Theater News

LA Region Finalists for 2020 August Wilson Monologue Competition Selected

The regional finals will be held at the Mark Taper Forum on February 25.

Theodore Taylor III, Samantha del Rey, Jayla Jones, Nailah Shorter, David Kwon, Onnie Williams IV, Kyle Branch, Daniel Cuasay, Milan Lapesarde, Miko Alicia Mariscal, Fletcher Jones, and Tyla Uzo are this year's Los Angeles regional finalists for the 2020 August Wilson Monologue Competition.
Theodore Taylor III, Samantha del Rey, Jayla Jones, Nailah Shorter, David Kwon, Onnie Williams IV, Kyle Branch, Daniel Cuasay, Milan Lapesarde, Miko Alicia Mariscal, Fletcher Jones, and Tyla Uzo are this year's Los Angeles regional finalists for the 2020 August Wilson Monologue Competition.
(© Ericka Kreutz)

Center Theatre Group has announced the 12 high school students selected to participate in the regional finals for the 2020 August Wilson Monologue Competition, to be held at the Mark Taper Forum on Tuesday, February 25.

The participants are Kyle Branch (Los Angeles), Daniel Cuasay (Moreno Valley), Fletcher Jones (Los Angeles), Jayla Jones (Sunland-Tujunga), David Kwon (Fullerton), Milan Lapesarde (Los Angeles), Miko Alicia Mariscal (Los Angeles), Samantha del Rey (Sylmar), Nailah Shorter (Pasadena), Theodore Taylor III (Los Angeles), Tyla Uzo (Gardena), and Onnie Williams IV (Alhambra). Branch also participated in the 2019 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 4 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.