Photo Flash: Meet the 12 Finalists for CTG's 2017 August Wilson Monologue Competition

Center Theatre Group has selected 12 local high school students to participate in the regional finals for the 2017 August Wilson Monologue Competition (AWMC) to be held at the Mark Taper Forum on Monday, February 27. Scroll down to meet the finalists!

This is the sixth consecutive year Center Theatre Group is hosting the Southern California 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 dramatization of the African American experience in the 20th century.

Those selected to participate in the regional finals are Joey Aquino (Los Angeles), Luke Baxter (Moreno Valley), Kelly Bouslaiby (Fontana), Hollis Dohr (Sherman Oaks), Asa Ferguson (Los Angeles), Hannah Franklin (Long Beach), Elija Hall (Los Angeles), Habin Lee (Los Angeles), Arjang Mahdavi (Granada Hills), Ehvinny Mora (Rowland Heights), Alexander Villaseñor (Los Angeles) and Aryana Williams (Carson). The students represent seven local high schools within Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

Aquino and Williams both participated in the 2016 competition where Williams took third place.

The students selected will receive training and rehearsal sessions provided by Center Theatre Group throughout January and February. The sessions will allow the students to refine their performances while gaining valuable acting techniques.

On February 27, the 12 regional finalists will perform their monologues in front of a panel of judges at the Mark Taper Forum. The two top-performing students will move forward to the 10th annual AWMC national finals; the third place student will serve as alternate. The first and second place students will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City for the finals, which will take place on May 1 at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway. As preparation for the national component of the competition, all three students will receive master classes to workshop their monologues, as well as scholarship awards.

The program kicked off this season with a preliminary audition that featured 133 students in 10th, 11th or 12th-grade from 34 different high schools in Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Fifty-three of those students advanced to a semi-final round held at the Music Center Annex in December where the aforementioned 12 regional finalists were selected to move forward.

Center Theatre Group also offers an in-school residency as part of the larger August Wilson Program. The August Wilson In-School Residency is a semester-long program that provides Title 1 students with an in-depth study of the work of August Wilson. The four classrooms selected for the in-school residency will attend the AWMC Los Angeles Regional Finals as part of their residency experience, witnessing the power of theatre as their peers bring August Wilson's characters to life.

"These programs are part of our tradition of nurturing new voices in the American theatre," said Director of Social Strategy, Innovation and Impact Leslie K. Johnson. "They enable students from all walks of life to discover August Wilson's profound and deeply relevant works of art, explore their own creative voices and learn more about our shared history and themselves."

AWMC is a national program presented by Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theaters and hosted in cities throughout the country, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Dallas and Greensboro, North Carolina. Each city runs its program differently and each experience is designed to provide intensive learning opportunities for high school students to study and practice the craft of acting through the work of August Wilson.

The Southern California component of the August Wilson Monologue Competition is led by the Center Theatre Group Education and Community Partnerships Department. Currently one of the most active theatre education programs in the country, Education and Community Partnerships has reached more than 18,000 students, teachers and community members throughout Southern California in the 2015-2016 season.

Center Theatre Group honors its long-standing relationship with August Wilson through its August Wilson Program, as well as through its continued production of Wilson's work. Center Theatre Group has presented nine of Wilson's plays, including two world premiere productions of his work. Most recently, in September/October 2016, Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" had a successful run at the Mark Taper Forum.

More information on Center Theatre Group's August Wilson Monologue Competition can be found at www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/AugustWilson.

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