News And Blogs

“It was almost like talking into the mirror,” said Wayne Mackins of being on the “A” side of a post-show Q&A session with high school students from around the country on a rainy spring night in New York City. Mackins, a senior at Fordham University, is currently making his Broadway debut as an ensemble member in The Prom. But in 2014, h...

Young Artists Inspiring Young Artists

A recent survey by statewide arts education coalition createCA found that only 26 percent of middle and high school students in California have access to music, theatre, dance, and visual art—access that is required by state law. The numbers for theatre in particular are bleak: just 4 percent of students across the state are enrolled in theatre c...

Building a Brighter Future For California Educators

Congratulations to Aryana Williams and Alexander Villaseñor on terrific performances in the ninth annual National August Wilson Monologue Competition on May 1, 2017 at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway. Their performances marked the end of a long and fulfilling journey into Wilson’s work; both Williams and Villaseñor had participated in the...

August Wilson Monologue Competition Finalists Take Broadway

On February 27, 2017, a century of the African-American experience came to life on the Mark Taper Forum stage through the words of August Wilson and the voices of Los Angeles high school students. Since 2011, Center Theatre Group has served as the Southern California home for the national August Wilson Monologue Competition. Each year, over 100 stu...

A Journey of a Century Begins With a Single Student

On January 11, 2017, members of the Corporate Circle attended a Community Impact Panel at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City. Leslie Johnson, Center Theatre Group’s Director of Social Strategy, Innovation and Impact, led a conversation with the three very inspiring individuals who have had multiple touch points with Center Theatre Group’s...

Corporate Circle Attends Community Impact Panel

June 26, 1996—20 years ago this year—August Wilson ascended the stage at the national conference of Theatre Communications Group, the national service organization for professional theatres, to deliver the keynote lecture. Wilson had long been one of the nation’s most eminent playwrights, and the audience of theatre community members from acr...

The Ground on Which I Stand

“God can kiss my ass,” says Levee, the young, ambitious, and angry trumpet player in August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (onstage at the Mark Taper Forum through October 16, 2016).

Two Levees in Conversation

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (onstage at the Mark Taper Forum September 1 – October 16, 2016) was written shortly after August Wilson moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1977. There, Wilson worked as a cook for a social services agency, earning $88 a week. It was enough money to give him the freedom to write, and from that freedom sprang the story of a...

Coming Full Cycle

On May 2, 2016, local high school students Damaris Vizvett and Samuel Christian performed onstage at Broadway’s August Wilson Theatre in the August Wilson Monologue Competition National Finals. Vizvett, who earned first place in the Los Angeles Regional Finals, took second place, winning a $1,000 college scholarship and a $750 cash prize....

2016 August Wilson Monologue Competition National Finalists Head to NYC

Monologues are one of the ultimate forms of theatrical expression. When delivered with skill, precision, and passion, they thrill audiences and deeply satisfy artists.

The Art of Teaching Theatre: Mastering the Audition Monologue

The August Wilson Monologue Competition Southern California Regional Finals is a one-night-only event, but it is six months in the making for the student artists onstage at the Mark Taper Forum—and is part of Center Theatre Group’s decades-long commitment to legendary playwright August Wilson’s work....

Young Artists Journey with August Wilson