August Wilson contest, three high school students heading from Pittsburgh to Broadway

Although conceived in Pittsburgh, it was born at True Colors Theatre Company in Atlanta. But the August Wilson Monologue Competition returned Sunday night to the playwright's home city. At the Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park University, three high school students were chosen from 19 finalists to go on to represent Pittsburgh in the national finals at Broadway's August Wilson Theater on April 27, the playwright's birthday.

The winner was Carter Redwood (CAPA), who has already had plenty of stage experience at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre and elsewhere. Imari Payne (West Mifflin High School) and Laneece Patterson (CAPA) were first and second runners-up. Each received cash prizes and will compete on Broadway against regional winners from Atlanta and New York City. The alternate is Dezmick Matthews (Westinghouse High School), who came in fourth and also received an award from the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

(The picture, left to right: Hilda Wilis, True Colors education consultant; Todd Kreidler; Laneece Patterson; John Amplas; Carter Redwood; Bill Nunn; Imari Payne.) 

The competition was conceived here in two senses. First, of course, came August Wilson, native of the Hill District, nine of whose Pittsburgh Cycle of 10 plays, each set in a different decade of the 20^th century, are set on the Hill. Then came the Shakespeare Monologue and Scene Contest, begun at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 1995 by education director Rob Zellers and now in its 15^th year. A former staffer at the Public, Todd Kreidler, went on to become Wilson's dramaturg and friend. Now a playwright, he is also associate artistic director at True Colors to artistic director Kenny Leon, who directed the last three Wilson plays on Broadway.

Leon and Kreidler began the Wilson contest in Atlanta in 2007, using the Public's Shakespeare contest as a model. Last year, they expanded it to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. This year it involves Atlanta, Pittsburgh and New York.

The Pittsburgh contest is organized by Point Park's Conservatory of Performing Arts and its Bill Nunn Theatre Outreach Project, run by actor Nunn and actor/director John Amplas. This year's program extended only to CAPA, West Mifflin and Westinghouse. But the Shakespeare Contest started small, too, and now regularly draws more than 1,000 annual entrants from all over western Pa., which is probably why the Public passed on its chance to organize the Wilson contest, too.

Point Park's Rockwell Theater proved a lively venue for an audience mainly of the contestants' family and friends. In future years, as word gets out, it should be thronged.

This year's judges were Lynn-Hayes Freeland of KDKA; John Shepard, chair of Point Park theater; Mark Clayton Southers of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre; Sala Udin, an actor, longtime friend of Wilson's and CEO of Coro Center for Civic Leadership; and yours truly. Support was provided by Point Park, the Multicultural Arts Initiative and the Pittsburgh and Heinz Foundations.

The kids were great.

They were black and white, male and female, short and tall. Of the 19 performances, five were of Rose's great, angry speech to Troy in Act 2 of "Fences," and three were of Mollie's dismissive view of men in "Joe Turner." The others were spread widely. Still, I hope in the future the contest expands to include scenes, in order to multiply the Wilson excerpts the students can explore.

And, now, on to Broadway. There, the finalists will attend workshops and go see the Lincoln Center revival of "Joe Turner." The three national winners will be offered Point Park scholarships worth $10,000, $7,000 and $5,000.