22 replies to this topic

[DanBuck]

I'm holding auditions this year that will be a deviation from the norm for us. I'm having a "Getting to know you" cattle call audition where anyone interested in being in the fall play or spring play may audition. We have not chosen the shows yet because we have SOOO many new kids (65% increase in the high school)we're really unsure of the talent pool from which we're pulling.

so we'll be distributing monologues a week before the auditions for students to memorize and perform. I'd like a comic and serious for both male and female (so four total).

Ideas? Looking for VERY short.

Lucy's "Queen" speech from You're a Good Man - and Charlie Brown's Lunch Bag routine would both be good for the comic.

others?

[Persona]

Oedipus. Lear.

-s.

[Jason Bortz]

How short is very short? A minute? 30 seconds?

[The Baptist Death Ray]

Make them all recite the St. Crispin's Day monologue.

In esperanto.

Edited by The Baptist Death Ray, 16 August 2005 - 10:24 AM.

[DanBuck]

A minute would be about right. Maybe even 45 seconds.

[Jason Bortz]

You do realize that actors hate monologues under a minute?

[DanBuck]

I'm sorry, I lost interest in your message halfway thru.

[Jason Bortz]

Oh, you're such a

[AtticScripts]

Finding the right monologue is tough, especially for people who refuse to read plays. Avoid monologue books - especially ones that aren't pulling the speeches from plays.

They need to be talking to someone else on stage, not the audience. Soliloquies are tricky, and I usually don't like to see them in auditions - I'd rather see them react to stimuli from other characters (even if they're inventing the other actors...).

I haven't properly auditioned for a play in ages. But for some reason, a monologue I used to audition for a Shakespeare play about 6 years ago sticks in my head like nothing I've ever memorized (and I did get the part, by the way). I pulled a bit of Polonius out of Hamlet - Act 2 Scene 2 starting with "My Liege and Madam, to expostulate what majesty should be" which does include Brevity is the Soul of wit. It was a lot of fun to play, and gave me lots of dynamics to play off of with "Claudius" and "Gertrude" with me up there. I later actually played Hamlet, and was somewhat disappointed that I wasn't in that scene (being in almost all of the others helped soothe that wound).

My acting students always make the mistake of choosing a speech where they can't connect to what the character is desperately trying to say - and usually is desperately trying not to. They just recite. Which is boring, even when it's only 30 seconds.

[Robinflamingo]

The "Please God Please, don't let me be NORMAL" Luisa speech from The Fantasticks for the girls.

I'm still thinkin'....

[gengwall]

My daughter just auditioned at a couple of acting conservatories where they asked for two monologues. They wanted one classic, one contemporary. One comic, one dramatic. She chose Blanche in "Streetcar..." telling Stella off about losing the family fortune. That was a really powerful piece, but it was only about 1:20. The comic/classical piece was from Molere's "The Misanthrope." There are a lot of short (under 1:30) "little speeches" in Molere's plays. She chose this from about 5 that she was considering.

So, those are some thoughts. Most of the online searches I have gone through follow AtticScripts suggestion - i.e. they are an extended speech directed at another character(s) rather than your classic Hamlet "To be or not..."

[Overstreet]

If you were going to give a famous dramatic monologue to an audience of churchgoers, to inspire or challenge them, and to provoke discussion, what might you choose?

(Yes, this question is related to the thread on great speeches I just started.)

[Darrel Manson]

The first that comes to mind (with an audience of churchgoers) is Arthur's internal debate about what to do about Lance and Gwen in Camelot. It's straight out of Hosea.

Or perhaps piece together some selections from Twain's Diaries of Adam and Eve.

[Phantom_of_the_Forum]

One of the best suggestions ever given to me was to use literature as sources for monologues.

You can find great, narrative passages that are new and fresh.

For example, I have found two excellent pieces from "My Name is Asher Lev" by Chaim Potok and one in "Trinity" by Leon Uris.

One of the pieces from "Asher Lev" tells of the first time Asher viewed a piece of art that moved him to tears. It is rich and emotional - a great way to showcase your talent, IMHO.

So, if your looking for something out of the ordinary, pick up a classic book and read it with that in mind.

[mrmando]

Sorry, as far as auditions go, that's bad advice. If you're auditioning for a play, you should use a monologue from a play. Many directors will not give you a second look if your monologue is from non-dramatic literature.

Plays are written to be performed; books are written to be read. (I won't go as far as Peter, who disdains the idea of reading Shakespeare as literature for this reason.) If you can't think of a good monologue from a play, you simply need to see, hear, or read more plays.

And you should choose a monologue from a play that you have read, or at least seen. If you don't know the whole play, then you don't know how the monologue fits within it, and you will quite likely make dramatic choices in the monologue that make no sense in the context of the play. (I think back to an acting class I was in ... one of the other fellows, a musical-theatre type, did a scene from Night of the Iguana and played Rev. Shannon as a young, idealistic ingenue. Either he hadn't read the play, or ingenue was all he could do.)

Now, if you are preparing a monologue for an audience, not an audition, and you wish to choose something from non-dramatic literature, go right ahead.

Edited by mrmando, 16 November 2007 - 11:43 AM.

[Phantom_of_the_Forum]

Hmmm... well, perhaps I wasn't clear.

I didn't mean to suggest that you just pick any section out of a book. Certainly not a 3rd person section. That would not be good. What I recommend looking for is first person narration.

Generally, what is a monologue but the relating of a story by a character in the first person. There are many first person sections in literature that are that.

I am a director myself and have auditioned many people. When I look to cast someone I want to see in their audition verisimilitude, technique, depth in their character ... among other things.

I really wouldn't focus on whether or not they were using a piece from a play or not. Any director that would write off an audition strictly on that fact would not be a very good director, in my opinion. They would probably miss out on some great talent.

I guess I will qualify this for use in "the real world". In a school or university setting, this might be an issue.

If you would like, I could attach the section I use from Chaim Potok so you could see what I mean. I wouldn't dismiss this completely.

Edited by Phantom_of_the_Forum, 15 November 2007 - 08:43 PM.

[mrmando]

Generally, what is a monologue but the relating of a story by a character in the first person.

It doesn't have to tell a story to be a good monologue.

I really wouldn't focus on whether or not they were using a piece from a play or not. Any director that would write off an audition strictly on that fact would not be a very good director, in my opinion.

If it comes down to a choice between two or more equally talented people, it would seem wise to most directors to choose the actor who seems more familiar with dramatic literature, on the theory that he/she is also more familiar with the forms and conventions of the theatre.

They would probably miss out on some great talent.

Great talent isn't much good if it is undisciplined. And, actors are rarely chosen for roles on talent alone.

I guess I will qualify this for use in "the real world".

How many people show up at TPS generals with a monologue from a book?

Edited by mrmando, 16 November 2007 - 11:38 AM.

[DanBuck]

You're BOTH wrong. If you really want to impress at an audition... use an ORIGINAL monologue! That kills every time!

[mrmando]

You're BOTH wrong. If you really want to impress at an audition... use an ORIGINAL monologue! That kills every time!

Agree, with insertion of the words "any chance you might have" ...

[John Drew]

I was one of the co-founders and tech director of The Little Bus Players, a family theatre troupe in Sacramento, and for the first three years of our existence my artistic director John and myself would sacrifice a weekend for an annual, city wide open audition held for all local theatres. Each auditioner was given 6 minutes in which they could perform two contrasting monologues and a sixteen bar musical piece. Add time to get an auditioner on and off stage, and this would average out to about 1 audition every 8 minutes, multiplied by an aveage of 150 auditioners. This made for a very looooong weekend. Yet, some of the most painful auditions are the things that can put a smile on my face. Here are some criteria for what should and should not be done at an audition (all examples were witnessed by myself)...

1. Don't use current pop songs as your sixteen bar musical piece. Artistic directors want to hear Sondheim, Rodgers and Hammerstein, or Gilbert and Sullivan - they don't want to hear Will Smith's "Wild Wild West", Britney Spears "Ooops I Did It Again", or U2's "Beautiful Day".

2. Look up the word "contrasting", then you'll avoid doing two monologues in a row by Shakespeare or Neil Simon.

3. Do not take monologues from movies, especially John Turturro's "I can't die, out here in the woods, like a dumb animal..." scene from Miller's Crossing, and then contrast it with Quentin Tarrentino's dissertation on the hidden meaning behind Madonna's song "Like a Virgin" from Resevoir Dogs. This is a bad idea... it does not reflect well on your abilities when your scenery chewing is bigger than Turturro's in the former, and your acting skills are worse than Quentin's in the latter. Movie monologues just don't work, as most people tend to imitate the movie version rather than come up with a different take.

4. Don't dress in costume. Ren-Faire wardrobe may work well for Shakespeare, but is a bit out of place for Mamet.

5. If you are going to perform Shakespeare, take the time to look up words like "vouchsafe" or "contumely" or "quietus"... nothing reveals an unprepared audioner quicker than mispronounced words, or inflections that betray the fact that a person has no idea what they are reciting.

John and I would seperate auditioners into 3 categories. The A-list - the B-List - and the CTR-list. What is CTR, you ask? Community Theatre Rejects. Guess which one was the fullest at the end of the weekend.

Edited by Baal_T'shuvah, 25 January 2008 - 12:07 PM.