Photo: Ireon Roach (center) with Danielle Chmielewski and Tevion Devin Lanier, the top three contestants at the Chicago August Wilson Monologue Competition. 

Chicago Public School student Ireon Roach was awarded first place in the National August Wilson Monologue Competition, which was held May 2 at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway in New York City. A student of Nicholas Senn High School, Roach also won first place in the Chicago competition, which included a $500 scholarship and expenses paid for the final competition in New York.

Roach is junior at Senn Arts, a part of American Theater Company’s Youth Ensemble, a company member of The Yard, and serves on the Youth Council at Writers Theatre. She is currently performing in Dry Land at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and was recently seen in Milk Like Sugar with The Yard and Raven Theatre. Other credits include Metamorphoses, and Our America: Ghetto Life 101/Remorse. Roach recently won the 2016 Indy Poet Finals for Louder Than a Bomb.

While in New York, the finalists worked closely with two of Wilson’s closest collaborators— director Kenny Leon and dramaturg Todd Kreidler. Roach will receive a cash prize and is eligible for additional college scholarship opportunities.

For more information on the Chicago competition, visit: http://chicagoplays.com/august-wilson-monologue-competition.html.