Theater News

LA Region Finalists for 2019 August Wilson Monologue Competition Are Chosen

The Southern California finals will take place at the Mark Taper Forum on March 11.

Kenji Fujishima

Kenji Fujishima

| Los Angeles |

January 10, 2019

The 12 high school students picked by Center Theatre Group to participate in the 2019 August Wilson Monologue Competition regional finals.
The 12 high school students picked by Center Theatre Group to participate in the 2019 August Wilson Monologue Competition regional finals.
(© Ericka Kreutz)

Center Theatre Group has selected 12 local high school students to participate in the regional finals for the 2019 August Wilson Monologue Competition, to take place at the Mark Taper Forum on Monday, March 11.

Bene't Benton (Carson), Kyle Branch (Los Angeles), Samuel Caruana (Canyon Country), Tiffany DeBerry (Santa Clarita), Dejean Deterville (Palmdale), Mylah Eaton (Studio City), Jofre Paul Francisco (Los Angeles), Jada Henry (Los Angeles), Laila C. Stewart (West Covina), Vanessa Valencia (Los Angeles), Daniel Velez (Los Angeles), and Ryan Wade (Los Angeles) will participate in the finals. Eaton and Velez also participated in the 2018 competition.

The two top-performing students will earn an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City for the chance to perform in the AWMC national finals; the third place student will serve as alternate. The national finals will take place on May 6 at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway.

Founded in 2007, the competition aims to expose a new generation of creative minds to the life's work and artistic legacy of this seminal American playwright. Program participants in cities across the country encounter Wilson's 10-play cycle and receive coaching from teaching artists as they prepare monologues for local, citywide, and national competitions.

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