Youth finds that brushing up on Shakespeare can pay off
Episcopal High junior earns trip to Big Apple competition
The audience at Lincoln Center in New York City loved Daniel Hancock, motivating the Episcopal High School junior to return to Houston with dreams of a career in theater.
“I’ll be a lot more comfortable now, acting,” the 17-year-old West University resident said.
Hancock won Houston’s contest to advance to the semifinals of the 32nd annual English-Speaking Union’s National Shakespeare Competition.
On April 27, he performed a monologue from “Hamlet” and a William Shakespeare sonnet at Lincoln Center, where this year’s EHS musical, “South Pacific,” was revived in 2008, winning seven Tony Awards.
At Episcopal, Hancock played William Harbison in the show.
“It was a speaking role, but I didn’t sing,” he said. “I don’t sing; so that worked out for everyone.”
Hancock’s sense of humor endeared him to the audience at Lincoln Center, said his teacher, George Brock, who accompanied Hancock on the four-day trip to the Big Apple.
“I introduced myself in kind of a funny way,” explained Hancock, who was born Down Under and surprised the audience with an accent that is more Australia than Austin.
“I said, ‘I’m from Texas and I’m going to perform Hamlet from “Hamlet,” and a Shakespeare sonnet by Shakespeare,’ and everybody laughed.”
Hancock, who performed the monologue in his natural voice, didn’t advance past the semifinals, but the experience boosted his confidence.
In his senior year, he hopes to land the leading role of Renfield in a dramatization of Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula.”
“I’m aiming for that,” he said, “and I would like to take voice lessons.”
Brock added, “Daniel is a junior and has had a remarkable growth year. This experience will set him up nicely for the onslaught of college auditions that are coming his way in the fall.”
Hancock and his parents, molecular biologist John Hancock and cardiologist Deborah Meyers, moved from Australia to West University when he was 5.
His journey to Lincoln Center began with “a little acting recital” earlier this year. Hancock memorized a passage in Act III, Scene
3 of “Hamlet” in which the indecisive Dane passes up an opportunity to kill King Claudius.
“The next day, I found out that I won and that I would represent my school in the regional competition at Duchesne Academy,” he said.
Hancock added a sonnet to his presentation and practiced for a month before the regional contest. There, the judges deliberated for 45 minutes, he said. “Those were the scariest 45 minutes of my life right there.”
When Hancock was announced as the winner, he recalled, “They said, ‘Do you know where you’ll be going?’ ” The answer was New York City.
“Daniel had a great trip,” Brock said.
“The English-Speaking Union has the competition down to a science,” he added. “It’s a great experience for students, parents and teachers alike. Seeing almost 60 teens from all over the United States come together to perform Shakespeare rather than a remix from ‘Glee’ clearly demonstrates that not all high school theater is about musical comedy.”
The group has sponsored the competition since 1983. This year’s winner, Sarah Spalding, a student at Mid-Pacific Institute in Hawaii, won a full scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s Young Actors Summer School in London, England.
Episcopal alum Stephanie Styles, who is starring in the national tour of “Newsies,” said that Brock accompanied her to the Shakespeare contest when she represented Houston in 2010.
While in New York, Hancock said, he saw two Broadway shows: the frontrunner for best play at next month’s Tony Awards, “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” and a best musical contender, “Something Rotten,” which relates somewhat to the reason he made the trip.
That show is a Shakespeare sendup.
For more about the Shakespeare competition and to see a video of the winner’s performance, visit www.esuus.org. Don Maines is a freelance writer