CENTER THEATRE GROUP SELECTS 11 LOCAL STUDENTS FOR 2021 AUGUST WILSON MONOLOGUE COMPETITION REGIONAL FINALS
Top two students joined by 2020 finalist Tyla Uzo to Participate in National Finals
The competition will be held at the Kirk Douglas Theatre and streamed on the Center Group’s Digital Stage on March 26 at 5pm pacific time, and will livestream the event and will be free to the public and available at CTGLA.org/AugustWilson2021.
The winners will be selected on March 23, during the livestream. Students who were selected to participate in the regional finals are Simone Baker (Sherman Oaks), Hazel Eko (Los Angeles), Willa Jackson (Los Angeles), Chazaiah Johnson (Los Angeles), Hailey Soomin Lee (Redondo Beach), Giselle Lopez (Los Angeles), Veronica McFarlane (Whittier), Stephen Moran (Los Angeles), Reva Pau (South Pasadena), Dillion Jerome Sowell (Moreno Valley) and Landon Wouters (Fullerton).
A preliminary audition kicked of it 12th season, that featured 113 students in 10th, 11th or 12th grade students from 33 different high schools throughout Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The semi-final auditions advanced 45 students, seen live via Zoom in December 2020, and out of the 45 students 11 moved onto the regional finals.
The program is designed to inspire and educate Los Angeles youth using monologues from August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle,” a 10-play cycle that details the complexity of the African American experience in the 20th century. Previous monologues were performed on stage at the Mark Taper Forum.
This is the tenth consecutive year Center Theatre Group is hosting the Los Angeles component of the national monologue competition. The program is designed to inspire and educate Los Angeles youth using monologues from August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle,” a 10-play cycle that details the complexity of the African American experience in the 20th century. All previous competitions have culminated in an evening of monologues performed on the stage of the Mark Taper Forum.
