CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - A youth national competition at the Goodman Theater tonight is carrying on the legacy of a playwright referred to as “theater's poet of Black America."
“This (is) one of the greatest playwrights in American literature, and certainly one of the greatest contemporary playwrights of the 20th century,” said Willa Taylor, national director of the August Wilson New Voices Competition.
The competition is a free annual program that gives students the chance to explore Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson's work by performing monologues and presenting visual designs from his work.
Taylor said though the event is a competition, the goal is to help students explore their craft.
"It is not about really trying to train actors to do monologues. It is about sort of helping students really develop their voices and their agencies through the work and understanding who they are through the work, learning the plays, learning the history, learning the biography of August,” Taylor said.
Thirteen students are competing in the National Finals, coming from Boston, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.
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