The ninth annual August Wilson Monologue Competition crowned its winners Monday at the August Wilson Center and celebrated the life of Bill Nunn, the actor who died last year and who since 2008 had championed the local contest.
In first place was Michael Washington, an 11th grader at Pittsburgh CAPA who performed as Vera from “Seven Guitars.” Second place went to Laela Lumsden, a ninth-grader from Hope Academy, as the title character King Hedley II. Both girls will represent the Pittsburgh region at the national competition May 1 at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre. Amaru Williams, a senior at Pittsburgh CAPA, took third place as Levee from “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” The three finalists each received cash prizes and scholarships to Point Park University.
The Pittsburgh program is administered by the Bill Nunn Theatre Outreach Project, through workshops and coaching that was on display in an introductory video that honored Mr. Nunn.
Tony Award-winning director Kenny Leon, who co-founded the national competition with Todd Kreidler, flew to Pittsburgh from his True Colors Theatre in Atlanta to cheer on the competitors and remember Mr. Nunn, who died at age 62 in September.
“It’s really special to be here in August Wilson’s town, in Bill Nunn’s town, when neither one of them are here but you feel them in so many ways,” Mr. Leon said Monday. “When we started this, Pittsburgh was one of the first places to come into the program, and look at it now — more than 30 kids here and two new cities this year.”
Cities sending representatives to the national competition include Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Dallas and Greensboro, N.C.
The three local winners were chosen from 35 finalists offering monologues from the American Century Cycle of works by Mr. Wilson, the award-winning playwright who wrote about the African-American experience as someone who grew up in the Hill District.
The judges for the night were actor Wali Jamal, City Theatre’s Reginald Douglas, Lynne Hayes-Freeland of KDKA-TV, Post-Gazette theater critic Sharon Eberson and Sala Udin, a former Pittsburgh councilman, actor and a friend of Mr. Wilson’s. Kimberly Ellis, the late playwright’s niece, returned as emcee for the competition.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter@SEberson_pg.
First Published: March 7, 2017, 3:57 a.m.