of hundreds of people. “It was totally not something you would expect,” Durkin said. “It was surreal going from a competition in a classroom at Samo, and then a few months later to Lincoln Center. It was insane because it’s such a big name and I had never had the opportunity to perform in New York so it was a great experience.”For Durkin to make it to the finals, she first had to make it through several rounds. The first was at the school, which led her to the LA semifinals and then the LA finals. The finals then included about 54 people throughout the nation, which was narrowed down to ten people in New York. The sonnet and monologue Durkin chose were both works of Shakespeare that she had wanted to perform for a long time. The competition served as the perfect chance for her to finally fulfill that wish. “I knew a lot about the sonnet and monologue that I was doing, so I didn’t just blindly pick something,” Durkin said. “I’m fortunate that my family knows so much about Shakespeare. My dad got me hooked at a very young age. I did Sonnet 106 and then I did a monologue of the character Viola from Twelfth Night—it’s my favorite. Sonnet 106 is the author, Shakespeare, honoring somebody and sort of saying that they are just the best person ever—basically building someone up to be the best. It’s super poetic and it’s kind of all circular.”In addition to the sonnet and monologue she had selected and been practicing with Chon Lee, the host teacher for the Shakespeare club at Samo, she had to do an unexpected cold read at the National level in New York.“In the finals round, they just hand you a random monologue and you have to perform it on the stage in front of everybody,” Durkin said. “They gave us ten minutes to look it over, and then you go. I wasn’t super nervous, possibly because of the jet lag, but fortunately I have had a lot of experience on stage so I think it was more of a fun experience that I was looking forward to instead of like panicking. And I felt super prepared because of all my work with Mr. Lee. I went into his room like every lunch for the past month—I was in there a lot.”Chon Lee, S-House Advisor Amy Golden and Durkin’s family all made the journey to the East Coast to see Durkin on the famous Lincoln Center Stage and support her in the enormous achievement. Durkin stayed a bit longer in New York to see family and a Broadway show before coming back to take her AP exams.But for those that missed seeing her perform live in New York City, don’t fret—there will be many more opportunities to come.“I am a producer, and actor, of a company that my friends and I started this year called Worst First Kiss Productions,” Durkin said. “We’re performing a play called Dog Sees God that will be in the Hollywood Fringe Festival this June.”Dog Sees God features a cast of eight, including another Samo actress, Zoe D’Andrea (‘18). For students who are going to be in the area this summer and are looking for some creative shows to attend, make sure to add this one to the bucket list. And for students who also share a passion for the poetic Shakespeare, her acting out and reciting of his works does not end here. “I’ve been acting for seven years at a professional theatre company in Topanga called the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, which is where I first really started doing Shakespeare and I got to play Juliet there last summer. So I’m back for my seventh year this year,” Durkin said. For the talented Judy Durkin, this huge accomplishment is only the beginning.