True Colors Theatre News

Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theatres announce the winners for the 11th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition National Finals, held on Monday, May 6th at the August Wilson Theatre in New York. The first-place winner was Trajan Clayton from Perry, GA; second-place, Katara Willis from Buffalo, NY; and third place, Abad Viquez from Chicago, IL.

True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theaters announce the winners of the 11th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition National Finals.

The National Alliance for Musical Theatre (NAMT) announces 11 awards granted from their Frank Young Fund for New Musicals(formerly known as the National Fund for New Musicals), and six awards granted from their Innovation & Exploration Fund.

True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theaters announce the panel of celebrity judges for the 11th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition, taking place on Monday, May 6th at 7:00 p.m. at the August Wilson Theatre (245 West 52nd Street).  

It's time to walk the line. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati presents the regional premiere of Skeleton Crew, a compelling drama about a driven team of autoworkers trying to navigate a cutthroat industry. This searing new play is by Dominique Morisseau (Detroit '67 ), a 2018 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellows Program (unofficially referred to as a Genius Grant). Skeleton Crew is the final installment of Morisseau's powerful Detroit Project, which was inspired by August Wilson's landmark Century Cycle. Playing April 13-May 11, 2019. Directed by Stori Ayers. Production Sponsor is The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation.

Incoming Artistic Director Jamil Jude and True Colors Theatre Company are thrilled to announce the 2019 - 2020 season, dubbed "She Griots." The three productions of this 17th season focus on strong women playwrights, storytellers, historians and leaders of various generations.

It's time to walk the line. Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati presents the regional premiere of Skeleton Crew, a compelling drama about a driven team of autoworkers trying to navigate a cutthroat industry.

Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theaters announce that the 11th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition will take place on Monday, May 6th at 7:00 p.m. at the August Wilson Theatre (245 West 52nd Street).  

Broadway and TV star Brandon J. Dirden (All the Way, Jitney, The Americans) hosted the 11th annual New York City August Wilson Monologue Competition, sponsored by LEAP (Learning through an Expanded Arts Program, Inc.). A total of 15 LEAP students from nine New York high schools in four boroughs brought the audience to their feet as they embodied Wilson's characters and provided their own interpretations-immersing them in Wilson's world of 10 plays, referred to as The Century Cycle.

The League of Chicago Theatres, Goodman Theatre, the University of Illinois at Chicago and competition organizer Derrick Sanders announce the top Chicago finalists for the 10th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition, which were held Monday, March 4, 2019 at the Goodman Theatre: Abad Viquez of Nicholas Senn High School (first place), Freedom Martin of The Chicago High School for the Performing Arts (second place), Serenity Saffold-Rice of Interlochen Center for the Arts (third place), and Lyk Singleton of The Chicago High School for the Performing Arts (honorable mention).

Theatrical Outfit will enter a new era when Artistic Director Tom Key exits his longstanding position in June of 2020.  The Theatre's Board of Directors announced Key's plans to retire along with the announcement of the launch of a nationwide search to name his successor by the opening of the 2019-2020 season.

The Public Theater announced today a one-week extension of the world premiere of AIN'T NO MO', written by Jordan E. Cooper and directed by Stevie Walker-Webb. Following its initial run in Public Studio in 2018, AIN'T NO MO' will begin previews on Tuesday, March 12 with a Joseph Papp Free Preview performance in The Public's LuEsther Hall. This vital new American play will now run through Sunday, April 28, with an official press opening on Wednesday, March 27.

Twenty-two Chicago high school students will compete in the finals of the 10th Annual August Wilson Monologue Competition for a chance to represent Chicago in the National Competition at the August Wilson Theatre in New York City.  Hundreds of students competed across the city in preliminary rounds. The finals will be held at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N Dearborn on Monday, March 4, 2019 at 6:00 pm. The August Wilson Monologue Competition is free and open to the public. Please call 312-554-9800 for ticket information. The top two winners of the Chicago finals will compete in the National Finals at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway on Monday, May 6, 2019.

Long Wharf Theatre (LWT), in collaboration with Yale Repertory Theatre (YRT), will host the 2019 New Haven Regional August Wilson Monologue Competition (AWMC).The Regional Competition will be presented on Thursday, February 28, 2019 at 7 PM at Yale Repertory Theatre, 1120 Chapel St, New Haven, CT 06510. Fifteen participants from the Greater New Haven Area, Hartford County, and Fairfield County, will compete to win all-expense paid trip to the National Competition in NYC where they will perform on a Broadway stage, see a Broadway play, and have a chance to win college scholarships. The National Competition will take place in May 6, 2019 at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre.

Artistic Director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre Company present Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew beginning this February.

Broadway and TV star Brandon J. Dirden (All the Way, Jitney, The Americans) is set to host the 11th annual New York City August Wilson Monologue Competition, sponsored by LEAP (Learning through an Expanded Arts Program, Inc.)

Artistic Director Kenny Leon and True Colors Theatre Company present Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew beginning this February.

Few directors working today can honestly say that their careers span so many genres of the entertainment industry. Live television. Theatre. The list goes on and on. But Tony Award-winner Kenny Leon can easily claim such an honor. With a resume spanning three decades, Leon has more than proven his place as one of the American theatre's most preeminent and prolific directors. Most recently represented on Broadway with his acclaimed production of American Son (starring Kerry Washington and Steven Pasquale and soon to be filmed for an upcoming release on Netflix), Leon has proved time and again to be a director for a new generation, impressing upon his audiences the importance of racial matters in our country. And now, he humbly shares his success in a memoir entitled Take You Wherever You Go (released in 2018 from Grand Central Publishing), in which he shares his deep passion for directing through the lens of his humble upbringings in Tallahassee and St. Petersburg, Florida.

YALE REPERTORY THEATRE (James Bundy, Artistic Director; Victoria Nolan, Managing Director) will present the world premiere of GOOD FAITH: Four Chats about Race and the New Haven Fire Department, a new play by Karen Hartman, directed by Kenny Leon, February 1-23, 2019.

Anotidaishe Chikunya, a senior at Dana Hall School, took first place on Monday, January 28, 2019 with her performance as Berniece from The Piano Lesson at the Boston Regional Finals of the August Wilson Monologue Competition, held for the ninth year by the Education Department of the Huntington Theatre Company, the playwright's longtime artistic home.  Sarah Purvis, a junior at Boston Collegiate Charter School, was named first runner-up and portrayed Black Mary from Gem of the Ocean; Osamede Izevbizua (Toledo, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom), a junior at John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science, was named second runner-up. The three will receive a total of $850 in prize money, and the top two winners will be awarded an all-expense-paid trip to New York City where they will perform their monologues at Broadway's August Wilson Theatre in the National Competition on May 6, 2019. Airfare, hotel accommodations, workshops, and tickets to attend a Broadway production will be provided in collaboration with Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company and Jujamcyn Theatres. The national competition is free and open to the public.