August Wilson Monologue Competition by Milwaukee Rep

Milwaukee Repertory Theater Presents:

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T D C m p 0 3 : 7 | 1 2 0 2 , h t 9 2 h Marc Sponsored by:

Spotlight www.MilwaukeeRep.com

Welcome to the first official Milwaukee Regionals for the national August Wilson Monologue Competition! We have been looking forward to this day for several years as we have been working to bring this impactful competition to Milwaukee’s youth. This opportunity goes beyond a competition - it gives young artists an opportunity to engage with America’s Shakespeare, August Wilson. For over a decade, this competition has provided high school students around the country a platform to explore their own creative voices, express themselves through theater, and explore the legendary playwright’s powerful words. The competition provides equitable access to free training and professional theater experiences. In a normal year, the two regional winners will compete nationally on a Broadway stage. Thankfully, we are able to persevere with the competition on a virtual stage this year due to the impact of COVID-19. Milwaukee Rep has produced seven of the ten plays from the American Century Cycle. Wilson is an influential playwright who has opened doors for other Black artists and it is vital that young people experience his plays and see that there is a place for people of all races on and off our stages. We have aspirations of completing the cycle on our stages while continuing to build upon this competition, opening doors for Milwaukee’s youth as the next generation of professional theater artists. We are deeply proud of each student who had the bravery to audition for the competition. Congratulations to our ten regional finalists. They have all worked hard to get to this competition and are all winners.

Jenny Toutant CHIEF ENGAGEMENT & EDUCATION OFFICER

e l u d e Sch 7:30pm

Welcome

7:40pm

Competition Begins

8:45pm

Dance Party with DJ Bizzon/Judge Deliberation

9:45pm

Final Announcements and Winner Presentation

n o s l i W t s u g u A August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel on April 27, 1945, in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. He was the son of Daisy Wilson, a Black American woman, and Frederick Kittel, a German immigrant, who was not an active part of Wilson’s life. Wilson’s mother, who earned a living cleaning houses, raised him and his siblings in a two-room flat, and later remarried and moved her children to a predominantly white neighborhood where Wilson and his siblings were the targets of racism and bullying. Wilson dropped out of high school and took his education into his own hands after a teacher accused him of cheating on a paper. He spent most of his time in his childhood neighborhood at the Carnegie Library, where he discovered and devoured the works of great Black American authors. His voracious reading quickly evolved into writing poetry and listening to the voices and stories of the people of the Hill District, which would later inspire his most famous plays. After his father’s death in 1956, Wilson changed his name to honor his mother. He also bought his first typewriter, and began his long career as a playwright and author. In 1969, he founded an activist theater company called Black Horizons on the Hill with playwright Rob Penny. Wilson moved from Pittsburgh to Minneapolis in 1978 and began to channel the voices of the people of The Hill into his work. He earned a fellowship at the Minneapolis Playwrights Center for an early draft of his play, Jitney. This fellowship led to his acceptance into the National Playwrights’ Conference at the O’Neill Theater

AND HIS PITTSBURGH CYCLE

Center, where he met his longtime collaborator, director Lloyd Richards. Richards would go on to direct Wilson’s first six plays when they premiered on Broadway. Wilson is a vital figure in the American theatrical canon, and his works are among the most highly produced and regarded plays in American theater. Both Fences and The Piano Lesson won Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Wilson’s plays have won Tony awards, New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, and numerous other honors. Wilson even earned the sole honorary degree given out by his beloved Carnegie Library. Shortly after the premiere of Radio Golf in 2005 (the final play in his Pittsburgh Cycle), Wilson was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. He died on October 2nd of that year. Wilson’s legacy continues on in his work: lyrical, yet grounded representation of the Black American experience that has graced so many bookshelves, screens, stages, and communities.

WILSON’S PITTSBURGH CYCLE August Wilson is best known for his Pittsburgh Cycle or Century Cycle plays, a series of ten plays that take place in each decade of the 20th century. The plays reflect the AfricanAmerican experience during the century while also reflecting cultural shifts in America. All of the plays, except Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, take place in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Some characters, such as Aunt Ester, who is an unseen character in Two Trains Running, appear in several plays in the cycle.

Gem of the Ocean*

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom*

August Wilson’s Century Cycle begins in 1904, where we meet Citizen Barlow, a bewildered newcomer to Pittsburgh from the agrarian deep South. Citizen Barlow arrives at Aunt Ester’s house seeking her help and a safe place from Caesar, the local constable. Aunt Ester, now 285 years old, takes him on a journey of selfdiscovery to the City of Bones, a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Here he makes startling discoveries and his sense of duty leads to his redemption.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set in a Chicago recording studio in early March 1927. Female blues singer Ma Rainey lives and works under the pressure of a music business that abuses and victimizes its black artists.

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone* Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, set in 1917, is the story of Harold Loomis who returns to Pittsburgh in search of his wife. He is haunted by the memory of bounty hunter Joe Turner, the man who had illegally enslaved him. Loomis is unable to fully embrace or release the past. His search brings him to Seth and Bertha’s boarding house with his young daughter, Zonia, where “conjure man” Bynum shows him that he really is searching for himself.

The Piano Lesson The Piano Lesson is set in Pittsburgh in 1936. Boy Willie has come to his uncle’s house to retrieve a piano that holds significant historical and sentimental value to the family. A battle ensues over the possession of the piano, which carries the legacy and opportunities of the characters and determines the choices they must make.

Seven Guitars Seven Guitars brings a post-war Pittsburgh and us into the world of the 1940s. We sort through the plight of the Black American men who fought and died in World War II, who now return home to find they must confront the same inequities they’d faced before they left. Blues singer Floyd “Schoolboy” Barton returns from a 90day stretch in the county jail with a recording contract in his pocket and a plan to take his woman and his band to Chicago. Buoyed by the heroics of the great black boxer Joe Louis, Floyd is sure the world is finally ripe for black heroes. But the backyard that serves as his office, social club and romantic getaway seems haunted; and his eccentric neighbor, Hedley, who teeters between wisdom and madness, is destined to bring Floyd’s dreams of success to an end.

Greta Oglesby in Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s 2010/11 Quadracci Powerhouse production of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Photo by Alan Simons. * = Performed at Milwaukee Rep

Jitney*

Milwaukee Repertory Theater presents Fences in the Quadracci Powerhouse from April 26 to May 22, 2016. From left to right: David Alan Anderson as Troy Maxson and Marcus Naylor as Jim Bono. Photo by Tim Fuller.

Fences* Troy Maxson is a garbage collector who prides himself on his ability to provide for his family and keep it together. He is the patriarch and central character in Fences, (1950-1965), he continually places barriers between himself and the very people he loves the most. Troy’s rebellion and frustration set the tone for this play as he struggles for a sense of fairness in a society that offers none. He and his son clash over their conflicting views of what it means to be a black man in mid-century America.

Two Trains Running* Two Trains Running examines the possibilities of securing the American dream in a 1960s northern urban ghetto. Memphis Lee, his neighbors and his restaurant’s patrons stand on the precipice of urban renewal. They consider the prospects for surviving this change with their history and cultural identity in tact as the existence of their community is in jeopardy. Sterling, a young, politicized ex-con, has just been released from prison and insists on righting an injustice committed years earlier; a man not rewarded with what was promised him after completing a job.

* = Performed at Milwaukee Rep

The 1970s are the background for Jitney. In this story, Pittsburgh’s gypsy cab drivers fight to save their business and retain their livelihood and are pitted against a world that wants to tear down the inner city for redevelopment. Becker, a wellrespected man in his sixties is reunited with his son Booster, after Booster’s release from jail. A difficult relationship between father and son again points out how each generation confronts the world in his own way rather than building on the struggles of those who came before him.

King Hedley II King Hedley II takes place in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1985. In the backyard of a neighborhood now completely blasted by decay and urban blight, King Hedley II, with a warrior spirit but no education or prospects, daydreams with his friend Mister about opening a Kung Fu video rental store using the money they make selling stolen refrigerators. Aunt Ester has died, the Hill District is without commercial or spiritual resources, and King’s dreams are doomed to a violent end in Wilson’s darkest and most symbolic play.

Radio Golf* Radio Golf, August Wilson’s last play, is also the last play chronologically in his famous Pittsburgh Cycle. In the play we find Harmond Wilks, a man who discovers both himself and the place that birthed him at a crossroads. On the verge of an almost-guaranteed win as a mayoral candidate, Wilks finds his identity shaken when his morals and ideals are questioned by those around him. Ultimately, he must recognize what the price of his success is and decide whether he is willing to pay it.

s t n a t s e t n o c Alexis Wilson

11th grade, Brown Deer Middle/High School Levee, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Francis Faye

12th grade, Marquette University High School Boy Willie, The Piano Lesson

Lilyanna Romer

9th grade, Milwaukee High School of the Arts Vera, Seven Guitars

Terynn Erby-Walker 10th grade, Golda Meir School Rose, Fences

Kamani Graham

12th grade, Pius XI High School Youngblood, Jitney

F IN ORDER O E APPEARANC

Anyiah Lobley

12th grade, Golda Meir School Toledo, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Dejanaye Jones

11th grade, Milwaukee High School of the Arts Berniece, The Piano Lesson

Fardowso Shidad

12th grade, Rufus King High School Louise, Seven Guitars

Yexuanj Rivera Melendez

11th grade, Milwaukee High School of the Arts Becker, Jitney

Jonathan Edwards

11th grade, Rufus King High School Sterling, Radio Golf

judges Dr. Ivor Benjamin is the Director of the Cardiovascular Center, co-director of the NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cardiovascular Sciences and co-leader of the CVC’s Signature Program in Precision Cardiovascular Medicine. He is a Professor of Medicine, Physiology, Pharmacology & Toxicology, Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy, and Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Benjamin earned his MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine, and received fellowship training in clinical cardiology, molecular cardiology, and molecular biology at Michael Reese Hospital (University of Chicago), Duke University Medical Center, and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. A certified specialist and consultant in internal medicine and cardiology, his clinical interests are general cardiology, inheritable heart failure, and myocardial infarction. His research focuses on genes encoding heat shock proteins and oxido-reductive stress response pathways of direct relevance to genetic forms of heart disease, cardiotoxicological science and precision medicine. An Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, Dr. Benjamin’s longstanding and distinguished career as a physician scientist has taken him across the country, including 10 years at the University of Utah School of Medicine where he was named the Division Chief of Cardiology and the Christi T. Smith Endowed

Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine. He is the recipient of countless honors including the Award of Merit from the American Heart Association, the Daniel Savage Memorial Service Award from the Association of Black Cardiologists, and the prestigious NIH Director’s Pioneer Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Cecil Essential of Medicine 9th Edition and has authored over 130 books, book chapters and scientific papers. Dr. Benjamin is a founding member of the Journal of the American Heart Association, and he currently serves on the editorial boards of Circulation and Circulation Research. From Paducah, Kentucky to Carbondale, Illinois, to the Big Apple, La’Ketta Caldwell’s education and work has taken her around the country, enabling her to use theater education to empower and educate diverse populations. La’Ketta holds a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication and a minor in Theatre from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. She also studied Education and Theatre at New York University. Currently she is a Director at LUMIN Schools for the Opportunity Academy. She was part of the 2015 African American Leadership Program, and the 2015 Milwaukee Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 class. Ms. Caldwell was a 2015 MANDI nominee. In 2016, she delivered a TEDx Talk titled “Say Something.”

Andre Lee Ellis has been in the Milwaukee theater community for 40 years. A writer, director, actor and founder of Andre Lee Ellis & Company. A local community theater that has produced a couple of good August Wilson productions, Jitney and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. As an actor Mr. Ellis played the role of “Seymour” in King Hedley II, with the Black Theater Troupe in Phoenix, Arizona. He played “Doub” in Jitney with the same company. Mr. Ellis has performed in many productions and on many stages in America. Too numerous to mention them all here. Mr. Ellis is the founder and Executive Director of “We Got This, Inc.” A community garden located in the Milwaukee 53206 zip code. Using gardening as a tool for community organizing, especially working with young black males. Theater is his heart and he is very proud to help judge this competition. “August Wilson is one of my heros.” Thank you Milwaukee Rep. It is an honor. Dante A. C. Houston is a native Milwaukeean who has dedicated his life to the promotion of people. He works as a Client Delivery Manager with AMN Healthcare, the nation’s largest healthcare recruitment vendor. His mantra is “Globally Minded, Locally Focused”. When he is not assisting individuals find their professional passion, he has dedicated his life to community involvement with The Arts and ensuring the underserved population of his region have necessary resources and access. For the past 10 years he served as member and Chairman of CAMPAC - The Milwaukee County Cultural, Artistic & Musical Program Advisory Council and has been an active volunteer with Milwaukee Rep as a member of their Spotlight Group.

Sheri Williams Pannell is a native Milwaukeean who has performed, directed or written for a number of Milwaukee’s theater and arts organizations including Bronzeville Arts Ensemble, First Stage, Florentine Opera, Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, Milwaukee Fringe Festival, Milwaukee Rep, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Arts Museum, Present Music and Skylight Music Theatre. Beyond Milwaukee, Pannell has worked at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah’s Old Lyric Theatre, Children’s Theater of Madison, University Opera and University Theater at UW Madison. Pannell was selected to direct a production as part of the United Nations Conference on Genocide, hosted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2017, Pannell was honored as an Artist of the Year by the City of Milwaukee. A founding member and Artistic Director at Bronzeville Arts Ensemble, Pannell served as Artistic Director of the Black Arts MKE Summer Youth Arts Experience Program and is co-director of the drama ministry at Calvary Baptist Church. Summer of 2020, Pannell served as one of the founders of the Milwaukee Black Theater Festival. Her play, Welcome To Bronzeville was selected by BroadwayWorld Milwaukee as the 2020 Best Original Script of the Decade. Pannell is Area Head of the Musical Theatre Program at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee, Peck School of the Arts. A graduate of Spelman College, Pannell also holds an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

s r e h c a e T aches &

N’Jameh Camara is a firstgeneration American of Filipino and Gambian heritage. As an actor, she performed in the National Broadway Tour of The Color Purple, the Off-Broadway World Premiere of X: or Betty Shabazz vs. The Nation as well as Julius Caesar and Macbeth Off-Broadway. On top of working with Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar in Junk and Tony Award winning directors Alex Timbers and John Doyle, her voice can be heard on Audible in acclaimed selected works, Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson, When Life Gives You Mangos, Fumbled, Gravity and The Long Ride. She received her MFA from UC San Diego and has been interviewed for a variety of social media outlets including Playbill, Broadway World, USA Inquirer, Philippines News, and Taipei News Network. She recently started as the new Associate Director of Engagement at Milwaukee Repertory Theater. www.njameh.com @lady_njay. Devin Christor is a Dallas native that has a focus in stage directing, stage management & stage combat. He graduated from the University of North Texas with a B.A. in Theatre. During undergrad, he was a member of the Afro-Blue Artistic Company, where he directed Big White Fog and Seven Guitars. After graduation, he decided to travel across the country, to work for different regional theatres to appreciate the different ideologies and viewpoints they have. While finding time to direct several local festivals, he had the pleasure to work with Gloucester Stage Company as their ASM, Trinity Repertory Company PA and Two

River Theatre, as their PA. Devin’s main goal is to become an Artistic Director for a regional Theater and for the progression of all regional theaters. DiMonte Henning is honored to be a coach for the August Wilson Monologue Competition. DiMonte serves as Producing Artistic Director for theater-arts organization Lights! Camera! Soul! and received his formal theater training from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with additional training from Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Emerging Professional Residency (2015/2016 season). DiMonte has performed regionally with the following theater credits: The Colored Museum (Director-Lights! Camera! Soul!), The Niceties (CoDirector-Forward Theater Co.), Stick Fly (Writers Theatre), The Island (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre), Our Town (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), The Wiz (First Stage), A Christmas Carol (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Dreamgirls (Milwaukee Repertory Theater), Black Nativity (Black Arts MKE), and Skeleton Crew (Forward Theater Co.). TV and commercial credits include: Guest starring roles on NBC’s Chicago PD (Seasons 4 & 6), UBER, Disney’s Encore!, Inpro Designs, and Harley-Davidson. Ashley S. Jordan is ecstatic to join this experience. She’s grateful to embrace the art of storytelling and this journey of the legacy of August Wilson! Her experience with Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee, PEARLS for Teen Girls and many more has propelled her to engage youth and her community. She’s a

creative with her debut pocast, the That’s Deep Podcast, and made her directing debut with NŌ Studios’ Medusa Monologues. She is grateful and pays homage to her aunts and the women before her. Psalm 23. Malaina Moore is a Milwaukee based actress, playwright and teaching artist. She trained at Marquette University where she studied theatre with an emphasis in performance and a minor in Social Welfare and Justice. She enjoys writing stories with social justice themes, such as her works: This Just In at the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and White Privilege which has been performed in both a range of times in Milwaukee and Madison. She is so excited to be joining Milwaukee Rep’s education program and hopes to share the importance of these social justice themes with the students! Hope Parow is a passionate Teaching Artist and non-profit administrator with over 10 years progressive experience, specializing in: theater and STEAM-based arts programming, social-emotional learning, and staff development and training. Hope graduated from the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse in 2013 with a Bachelor of Science in Education and Theater Performance, and has since worked with and on behalf of thousands of young and adult learners though numerous organizations, including having previously served as Milwaukee Rep’s Associate Education Director, and as the Youth Development Director for COA Youth and Family Centers in Milwaukee, WI. Other partner organizations include: First Stage, SHARP Literacy, Sunset Playhouse, Spotlight Youth Theater, Camp Creative Viterbo University, and the La Crosse Area YMCA. Favorite performance credits include: Rent (Joanne), Miss Nelson is Missing (Miss Nelson/Miss Viola Swamp), The

Drowsy Chaperone (Trix the Aviatrix), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Saint Monica), and Hair (Tribe). Hope is a proud native of Ann Arbor, MI. Malkia Stampley is an actor and director born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She received her training at Marquette University and Milwaukee Rep. She co-founded Bronzeville Arts Ensemble in 2013 where she served as Artistic Director for three years. She currently serves as Milwaukee Black Theater Festival Artistic Producer. In Wisconsin she has worked with most of the professional theaters. She most recently directed virtual presentations of Sunset Baby (Third Avenue Playhouse) and The Mountaintop (American Players Theater.) She directed Nunsense and played Risa in Two Trains Running at Milwaukee Rep/Cincinnati Playhouse in 2019. On screen, Malkia has appeared on Showtime, NBC, HBO, AMC, Fox, Netflix and a host of independent short and feature films. Denzel Taylor is an alum of the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the First Wave - Hip Hop/ Urban Arts program. In February of 2020, Denzel completed an Education residency with Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s Emerging Professional Resident program, teaching social-emotional literacy through theater practices. His acting credits include Sheep and John Arable in Charlotte’s Web and Mr. Salt in Willy Wonka with Children’s Theater of Madison, Mayor in Romeo and Juliet with Theater Lila, and Lucentio in Taming of the Shrew with Madison Shakespeare Company. Most recently, Denzel made his Skylight Music Theatre debut in their developmental reading of Fortunate Sons.

s k n a h t l a i c e sp N’Jameh Camara Devin Christor Amanda Clark Milwaukee Boys and Girls Clubs and their Managers: Devon Reid, Rachel Nabors, Cedric Gardner Greater Milwaukee Foundation April Heding MPS Partnership for the Arts United Performing Arts Fund Spotlight Members MANY THANKS TO THE AMAZING TEACHERS WHO INVITED THE AUGUST WILSON MONOLOGUE COMPETITION INTO THEIR CLASSROOMS Tricia Collenburg, Milwaukee High School of the Arts Catie O’Donnell, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Jason Schmieding, Bay View High School MILWAUKEE REPERTORY THEATER EDUCATION & ENGAGEMENT DEPARTMENT CHIEF ENGAGEMENT & EDUCATION OFFICER: Jenny Toutant ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION: Jeffrey Mosser ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF ENGAGEMENT: N’Jameh Camara EDUCATION ASSOCIATE: Auburn Matson SCHOOL PROGRAMS COORDINATOR: Joshua Pohja AWMC COORDINATOR AND RECRUITER: Ashley S. Jordan YOUTH LEADERS: Jonathan Edwards, Kyra Mathias AWMC TEACHING AND GUEST ARTISTS: N’Jameh Camara, Devin Christor, DiMonte Henning, Ashley S. Jordan, Selena McKnight, Malaina Moore, Hope Parow, Kendricke Pittman, Malkia Stampley, & Denzel Taylor FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUGUST WILSON MONOLOGUE COMPETITION Visit: https://www.milwaukeerep.com/AWMC

Email: Jeffrey Mosser, jmosser@milwaukeerep.com