Monologues

Monologues are the thorn in the ass of most actors. You have to find one that fits your type, but then you grow out of that type and have to find a new one. It's always good to have a funny one and a serious one. In my experience, you don't need a monologue for 99% of the auditions you will be going on. Casting Directors will be seeing thousands of people and don't want to spend 2 minutes on each person hearing them do something their college professor said fit them perfectly. Even the theater auditions I've gone on would rather you learn from the script than come in and do something that doesn't fit the role you are coming in for.

But again... There will come a time that you will need it. And it is hard to find something in a moments notice.

I've found in my experience that selecting the perfect monologue is impossible. You can't have something that everyone has heard before, because they will tune you out the moment you announce the name. This is typical of most Shakespeare monologues. But you also don't want something that came out of a book full of monologues, because you are expected to know the specific play your monologue is from, and those aren't from plays.

You wanna know what I like to do? I like to write my own monologues and pretend they are from plays.

Not pretend. Act.

I found that the words I felt most passionate about delivering were usually my own, and even if the writing was only decent, I could sell it a little harder than someone could read it. As long as I convincingly said what "play" it was from, I was never questioned. Sometimes, if there was a group of people casting, some might even nod like they had heard of the play before, regardless of the fact that the play didn't exist until about 12 hours ago, and even then, there is only two minutes of it saved and written down on my hard drive.

I love writing. I used to only write from my perspective, but when that got repetitive, I began to think of my friends, and what they go through, and how I would think internally from there shoes. I write for people that don't have a way of communicating their own feelings.

What I will provide through this blog is a library of monologues you can use. I will write funny ones, insightful ones, serious ones, anything I think people could use. I don't see a point in charging money for them. I don't expect the average working actor to have much. If you do use one, just let me know in the comments sections. Have fun with it! Say it is from your favorite play and make up the context. Use my name if you want, but my goal is to also make it in the industry, and if at some point (God willing) I do strike some level of success, then someone might have heard of me and will know I didn't write a full play by that title. I don't advocate lying, but if it's true that you are auditioning from the moment you walk into the door, then you must ACT from the moment you walk into the door.

If you have any requests about monologues you would like written, and for what character type, please ask! I would love a challenge.