Acting Monologue

Got a big audition coming up? Looking for that edge that will set you apart from the rest? Choosing the right monologue – and knowing how to deliver it – is crucial. Follow the five steps outlined below to help you find exactly the right piece for you.

1) Read the whole play before settling on a monologue.
Make sure you’re choosing the role, and not just the speech. Monologues don’t exist in a vacuum – they have a context, and should be treated as such. While it is critical to your performance that your monologue appeal to you in and of itself, it is also important that you choose a role you’d be comfortable playing in context (i.e., in a production of the full-length play). Your performance should reflect the monologue’s place in this full-length play – in other words, you should deliver it as you would in a full-length performance, instead of treating it as an isolated piece.

2) Choose a role that is realistic and appropriate for you.
We’ve just discussed the notion that a monologue has context as part of a full-length play. You’re not just reciting words: you’re playing a part. When choosing your monologue, put yourself in the casting director’s shoes: choose a part that is believable for you. Consider things like age, gender, and physical type, as well as more subtle and subjective things like personality attributes. Remember that the playwright wrote these words for a particular type of character, and as such, they really only make sense for that character. Most directors will have a broad knowledge of dramatic literature – you have to assume that they may already be familiar with the play from which your monologue is drawn, and will be judging your performance based on this pre-existing knowledge. Don’t try to bend or adapt the monologue to suit you – there is enough material out there that you should be able to find something that doesn’t require doctoring.

3) A monologue should have a dramatic arc.
While all monologues have context, some of them are also, very simply, great speeches. Hamlet’s “to be or not to be;” Julius Caesar’s “friends, Romans, countrymen;” Lady Macbeth’s “out, out, damned spot” – there is a good reason why these speeches are considered shining examples of the monologue form. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end – in that order. As simplistic a rule as that may seem, it is vitally important that a monologue demonstrate a forward motion – a shift from here to there. It must have a specific motivation – to comfort, to inspire, to chastise, to convince, to resolve – and must move logically towards accomplishing the desired end. A good monologue will take your audience on this journey with you, leaving all of you in a different emotional place at the conclusion than where you began. Remember: a one-minute monologue with a full dramatic arc is always better than a three-minute monologue which is a repetitive list (you’ll find a lot of these in the classical Greek canon, and in Shakespeare, where such lists are often a poetic convention).

4) Choose contrasting monologues.
For most auditions (especially those for schools and training programs), you will be asked to prepare two monologues: one classical and one contemporary. The classical monologue is traditionally taken from Shakespeare, but it is perfectly acceptable to choose something from one of his contemporaries – or from the classical Greek or French canons, for instance. The important thing is to make sure that your monologues contrast with each other as much as possible: the point of the audition is to demonstrate your range.

* Your classical monologue will very likely be written in verse, and your contemporary monologue in prose. Even where this is not the case, be sure to choose two pieces with different writing styles: you are trying to show off your dexterity with language.

* If possible, choose one soliloquy (an “interior” monologue, where one is talking to oneself, usually in order to work out a problem – a good example is Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” speech) and one monologue which addresses either another character onstage or the audience. If you can’t find a soliloquy you like, that’s OK – but no matter what, never choose two monologues that address the audience (these are known as “direct address.”)

* Don’t be afraid of histrionics (“big” emotion) – but if you do choose to do a melodramatic piece, try also to choose a piece which is quieter and more subtle. It’s less important to bowl your audience over with sound and fury than it is to show them that you can put yourself inside your character’s skin.

5) No monologue should last longer than three minutes.
A good audition monologue is like a good cover letter: it should be short, sweet, and to the point. And like a good cover letter, it should have a “hook” at the beginning and move over a set of specific points toward a strong conclusion. No matter how attached you may be to the details of your monologue, they will be lost on your audience if you insist on including all of them. Cut, cut, cut – don’t feel obligated to use the whole speech; find a good ending place and stick to it. You want to give yourself enough time to demonstrate your range, but don’t be afraid to keep it short. Longer monologues are not necessarily better monologues: in an audition, quality is much more important than quantity. The idea is to pique your audience’s interest – then if they truly want more, they’ll ask you for it.