August Wilson Monologue Competition Frequently Asked Questions
Before you apply, please read through our Frequently Asked Questions. If you have further questions, please contact us by email or phone at 213.972.0720.
No acting experience is required, and in fact we encourage students with all levels of experience to participate. We also welcome students of all ethnicities and backgrounds. The program is open to public, private, charter, and home schooled students from Los Angeles, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties.
Yes. You may participate again as long as you did not advance to the National Finals in New York.
Please do not apply if you are not available on all of the program dates. Semi-Finalists and Regional Finalists are required to participate in all training and rehearsal sessions.
No. The August Wilson Monologue Competition is entirely free to all participating students from start to finish. Our top two Regional Finalists receive an all-expenses-paid, chaperoned trip to New York City for the National Finals.
A monologue is a speech presented by a single character set within the context of a play.
August Wilson Monologue Competition participants are required to select a monologue from the current National August Wilson Monologue Competition compendium. Original monologues or monologues by other playwrights may not be performed. We encourage you to choose a couple of monologues that pique your interest and invest in reading the full plays so that you have a richer understanding of the characters and the story. It is important for an actor to play to his or her strengths, so explore and find a monologue that really speaks to you, connects to your heart, and to your own experiences and/or imagination in some way. Then decide which one is right for you, and have fun creating and portraying the character’s story.
Monologues cannot be edited and must be performed as written in the compendium. If you are uncomfortable with the language and subject matter, please select a different monologue.
Your monologue performance must be between one and three minutes.
Yes. You must commit your monologue to memory. But trust us: fully memorizing your monologue will give you confidence.
Dress comfortably but neatly so as not to distract the judges. Props and/or costumes are not allowed. There will be one chair that you can sit on while performing if you'd like, but it should not be used as a prop.
Panels of theatre professionals judge all rounds of auditions. Written feedback will be provided to all participants in the Preliminaries and Semi-Finals approximately 2-3 weeks following auditions.
The Preliminaries and Semi-Finals are closed to the public. The Regional Finals and National Finals are open to the public and are free to attend.