BC Hosts Peg Pauly High School Shakespeare Festival

Monday, October 19, 2026

Last week, more than 400 high school students form 17 local high schools gathered in Bakersfield College’s Indoor Theater for the Peg Pauly High School Shakespeare Festival. This annual event participating high school theater students have the opportunity to act in front of a panel of judges and peers to receive feedback and applause. The event has been running for 57 years, and BC has been hosting it since 2018.

On Friday, each team presented a 10-minute Ensemble Scene which included 10-30 students performing together. On Saturday, the participating schools bring theater students to compete with monologues, duologues and trialogues of smaller scenes. For both days, a panel made up of experienced actors and directors watch each scene and provide critique, feedback, and scoring. At the end of the events, they announce winners and recognition for each category.

Cody Ganger, Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at BC and coordinator of the Shakespeare Festival, talked about the significance of the event for local high school students. “This unique event serves several important purposes. It allows high school students to see each other's work, encourage, and lift one another up,” he said, “It's always an extremely high-energy, positive, fun day for them after their weeks working on these scenes. Our other mission is to encourage appreciation for Shakespeare's works and to make those works more accessible to these rising actors.”

Thank you, Performing Arts team, for hosting this incredible event for the youth of Kern County. We believe this unique experience will encourage and inspire students to pursue their dreams of theatre arts, while seeing first-hand the wonderful programs and facilities at BC. We are already looking forward to next year’s festival!