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| A
strong monologue is an important tool to have in the industry.
A monologue allows an actor the opportunity to show off their
abilities. When selecting a monologue, be sure to chose one
that is appropriate for your age group, fits the part you are
auditioning for, (ie. dramatic role = dramatic monologue) and
select a monologue that is engaging. Don't just read a speech,
have a monologue that is interesting, exciting, and grabs the
attention of your audience. Below are some examples of a monologue.
To find more, go to your local library, they will usually have
many books with an available monologue. |
Examples
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Men - comedy
My wife is dumb. Quite dumb. I admit, I noticed it before we
were married. I couldn't help noticing it, of course, but it
didn't seem to make so much difference to me then as it does
now. I considered her beauty, and her property, and thought
of nothing but the advantages of the match and the happiness
I should have with her. But now these matters seem less important,
and I do wish she could talk; that would be a real intellectual
pleasure for me, and, what's more, a practical advantage for
the household. What does a judge need most in his house? Why,
a good-looking wife, to receive the suitors pleasantly, and,
by subtle suggestions, gently bring them to the point of making
proper presents, so that their cases may receive--more careful
attention. People need to be encouraged to make proper presents.
A woman, by clever speech and prudent action, can get a good
ham from one, and a roll of cloth from another; and make still
another give poultry or wine. But this poor dumb thing Catherine
gets nothing at all. While my fellow judges have their kitchens
and cellars and stables and store-rooms running over with good
things, all thanks to their wives, I hardly get wherewithal
to keep the pot boiling. You see, Master Adam Fumée,
what I lose by having a dumb wife. I'm not worth half as much.
. . . And the worst of it is, I'm losing my spirits, and almost
my wits, with it all. When I hold my wife in my arms--a woman
as beautiful as the finest carved statue, at least so I think--and
quite as silent, that I'm sure of--it makes me feel queer and
uncanny; I even ask myself if I'm holding a graven image or
a mechanical toy, or a magic doll made by a sorcerer, not a
real human child of our Father in Heaven; sometimes, in the
morning, I am tempted to jump out of bed to escape from bewitchment.
Worse yet! What with having a dumb wife, I'm going dumb myself.
Sometimes I catch myself using signs, as she does. The other
day, on the Bench, I even pronounced judgment in pantomime,
and condemned a man to the galleys, just by dumb show and gesticulation!
- by: Anatole France
Men - dramatic
Look at those nasty scoundrels, those blue toads, those idiotic
fools! Just because they're titled, they think they can make
laws for free men! Bourgeois! The moment four of them gather
together, they form committees and spoil good paper with their
rules and regulations! "Show your papers!" As if we
had to have their permission, their signatures, and the rest
of it, to defend ourselves when we're attacked! Let every one
protect himself! It's shameful to think a man has to let some
one else defend him! They tried to make us give up our muskets,
and throw us into prison. Can't do that! And those other fools,
who think they're being betrayed, and at the first injunction,
throw up a barricade out of respect for the constituted authorities
and the moneyed classes! They're used to serving, and I suppose
they can't get over their old habits in a day. Luckily, there
are other wandering dogs like me, who haven't any home, and
respect nothing. Well, I'll stay here and keep guard. By God,
they won't take our Paris! Never mind if I haven't a thing to
my name, it belongs to us all, and we're going to hold on to
it. Yesterday, I didn't have any idea of all this. What was
this city to me, where I hadn't a blessed hole to crawl into
when it rained, or a place to get a crust of bread? What did
I care about it? What did I care about any one's happiness or
sorrow? But now everything's changed. I've got a part to play;
I feel that everything belongs just a little to me: their houses,
their money, and their thoughts--I must watch over them; they
are working for me. Everybody is equal, equal and free. God,
I always felt that, but I couldn't say it. Free! I'm a vagabond,
I'm hungry, but I don't care: I'm free. Free! It makes my chest
swell--it does! I'm a king. It's as if I was drunk; by head's
turned--though I haven't had a drop. What is it? It's glory!
- by: Romain Rolland
Kids - universal
It's a matter of PROPORTION, that's what it is; and when you
come to gauge a thing's speed by its size, where's your bird
and your man and your railroad, alongside of a flea? The fastest
man can't run more than about ten miles in an hour -- not much
over ten thousand times his own length. But all the books says
any common ordinary third-class flea can jump a hundred and
fifty times his own length; yes, and he can make five jumps
a second too -- seven hundred and fifty times his own length,
in one little second -- for he don't fool away any time stopping
and starting -- he does them both at the same time; you'll see,
if you try to put your finger on him. Now that's a common, ordinary,
third-class flea's gait; but you take an Eye-talian FIRST-class,
that's been the pet of the nobility all his life, and hasn't
ever known what want or sickness or exposure was, and he can
jump more than three hundred times his own length, and keep
it up all day, five such jumps every second, which is fifteen
hundred times his own length. Well, suppose a man could go fifteen
hundred times his own length in a second -- say, a mile and
a half. It's ninety miles a minute; it's considerable more than
five thousand miles an hour. Where's your man NOW? -- yes, and
your bird, and your railroad, and your balloon? Laws, they don't
amount to shucks 'longside of a flea. A person can learn them
'most anything; and they learn it quicker than any other creature,
too. They've been learnt to haul little carriages in harness,
and go this way and that way and t'other way according to their
orders; yes, and to march and drill like soldiers, doing it
as exact, according to orders, as soldiers does it. They've
been learnt to do all sorts of hard and troublesome things.
S'pose you could cultivate a flea up to the size of a man, and
keep his natural smartness a-growing and a-growing right along
up, bigger and bigger, and keener and keener, in the same proportion
-- where'd the human race be, do you reckon? That flea would
be President of the United States, and you couldn't any more
prevent it than you can prevent lightning. - by: Mark Twain
Women - dramatic
I am the cousin of the unhappy child who was murdered, or rather
his sister, for I was educated by, and have lived with his parents
ever since and even long before his birth. It may, therefore,
be judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion. But
when I see a fellow-creature about to perish through the cowardice
of her pretended friends, I wish to be allowed to speak, that
I may say what I know of her character. I am well acquainted
with the accused. I have lived in the same house with her, at
one time for five and at another for nearly two years. During
all that period she appeared to me the most amiable and benevolent
of human creatures. She nursed Madame Frankenstein, my aunt,
in her last illness, with the greatest affection and care. And
afterward attended her own mother during a tedious illness,
in a manner that excited the admiration of all who knew her,
after which she again lived in my uncle's house, where she was
beloved by all the family. She was warmly attached to the child
who is now dead, and acted toward him like a most affectionate
mother. For my own part, I do not hesitate to say that, notwithstanding
all the evidence produced against her, I believe and rely on
her perfect innocence. She had no temptation for such an action.
As to the bauble on which the chief proof rests, if she had
earnestly desired it, I should have willingly given it to her,
so much do I esteem and value her. - by: Mary Shelley
Women - comedy
Well, Tommy has proposed to me again. Tommy really does nothing
but propose to me. He proposed to me last night in the music-room,
when I was quite unprotected, as there was an elaborate trio
going on. I didn't dare to make the smallest repartee, I need
hardly tell you. If I had, it would have stopped the music at
once. Musical people are so absurdly unreasonable. They always
want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is
longing to be absolutely deaf. Then he proposed to me in broad
daylight this morning, in front of that dreadful statue of Achilles.
Really, the things that go on in front of that work of art are
quite appalling. The police should interfere. At luncheon I
saw by the glare in his eye that he was going to propose again,
and I just managed to check him in time by assuring him that
I was a bimetallist. Fortunately I don't know what bimetallism
means. And I don't believe anybody else does either. But the
observation crushed Tommy for ten minutes. He looked quite shocked.
And then Tommy is so annoying in the way he proposes. If he
proposed at the top of his voice, I should not mind so much.
That might produce some effect on the public. But he does it
in a horrid confidential way. When Tommy wants to be romantic
he talks to one just like a doctor. I am very fond of Tommy,
but his methods of proposing are quite out of date. I wish,
Gertrude, you would speak to him, and tell him that once a week
is quite often enough to propose to any one, and that it should
always be done in a manner that attracts some attention. - by:
Oscar Wild |
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