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Damaris Vizvett's performance Monday night at the Mark Taper Forum in downtown Los Angeles brought many in the audience near tears -- an accomplishment for any actor, but particularly for a 17-year-old high school senior.
Her emotional performance earned her first place in first place in the regional August Wilson Monologue Competition and a trip to New York to compete for the national award, one of the country's most prestigious prizes for young actors.
Students performed monologues from Wilson's collection of 10 plays examining the African-American experience over each decade of the 20th century. In Vizvett's monologue from Wilson's play "Seven Guitars," her character, Vera, is confronting her former boyfriend who, after cheating on her with another woman, has come crawling back.
"I went across a lot of different monologues and this one just stuck out for me," said Vizvett, who attends Henry J. Kaiser High School in Fontana Unified School District. "Just her wanting to tell him how she felt and how she was hurt. It made me cry, just reading the words off the page and I thought, ''I can do this. I know how this feels.' "
Vizvett will go on to compete in the national finals in May at the August Wilson Theatre in New York.
Samuel Christian, of Los Angeles County School of the Arts, came in second and Aryana Williams, who attends the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, placed third. Though taking home the top prizes is a great accomplishment, all students valued the opportunity to train as actors and celebrate a prolific playwright.
Vizvett is passionate about acting and says she can't imagine pursuing anything else as a career. She said the experience has given her a deeper appreciation of Wilson's work and the job that actors have.
For some of the contestants, this was their first foray in the world of acting. KPCC profiled some of those students earlier this week. Find that story here.