The August Wilson New Voices Competition crowned its 2023 top three in Pittsburgh Monday night at the O’Reilly Theater.
The city-wide monologue contest is open to all Pittsburgh high school students in honor of the late Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, August Wilson. The top three students from the Pittsburgh Regional Finals receive cash prizes and the opportunity to compete at the national competition in New York.
And the winners are:
- First place: Javian Ortega-Rodriguez, Pittsburgh CAPA
- Second place: Christopher Russell, West Mifflin High School
- Third place: Jordyn Walker, Alumni Theater Company and PA Leadership Chapter School
Cash prizes for readings of monologues from Wilson’s 10-play American Century Cycle – nine set in Pittsburgh – were $1,000 for first place, $500 for second and $250 for third.
Judges were First Lady of Pittsburgh Michelle Gainey; playwright TJ Young; attorney Paul A. Ellis Jr., August Wilson House founder; actress Rita Gregory; and Chris Rawson, theater critic and August Wilson House board member.
Pittsburgh’s 2023 August Wilson New Voices Monologue Competition is a presentation of the Bill Nunn Theatre Outreach Project at the Downtown home of Pittsburgh Public Theater.For 2023, the August Wilson Monologue Competition has been reimagined as the August Wilson New Voices competition, a project of the August Wilson Legacy Project, which is a partnership between the August Wilson Estate, Goodman Theatre in Chicago and Derrick Sanders.
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