August Wilson New Voices Competition
The August Wilson New Voices Competition is a collaboration between the August Wilson Estate, The Goodman Theatre, and Derrick Sanders, Associate Director of the Drama Division at Juilliard and longtime collaborator of August Wilson. The AWNVC provides young people with an opportunity to build and develop their performance skills as well as connect to and further the legacy of Wilson’s work
August Wilson (1945 – 2005) is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of the American Century Cycle, a visionary 10 play series chronicling the African American experience in each decade of the 20th century. Wilson’s work was revolutionary, cementing his place as one of the greatest playwrights in the American theatre.
One of the few regional theatres nationally to have produced all 10 plays of the American Century Cycle, The Huntington’s relationship with August Wilson is a long and storied one. Between 1986 and 2005, Wilson premiered seven of his seminal plays at The Huntington; the first was Joe Turner’s Come and Gone featuring future stage and screen stars Angela Bassett and Delroy Lindo. In a fitting tribute, the newly renovated historic Huntington Theatre reopened with a powerful new production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
This program is free and open to all young people in grades 9-12.
IMPORTANT DATES:
*Please note all levels of this competition are in-person in Boston.*
Registration Deadline: Friday, December 20th, 2024
Preliminaries: Saturday, January 25th, 2025
Semi-Finals: Saturday, February 8th, 2025
Workshop: Saturday, March 22nd, 2025
Boston Regional Finals: Monday, March 24th, 2025
Registration is now open!
For more information email awnvc@huntingtontheatre.org
2024 August Wilson New Voices Monologue Competition Winners
From Left to Right, 2024 State Champion LaLa Cooks-Beeks, second place DJ Pepincepeda, and third place Armani Barrantes.
BOSTON REGIONAL WINNERS OVER THE YEARS
Meg O’Brien, Naheem Garcia and Latasha Snider in front of Aunt Esther’s famous red door at the actual 1839 Wylie Avenue.
Education Staff Naheem Garcia, Meg O’Brien, and Latasha Snider in Pittsburgh in front of August Wilson’s House.
Funded in part by BPS Arts Expansion, a multi-year effort focusing on access, equity and quality arts learning for BPS students. The BPS Arts Expansion Fund, managed by EdVestors, is generously supported by the Barr Foundation, The Boston Foundation, Katie and Paul Buttenwieser, Connie and Lew Counts, Hunt Alternatives, Klarman Family Foundation, Linde Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Rhonda S. Zinner Foundation. The Wallace Foundation supports the broader work of BPS Arts Expansion.
Additional funding for this program comes from the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, administrated by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
