First-place winner Melissa Murphy Home-schooled student Melissa Murphy of Southgate, MI was named first-place winner of the 2010 Michigan Shakespeare Festival High School Monologue Contest yesterday (July 31, 2010) for her presentation of Hero's Act III, scene 1 "lapwing" speech from Much Ado About Nothing . Several Oberon members attended the contest finals at Jackson Community College and all concurred with the judges' choice of Murphy who showed poise, projection, and maturity in her command of her body and theatrical space. Murphy won a monetary prize of $350 and a Michigan Shakespeare Festival jacket. Second-place winner Lonnie Robinson wears his MSF prize jacket. Charismatic Lonnie Robinson of Ecorse, MI won second-place for his powerful and passionate presentation of a speech from Julius Caesar . Robinson was one of seven students of Ecorse Community High School teacher Dr. James Allen Jones who presented at competition semi-finals in Ann Arbor. Jones...
a Michigan group dedicated to the study of the works of William Shakespeare with particular interest in the authorship question