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Announcing Hole in the Wall Theaters first ever Be Scene! Monologue Competition! The Be Scene! Monologue Competition is a contest for who can deliver the best monologues from plays, musicals, movies, novels, and compilations. Competitors will be divided into two brackets split by 17 and under and 18 and over, and vetted by our first panel of judges via video submissions of two contrasting monologues. From there, the ten best of each bracket will go head to head with each other live on our stage, judged by four prominent members of the Connecticut theater world and YOU, the audience! The top three winners in each bracket will receive prizes upwards of $100.
Video submissions will begin being accepted on December 1st, and will be accepted until December 22nd. Finals will be on January 10th. To submit your monologue fill out this Google Form: https://forms.gle/vUJsi2oRrG4QSs4A8
Meet The Judges!
Molly Esther Wilson is an actress and influencer based in Northwest CT. She is the Education Manager at The Warner Theatre and a resident Teaching Artist at the Bushnell Performing Arts Center. She graduated from the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts in 2010 as a part of the first ever Musical Theater department class. At 17, she moved to NYC to launch her career and pursue higher education. Throughout college, Molly worked as a Wardrobe Supervisor off-Broadway, a seamstress for the Pace University Costume Shop, and tutored Shakespeare and Literature studies. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Pace University in 2014 and continued to work in NYC and Philadelphia before returning to CT just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. She has performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, in many independent films, and on television. Her most notable performance awards are “Best Actress 2018” at the prestigious Thespis Theater Festival NYC and “Best Actress: North America 2021” at the esteemed International Alternative Film Festival. She was nominated for the “Performing Arts Star Award” at the Cheer Choice Awards 2024 for her relentless pursuit to spread positivity on social media. Molly currently has more than 121,500 followers on TikTok (@itsmollyesther) with numerous brand partnerships including DirectTV and Paramount Plus. Her photo is used in Sephora stores nationwide and has been featured on billboards in Times Square and Las Vegas. Films and television shows she’s starred in have been released on Amazon Prime, Tubi and Apple TV.
She is thrilled to have come full circle, working at the very theatre where she performed as a child and adolescent. Molly loves bringing arts education to a whole new generation in her community, and beyond.
Mike Nowicki holds a BFA in Acting from the Experimental Theater Wing at the TISCH School of the Arts at New York University. Additionally, he studied Commedia dell’Arte and improvisation at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California and has workshopped with diverse groups and disciplines ranging from improvisation with Second City Theatre Company to Viewpoints with Saratoga International Theatre Institute. Mike’s performing experience is seasoned with numerous professional acting credits, including 5 mainstage productions and 15 staged readings at Hartford Stage, where he worked directly with 2 Pulitzer Prize winning dramatists. He was a member of the repertory company at the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival for 25 years, performing title roles and directing outdoor Shakespeare.
As an educator, Mike’s teaching base is the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, where he currently serves as Core Faculty in Theater for their high school Pre-Professional Program and as the Director of the Arts for their middle school. His experience was built through service on many local faculties including the University of Hartford, the School of the Hartford Ballet, and the Hartford Conservatory, where he served as Dean of Musical Theater during his 8 year affiliation with the college. He was the Artistic Director of the elaborate Theater Program at Simsbury High School for 10 years and ran a summer arts camp at the Ethel Walker School for 8 years. Mike's work has allowed him to travel the world, with stops including Iceland, Cape Verde and Russia, where he spent 3 weeks as a guest artist at the Diaghilev School of the Arts. He frequently directs productions and leads technique workshops for high schools, colleges and professional theater companies across the country. Mike received a National Artist Teacher Fellowship in 2014, which he used to train in new theatrical devising methods, and then developed and presented Six Chambers, an original immersive theater piece about Hartford and its history, which premiered in the abandoned rooms of the former Colt Firearms Factory. During the pandemic, Mike used his ample free time to complete online courses in Shakespeare through Harvard University and Social Emotional Learning through Yale University.
Mike’s students can be seen on Broadway and in major regional theatres, in leading roles on network and streaming series, in film and other print work, working in all forms of artistic endeavor, as well as happily leading classrooms, families and satisfying personal lifes. He is pleased to be in a theater so close to one of his greatest culinary inspirations, Capitol Lunch!
Brian Jennings is a Connecticut based actor, director and teacher. He was recently appointed to a tenure track position at the Hartt School, having served on the Adjunct Faculty since 2015, and at the College of Arts & Sciences from 1999-2015. He was a longtime member of the Core Faculty at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, serving as Theater Department Head from 2017-2023. As a member of Hartbeat Ensemble, he has developed roles in Flipside, Comply, and most recently, Sleepover Stories. He directed multiple incarnations of Ebeneeza: A Hartford Holiday Carol and collaborated with musician Samite Mulondo to develop his autobiographical solo show, Resilience. He directed the world premiere of Talvin Wilks’ Jimmy and Lorraine: A Musing, as well as subsequent productions at the Ko Festival and Pillsbury House in Minneapolis. His adaptation, RAVE: The Bacchae of Euripides - Remixed was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He performed on multiple tours with the National Theater of the Deaf as a voicing actor and playwright. He has played the roles of Oberon, Malvolio and Macbeth as part of Artfarm’s Shakespeare in the Grove. He was named Teacher of the Year by the International Network of Performing and Visual Arts Schools in 2004. He has been the recipient of a Surdna Arts Teacher Fellowship and the Gordon Clark Ramsey Award for Sustained Creative Achievement. He has participated in teaching artist exchanges with colleagues in Cape Verde and South Africa. He holds degrees from Princeton University and the National Theater Conservatory. He lives in Bolton, CT with his wife, Eileen.
Fourth Judge to be announced soon
The audience will count as the 5th judge.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
116 Main Street, New Britain, CT, United States, Connecticut 06051
