‘...THE BEST OF WHAT’S IN ME’
Teens from Atlanta, Chicago and LA win August Wilson New Voices competition
Troy Maxson soared with comic bravura to tell his friend about his three-day battle with Death. Rose Maxson stood tall after Troy’s death and told their son why he must respect his father, his faults aside.
Those two intense characters from “Fences” are among many in the 10play American Century cycle by Pittsburgh native August Wilson (19452005). Delivering those speeches Monday night at the Pittsburgh Public Theater were Layla Mack and Terrence Tate, both high school students from Atlanta, winners of the 2024 national finals of the August Wilson New Voices competition.
Mack won first prize of $3,000 and Tate, the second place winner, $2,000. Coming in third with a speech by Vera from “Seven Guitars,” winning $1,000, was Yency Cuevas of Los Angeles.
The national finals included two high school winners from each of five cities — Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.
Holding the New Voices finals in Wilson’s hometown was new this year. The finals for this competition and its predecessor, the August Wilson Monologue Competition, were previously held in Atlanta, Chicago and New York, in Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre.
Also new this year was a design component. The winner was Janeci Correa of Chicago, with a collage based on Berniece’s struggles in “The Piano Lesson.” Coming in second was J’Maria Stamps and third was Mia Ruiz, also from Chicago. The three won $3,000, $2,000 and $1,000 respectively.
Monday’s program focused on the presentation of monologues, of course, but there was more, led by the
program’s national director, Derrick Sanders.
Constanza Romero Wilson, Wilson’s widow and one of the New Voices’ leaders, expressed by video her admiration for the young artists and her regret at not being present. There was another video in which the finalists talked about what the competition, including visiting Pittsburgh, had meant to them.
Sakina Ansari Wilson, one of the judges, cited a famous saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
She praised the community feeling of New Voices, knowing it would please Wilson, her father.
Actor Javon Johnson, another judge, described being in his first August Wilson play, which taught him “what it was to be African American.”
Judge Mark Clayton Southers, head of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, played a recording of Wilson reciting one of his poems.
Bringing the finals to Pittsburgh was like bringing them home, in several ways. The Hill District is where he grew up and where nearly all of his plays were inspired and set.
The finals’ personnel had a Pittsburgh tone, too, starting with Sanders, who has a University of Pittsburgh graduate degree, as does Johnson. Southers was mentored by Wilson and Ansari Wilson is the playwright’s daughter.
The two judges of the design competition were Susan Tsu, a noted costume designer and Carnegie Mellon University professor, and Courtney O’Neill, a freelance costume designer now living in France.
Kenny Leon and Todd Kreidler began the competition in 2007 at Atlanta’s True Colors Theatre, basing it on the Shakespeare Monologue Competition that Kreidler had helped run at Pittsburgh Public Theater.
The city itself provided much Wilson-related joy for the visitors — not just the contestants, but their teachers, coaches, parents and friends. They began Saturday with the huge annual August Wilson Birthday festival, some 9,000 people partying near August Wilson House. Then came tours of the house, led by Tambi Gxuluwe, and of the Hill District, led by Kim Ellis.
They visited “August Wilson: The Writers Landscape” exhibit at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Downtown and the August Wilson Archive at the University of Pittsburgh.
Add in workshops, panel discussions, group bonding and bowling, and the national contestants had a full threeday visit. Much of that was due to the sponsoring Pittsburgh group, the Bill Nunn Theatre Outreach Project, led by Demeatria Boccella.
Sanders praised Pittsburgh’s resources and friendliness and said that next year, with more cities expected to participate, the national finals would return.