It’s happened to us before and most of the time, the first comment after is “they can’t follow directions.” If the audition calls for a one minute monologue, do not show up with a three to five minute monologue. No list of past productions.While there’s not a “golden list” of monologues that an actor should choose from, there are some tips that can help you pick the best monologue for your audition: If you don’t even know where to start, Adam Szymkowicz has interviewed 1,000 playwrights for you here:Ĭheck out past productions of theaters that champion new plays. Perhaps a library near you or at your school has (or could be petitioned to get) all these resources. The rest of the website acts as a wealth of compiled resources - audio plays, video collections, lists (!), publishing companies. I haven’t found much success with the monologue finder, but give it a whirl! You can enter in specifics about your character, the playwright, the genre, etc. Filtering database of material with a monologue finder. Everything leads back to Caryl Churchill, I swear.ĭrama Online. Use this to your advantage until you end up in a K-hole. Again, know your audience.īook databases (Google Books, Amazon, GoodReads…) have a “People Who Searched for This Book Also Liked XYZ” section. If the material is that good, we can forgive the source. Julie Klausner’s “How Was Your Week?” and “Getting On with James Urbaniak.” I hardly get to use them, but when I do, they kill. My favorite monologues are from podcasts.
MONOLOGUE FOR AUDITION FREE
Sometimes there are free book giveaways too. Staff will make copies of unpublished plays for a small donation, and will even send electronically if you cannot make it to NYC. Some of my greatest finds were from perusing the dusty shelves of Half Price Books. American Theatre Critics Association Awards. They’re artists too, looking for love and recognition. I have had playwrights send me their unpublished scripts. Most playwrights have agents or websites with contact information. (Note: If a play doesn’t have a character breakdown, please burn it for the rest of us.) For $7/year you can read new plays by lesser-known contemporary playwrights before anyone else. The National New Play Network operates the New Play Exchange. You should be able to search subjects like “Drama - Childhood” to find all the plays about mothers abusing their kids or “Drama - Comedy, Cooking, Appalachia” about a happy family cooking opossum in the hills. Uncover the mysteries of the library catalog. If your library doesn’t have that play, request it!īefriend your librarian. It sources libraries near you that have the plays/playwrights you’re looking for. If you don’t read it that way, ask yourself why. The ideal monologue covers a range of emotions, it’s own mini-play. Annie Baker’s “Ladder” monologue from The Aliens works great in the show, but out of context, my eyes roll back into my head and down my throat and now you have to deal with a choking victim mid-performance. There’s a genre of gag monologues: talking really fast, lists, repetition. A Shakespearean physical comedy and a contemporary psychological thriller.
When finding contrasting monologues, be smart. I know you’re the next Meryl Streep, but the first time you meet someone, would you rather they were laughing or crying? I’ll wait.
Show variety.Ĭomedic monologues will always be better audition pieces. Your character is fighting for her life at this moment.ĭon’t do a monologue from the show you’re auditioning for. If you’re auditioning for a historically black theater, you better bring in monologues written by black playwrights. There are playwrights that aren’t straight white men. The history of the Western world was written by white men. There’s a fine line between obscure and overdone. rant from Samuel A Taylor’s 1954 Sabrina Fair at an audition freshman year of college. But you can change!Īs someone who performed a confounding Larabee Sr. Word to the wise: if you have trouble finding good material, you’re not reading enough good material. It requires one to have a voice and responsibility for the things they say. Most actors hate it because it requires more out of them than looking pretty and saying words with emotions. If that doesn’t suit you, the ticket into the art form that most demands collaboration comes in the confusing form of a tiny one-person show. We should do away with this whole rigamarole and go back to repertory theaters with acting companies anyway.
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