Center Theatre Group has selected 11 local high school students to participate in the regional finals for the virtual 2021 August Wilson Monologue Competition, where participants will perform on the stage of the Kirk Douglas Theatre in early March.

The competition’s judges will view the competition remotely but in real time. The performances will be recorded and streamed during the live event on March 23 at 5 p.m. The free livestream is available at CTGLA.com/AugustWilson2021.

This is the 10th consecutive year Center Theatre Group is hosting the L.A. component of the national monologue competition. The program is designed to inspire and educate Los Angeles youth using monologues from August Wilson’s “American Century Cycle,” a 10-play cycle that details the complexity of the African-American experience in the 20th century. All previous competitions have culminated in an evening of monologues performed on the stage of the Mark Taper Forum.

The students selected to participate in the regional finals are Simone Baker (Sherman Oaks), Hazel Eko (Los Angeles), Willa Jackson (Los Angeles), Chazaiah Johnson (Los Angeles), Hailey Soomin Lee (Redondo Beach), Giselle Lopez (Los Angeles), Veronica McFarlane (Whittier), Stephen Moran (Los Angeles), Reva Pau (South Pasadena), Dillion Jerome Sowell (Moreno Valley) and Landon Wouters (Fullerton).

Two finalists will be announced during the livestream on March 23. Those two finalists will be joined by one of last year’s finalists, Tyla Uzo, in advancing to the national competition. The students selected will receive master classes provided by Center Theatre Group. The sessions will allow the students to refine their performances while gaining valuable acting techniques.

The program kicked off this season with a preliminary audition that featured 113 students in 10th, 11th or 12th-grade from 33 different high schools in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Of those students, 45 advanced to a semi-final audition held live on Zoom in December 2020 where the aforementioned 11 regional finalists were selected to move forward.

For information, visit CTGLA.org/August Wilson.