Goodman Theatre hosts the national finals of August Wilson New Voices, with a winner from Homewood-Flossmoor

For an hour Monday night, in the Goodman Theatre’s Albert Theatre, high school students performed monologues from August Wilson’s 10-play Century Cycle. The only sounds made were thunderous applause, shouts at the end of each performance and the occasional “mmmhmmm” in agreement with the emotional cadence when Wilson’s words were spoken.

Eight students (three from Boston, two from Pittsburgh ― new cities in the August Wilson New Voices competition — and three from Chicago) took the stage to perform in front of competition alumni, contest administration, local theater notables and friends and family.

Jazmin Rhodes, 17, a junior from Homewood-Flossmoor, took home the winning prize of $3,000 and a certificate for her portrayal of Ruby in “King Hedley II.” She said she connected to that particular monologue because she recently lost a close friend.

“In Ruby’s monologue, she’s speaking about her experience with grief with her boyfriend that she lost a while back,” she said. “I felt like it was something that needed to be done to honor her.”

As part of her win, Rhodes will get to perform for the next class of competitors and serve as spokesperson for the upcoming competition season.

The annual August Wilson New Voices program, previously the August Wilson Monologue Competition, is in its 13th year. The national competition typically takes place at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway, but given the event’s rebranding, contest administration thought it would be perfect to launch locally at the Goodman — the first theater to produce all 10 plays in Wilson’s Century Cycle.

The competition gives students an opportunity to explore Wilson’s works while simultaneously incorporating his plays into high school curricula. The purpose: To reach out to students and try to increase the literary knowledge of August Wilson.

The local monologue competition this year began with 200 students citywide and was narrowed down to three local finalists. For 10 weeks, student participants at Chicago schools are taught Wilson’s repertoire that chronicles the African American experience in the 20th century. Students learn how to perform two-to-three-minute monologues of their choosing from one of Wilson’s 10 plays, thanks to Chicago-area actors and teaching artists like Charles Gardner.

During the pandemic, Wilson’s estate and contest administration retooled the competition, according to August Wilson New Voices national director Derrick Sanders, including by adding a design competition.

“We took some time to analyze what we’ve done and in what ways the Wilson estate wanted to improve it. We wanted to concentrate the competition more about learning August’s literature and investment in his worlds,” Sanders said. “This is the pilot year with Boston and Pittsburgh joining us, and an added design component.

While the monologue finalists hone their performances to reflect characterization and emotional connectedness (things they’re judged on), the design finalists were charged with reading Wilson’s work and creating an art piece that embodied the world of the play they chose.

“We’re more concentrating on the striking point of design from literature to imagination to creation — what’s the impulse of art and how does art inspire you and what are the elements of the time?” Sanders said. “What colors did they use, how do they use depth of field, how are you using lines and curves to express the ideas in the monologue.”

The design finalists’ works were displayed in the Goodman lobby. Mia Ruiz took home the top prize in the design component of the competition.

“I was super surprised,” said Ruiz, a freshman at ASPIRA Early College High School. “It was life-changing. I feel like I’ve been a part of a lot of things with the community, but I never got an award for it.”

The Oak Park resident chose Rose Maxson from “Fences.”

“We had to write about how we connect our work to the character through principles of design, elements of design, and just talk about why we chose to put what we put in our pieces,” she said. Ruiz connected with the character of Rose on a familial level. Just as Rose stays with men who have hurt her, Ruiz said her mother did the same thing when Ruiz was younger.

Ruiz said she’s looking forward to participating in the competition next school year. So does Rhodes. A first for them this time around, both said August Wilson is in their lives now.

“This program has changed the way I see everything now,” Ruiz said. “Things like this are more for the experience, not for what you get.” Each finalist received bound copies of Wilson’s body of work, which Ruiz said she is going to read more in-depth.

Rhodes said she didn’t know much about August Wilson prior to the contest — she had only seen him on Black History Month posters. Now she is all about recommending other youths join in on the competition next year.

“I would definitely recommend taking a chance on yourself and putting yourself out there and doing this program,” Rhodes said. “At our school, at least in my English classes, I really haven’t learned much about August Wilson. Doing this competition has given me so much appreciation for his work and his legacy and just getting to learn about who he was as a person and what he stood for. It just gives me so much inspiration for future Black playwrights and getting to meet other Black people in theater has been so inspirational.”

Goodman Theatre’s CEO and executive director Roche Edward Schulfer said he started working with Wilson in 1986 and had a wonderful experience with him, so he considers hosting the New Voices competition as a way to promote and continue his legacy, a gift. Wilson’s “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” will be on stage at the Albert Theatre at the Goodman in 2024.

“August Wilson is America’s greatest playwright,” Schulfer said. “And with all due respect to other great American playwrights, there’s no body of work like his 10 plays.”

drockett@chicagotribune.com