Without being able to belt ballads in the auditorium or make people laugh in the Black Box, senior Miranda Slingluff found another way to perform. Slingluff is this year’s winner of the Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild (METG) Doug Ingalls Monologue Scholarship Contest. 

Seventy-one seniors across the state competed in this competition in January, submitting two performed monologues. Eight were chosen to participate in workshops via Zoom where they were judged, and a winner was declared. Only two other students in Algonquin’s history have competed, both making it to the final; however, Slingluff is the first winner.

“That she applied for this competition is a testament to the impact that the METG has,” Fine and Performing Arts teacher Maura Morison said via email interview. ”It is the most professional competition our state offers with over 120 public and private high schools who compete each year.”

To show her versatility, Slingluff used monologues from two very different plays. Slingluff performed a dramatic monologue from “The Burials” by Caitlin Parrish, playing the character Chloe.

“The dramatic play is very profound,” Slingluff said. “It is about a school shooting and the play has a bunch of interesting things, but I think this character gets really angry and then disappointed. There are a bunch of different levels, which I think is very fun to do when doing a monologue.”

Her second monologue was a comedic one from “The Importance” by Sara Jean Accuardi, playing the character Charlie.

“The comedy one stuck out to me,” Slingluff said. “The first line starts by saying, ‘Did you know I can read minds?’ It’s very offbeat and weird.”

Slingluff entered the competition not with a focus on winning, but as an opportunity to work on her own skills.

“I thought auditioning is practice, and it is always good to enter anything you can enter,” Slingluff said. “I thought I was not going to place at all. Then when we did the top eight Zoom, I saw the top eight’s monologues so I thought, ‘Oh, I’m in trouble; I’m really not going to win.’”

Despite all of the setbacks and restrictions of this year, Slingluff has continued to carry out her passion for performing.

“[Winning] is a really cool thing, and a good honor,” Slingluff said. “It is a nice thing to have, especially in a year where I haven’t really gotten to do much theatre.”

As a teacher and director that was able to work with Slingluff over the course of her high school career, Morrison is delighted to have had her in class and productions.

“I’m enormously proud of Miranda’s win,” Morison said. “Her talent is clear and she makes every show and class better because of her positive energy.”