Finding a monologue that is perfect for you will help you feel prepared and confident as an actor. The central crux, the drive of the monologue and the character delivering it, should resonate with you personally. Furthermore, it is important to decide what the monologue is more: the right monologue for the right situation. For example, I would not recommend busting out “To be or not to be…” if you were auditioning for a television sitcom (however it might be perfect for a drama audition.)

As you search, keep in mind the purpose of the monologue, as well as your age, gender and ethnicity. For most monologues it’s usually acceptable to take some artistic license and play around—within the realm of respect that doesn’t step into cultural appropriation. What will have people raising their eyebrows at you is, for example, if you are an eighteen-year-old actor performing a monologue about an old man reminiscing about the last 80 years of  his life. Or if you are a male-identifying actor doing a monologue about the labours of childbirth, and so forth. Sure, you could do this, but the more you can relate to the monologue you are performing, the better you will connect with it. 

Finding a Monologue

I am going to take a guess and say that you are trying to find a great monologue so that you can use it for an audition (for drama school, let’s say) or to use for a self-tape or competition. If so, there is always a debate of whether you should do a famous monologue that you like, or try and do something different and niche. This is a hard-hitting question with two sides to it.

Something New

On one hand, doing something different will help you stand out from the crowd—which can be important when you are competing for a role or a place at a drama school against dozens, if not hundreds, of other actors. Think of the person panelling drama school auditions, watching the same twenty monologues all day. If you come in with something new (with the acting skills to back it up) then you might just be a breath of fresh air for them. 

Another reason you may want to stay away from monologues everybody knows is because of comparison to the original. Take the famous monologue from A Few Good Men, where Jack Nicholson screams out, “You can’t handle the truth!” It’s a classic, a popular monologue and seems a like a solid choice to pick. So why should you avoid it? Because you are not Jack Nicolson (no offence), and you can bet that whomever you perform it in front of is going to make the same comparison.

Something Old

However, there are a few pros to doing a classic monologue. The more well-known and famous monologues have been done so often that there is a lot of information on them: clever interpretations, character breakdowns and methods to avoid performing them poorly. Right here on StageMilk, our Monologues Unpacked series looks at each Shakespearean monologue with expert detail. Even the dreaded “To be or not to be…”

Any research you can do will help develop a well-rounded view of the character and text. But remember that there’s no right or wrong way, just points you may wish to consider. If you are simply working on a monologue for pure fun, artistry or self expression, then feel free to ignore the above advice. Don’t let me, or others, stop you from working on something you enjoy. Experiment. Play!

Take a look at these links for some ideas: the latest WAAPA audition monologues as well as some classics for men and women.

Creating a Monologue Repertoire

A good actor is always prepared, and finding a monologue or two can aid you in being that kind of actor. An old acting coach of mine once told me that you should always have two, even three monologues prepared at all times, because you just never know when you will have to perform something unexpectedly. Believe me: you will thank yourself if you are ever in that situation and you have the perfect monologue (or any) already prepared. Ideally your repertoire will have one dramatic, one comedy, and one Shakespearean monologue. 

So let’s look at creating a monologue repertoire. The more diverse it is the better. My first tip is this:

The best way of finding a monologue is to read and watch content you enjoy. There is a good chance that you are going to spend a considerable amount of time learning and perfecting the monologue; by picking something you enjoy, you will be more likely to stick with its development and give it more passion when you perform. 

Do you need a better excuse to go out and watch theatre or stay home and have a movie night? Listed below though are various websites that contains monologues from different genres, plays, movies, and TV shows. 

Monologue Resources Online

• Opening Monologue has a section for both drama and comedy, and offers a search bar so you can find specific monologues you may be looking for.
• The Script Lab is an invaluable website if you are looking for great content to read. Although they do not specialise in monologues, they do have access to some awesome, well-known scripts. From Golden Eye, to Game of Thrones, to Avatar, to your favourite TV show, the basic (and free) membership is worth looking into if you are trying to read more quality content.
• Monologue Genie is a cool, niche little website that offers many unique and original monologues for performance and auditioning. You won’t find these monologues elsewhere, and although their selection isn’t huge by any means they are original and, if I may say so, worth while looking into. Each monologue also has an about section so you will get a general gist of what is happening. 
• Why Sanity is a strange, out-of-date-looking website that appears to be pulled out of the 90s. However, despite its baseness, I have found some of my favourite monologues on there. If you are looking to jump down a classic TV and movie monologue rabbit hole, this would be the place to start.
• Stage Agent has probably one of the most comprehensible monologue databases that I have ever seen. They have a “pro” version to help you search and find the exact monologue for your age range, but to be honest, the free version is more than fine. If you’re after something specific to you as a person, this database would be your first stop.
• You’d think that a website called Monologues would be a great place to find just that, and it is. They are specifically a good place to go when you want to challenge yourself as they specialise in much longer monologues. Some of them spanning up to 10 minutes! Maybe not ideal for an audition when time is limited, but great to get into for a good challenge.

StageMilk Monologue Resources

Finally, we have plenty of monologue resources right here on StageMilk! These selections have been hand-picked by our team over the years; we even have a newer page with original monologues written in-house—if you’re looking for something fresh.

• Monologues from Movies
• Monologues for Men
• Monologues for Women
• Comedic Monologues
• Monologues from TV Shows

And remember, our Scene Club works on monologues each month if you’re looking for some expert coaching and fresh selections!

Shakespeare Monologues

Is Shakespeare really so important that he gets his own section in this article? Of course he is. He is the absolute G.O.A.T. when it comes to monologues. He literally has hundreds, so how do you pick? Well, first thing you should do is to pick up Shakespeare and get reading. Am I trying to trick you into reading Shakespeare? Yes, yes I am. I am one of those old school weirdoes who believes that all actors should read, study and perform the works of the great poet and scribe? Also yes.

If you need help decoding the puzzle that is Shakespeare (or at least, that’s how it feels sometimes), we have plenty of resources at your fingertips so you can live and breathe your best 1600s self.

• Our Monologues Unpacked project, which provides breakdowns on every monologue in the Bard’s back catalogue.
• How to Read Shakespeare
• How to Act Shakespeare

As you can imagine, Shakespeare has what feels like an infinite selection of monologues to pick. I found the website below, coincidentally named “Shakespeare Monologues” that I believe is one of the more well organised selections of the topic on the world wide web. It doesn’t have the in-depth breakdowns we offer here on-site, but you will find each of his monologues put into different categories so that you can find the right one for you. Or you could read all the plays and go from there. Your choice. 

Final Monologue

I hope you have found some value in this pseudo-monologue (what are feature articles, but long-as-hell monologues?) If you need any hints, tips or tricks in regards to monologues in general, we have you covered. If I can leave you with one last tip: pick monologues that you enjoy. It is not often that you, as an actor, get the freedom to pick and choose the character, scenes and words that you wish to learn and perform. So go with your heart when it comes to picking your monologues. 

Good luck on your search, and learn well. 

The post How to Pick the Perfect Monologue appeared first on StageMilk.

Antony and Cleopatra Monologues

Cleopatra (Act 4, Scene 15)

No more but e’en a woman, and commanded
By such poor passion as the maid that milks
And does the meanest chares. It were for me
To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods
To tell them that this world did equal theirs
Till they had stolen our jewel. All’s but naught;
Patience is sottish, and impatience does
Become a dog that’s mad. Then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death
Ere death dare come to us? How do you, women?
What, what, good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian?
My noble girls! Ah, women, women! Look
Our lamp is spent, it’s out. Good sirs, take heart,
We’ll bury him, and then what’s brave, what’s noble,
Let’s do’t after the high Roman fashion
And make death proud to take us. Come, away.
This case of that huge spirit now is cold.
Ah, women, women! Come, we have no friend
But resolution and the briefest end.

Antony (Act 4, Scene 12)

All is lost!

This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me.
My fleet hath yielded to the foe, and yonder
They cast their caps up and carouse together
Like friends long lost. Triple-turned whore! ‘Tis thou
Hast sold me to this novice, and my heart
Makes only wars on thee. Bid them all fly!
For when I am revenged upon my charm,
I have done all. Bid them all fly! Be gone!

Exit SCARUS

O sun, thy uprise shall I see no more.
Fortune and Antony part here; even here
Do we shake hands. All come to this? The hearts
That spanieled me at heels, to whom I gave
Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets
On blossoming Caesar, and this pine is barked
That overtopped them all. Betrayed I am.
O this false soul of Egypt! This grave charm
Whose eye becked forth my wars and called them home,
Whose bosom was my crownet, my chief end,
Like a right gipsy hath at fast and loose,
Beguiled me to the very heart of loss.
What, Eros, Eros!

Cleopatra (Act 5, Scene 2)

Give me my robe. Put on my crown. I have
Immortal longings in me. Now no more
The juice of Egypt’s grape shall moist this lip.

Yare, yare, good Iras! Quick! Methinks I hear
Antony call. I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act. I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come!
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life. So, have you done?
Come, then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian. Iras, long farewell.

Have I the aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover’s pinch
Which hurts and is desired. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell’st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.

Antony (Act 4, Scene 14)

Enter Eros.

EROS
What would my lord?

ANTONY
Since Cleopatra died,
I have lived in such dishonour that the gods
Detest my baseness. I, that with my sword
Quartered the world and o’er green Neptune’s back
With ships made cities, condemn myself to lack
The courage of a woman; less noble mind
Than she which, by her death, our Caesar tells
‘I am conqueror of myself.’ Thou art sworn, Eros,
That when the exigent should come ― which now
Is come indeed ― when I should see behind me
Th’inevitable prosecution of
Disgrace and horror, that on my command
Thou then wouldst kill me. Do’t. The time is come.
Thou strik’st not me; ’tis Caesar thou defeat’st.
Put colour in thy cheek.

EROS
The gods withhold me!
Shall I do that which all the Parthian darts,
Though enemy, lost aim and could not?

ANTONY
Eros,
Wouldst thou be windowed in great Rome and see
Thy master thus with pleached arms, bending down
His corrigible neck, his face subdued
To penetrative shame, whilst the wheeled seat
Of fortunate Caesar, drawn before him, branded
His baseness that ensued?

EROS
I would not see’t.

ANTONY

Come, then! For with a wound I must be cured.
Draw that thy honest sword which thou hast worn
Most useful for thy country.

Enobarbus (Act 2, Scene 2)

I will tell you.
The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne,
Burned on the water; the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggared all description: she did lie
In her pavilion, cloth-of-gold of tissue,
O’erpicturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature. On each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling cupids,
With divers-coloured fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.

AGRIPPA
O, rare for Antony!

ENOBARBUS
Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides,
So many mermaids, tended her i’th’ eyes,
And made their bends adornings. At the helm
A seeming mermaid steers. The silken tackle
Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands
That yarely frame the office. From the barge
A strange invisible perfume hits the sense
Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast
Her people out upon her, and Antony,
Enthroned i’th’ market-place, did sit alone,
Whistling to th’air, which, but for vacancy,
Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra, too,
And made a gap in nature.

AGRIPPA
Rare Egyptian!

ENOBARBUS
Upon her landing, Antony sent to her;
Invited her to supper. She replied
It should be better he became her guest,
Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony,
Whom ne’er the word of ‘No’ woman heard speak,
Being barbered ten times o’er, goes to the feast,
And, for his ordinary, pays his heart
For what his eyes eat only.

AGRIPPA
Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
He ploughed her, and she cropped.

ENOBARBUS
I saw her once
Hop forty paces through the public street
And, having lost her breath, she spoke and panted,
That she did make defect perfection,
And, breathless, pour breath forth.

MAECENAS
Now Antony must leave her utterly.

ENOBARBUS
Never! He will not.
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety. Other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies; for vilest things
Become themselves in her, that the holy priests
Bless her when she is riggish.

Cleopatra (Act 5 Scene 2)

Conclusion

So there you have it. StageMilks favourite Antony and Cleopatra monologues. It’s a good idea to keep in mind that this play is a sequel of sorts to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and so if you’re going to perform one of these monologues, you should probably check out that play first and see the long history that goes with the territory of these characters.

For more Male and Female Shakespeare Monologues

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Two Gentlemen of Verona Monologues

Julia (Act IV Scene iv)

How many women would do such a message?
Alas, poor Proteus! thou hast entertain’d
A fox to be the shepherd of thy lambs.
Alas, poor fool! why do I pity him
That with his very heart despiseth me?
Because he loves her, he despiseth me;
Because I love him I must pity him.
This ring I gave him when he parted from me,
To bind him to remember my good will;
And now am I, unhappy messenger,
To plead for that which I would not obtain,
To carry that which I would have refused,
To praise his faith which I would have dispraised.
I am my master’s true-confirmed love;
But cannot be true servant to my master,
Unless I prove false traitor to myself.
Yet will I woo for him, but yet so coldly
As, heaven it knows, I would not have him speed.

Launce (Act II Scene iii)

Nay, ’twill be this hour ere I have done weeping. All the kind of the Launces have this very fault. I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son, and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial’s court. I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured dog that lives: my mother weeping; my father wailing; my sister crying; our maid howling; our cat wringing her hands, and all our house in a great 600 perplexity; yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear. He is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog. A Jew would have wept to have seen our parting. Why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting. Nay, I’ll show you the manner of it. This shoe is my father. No, this left shoe is my father; no, no, this left shoe is my mother; nay, that cannot be so neither. Yes, it is so, it is so: it hath the worser sole. This shoe with the hole in it is my mother; and this my father. A vengeance on’t, there ’tis. Now, sit, this staff is my sister; for, look you, she is as white as a lily, and as small as a wand. This hat is Nan, our maid. I am the dog. No, the dog is himself, and I am the dog. O, the dog is me, and I am myself. Ay; so, so. Now come I to my father: ‘Father, your blessing.’ Now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping; now should I kiss my father; well, he weeps on; now come I to my mother. O that she could speak now like a wood woman! Well, I kiss her. Why, there ’tis: here’s my mother’s breath up and down. Now come I to my sister: mark the moan she makes. Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear; nor speaks a word; but see how I lay the dust with my tears.

Julia (Act I Scene ii)

Nay, would I were so anger’d with the same!
O hateful hands, to tear such loving words;
Injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey,
And kill the bees that yield it, with your stings!
I’ll kiss each several paper for amends.
Look, here is writ ‘kind Julia.’ Unkind Julia!
As in revenge of thy ingratitude,
I throw thy name against the bruising stones,
Trampling contemptuously on thy disdain.
And here is writ ‘love-wounded Proteus’.
Poor wounded name: my bosom, as a bed,
Shall lodge thee till thy wound be thoroughly heal’d;
And thus I search it with a sovereign kiss.
But twice, or thrice, was ‘Proteus’ written down:
Be calm, good wind, blow not a word away,
Till I have found each letter, in the letter,
Except mine own name: that some whirlwind bear
Unto a ragged, fearful, hanging rock,
And throw it thence into the raging sea.
Lo, here in one line is his name twice writ:
‘Poor forlorn Proteus’, ‘passionate Proteus’.
‘To the sweet Julia’: that I’ll tear away.
And yet I will not, sith so prettily
He couples it to his complaining names.
Thus will I fold them one on another:
Now kiss, embrace, contend, do what you will.

Valentine (Act III Scene i)

And why not death, rather than living torment?
To die is to be banished from myself,
And Silvia is myself. Banished from her
Is self from self: a deadly banishment.
What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be to think that she is by
And feed upon the shadow of perfection.
Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale.
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon.
She is my essence, and I leave to be
If I be not by her fair influence
Fostered, illumined, cherished, kept alive.
I fly not death to fly his deadly doom:
Tarry I here, I but attend on death;
But fly I hence, I fly away from life.

Proteus (Act II Scene iv)

And why not death, rather than living torment?
To die is to be banished from myself,
And Silvia is myself. Banished from her
Is self from self: a deadly banishment.
What light is light, if Silvia be not seen?
What joy is joy, if Silvia be not by?
Unless it be to think that she is by
And feed upon the shadow of perfection.
Except I be by Silvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale.
Unless I look on Silvia in the day,
There is no day for me to look upon.
She is my essence, and I leave to be
If I be not by her fair influence
Fostered, illumined, cherished, kept alive.
I fly not death to fly his deadly doom:
Tarry I here, I but attend on death;
But fly I hence, I fly away from life.

Conclusion

So there you have it! StageMilk’s favourite Two Gentlemen of Verona monologues. If you’re interested in using any of these for an audition remember, you should always do your best to read the play, have a clear understanding of the relationships and as always know what your character wants in the scene. Whether you’re an actor searching for an audition piece, or just a Shakespeare aficionado, we hope you’ve enjoyed this list of the best Two Gentlemen of Verona Monologues.

For more Male and Female Shakespeare Monologues

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This article contains a selection of copyright-free short monologues for actors. These monologues were developed by us, right here at StageMilk, in order to give you material you can use for auditions, demo reels, a showcase or even to perform in a drama class.

Along with the scripts themselves, we’ve included a few tips and tricks on performing monologues, a few reminders about script analysis and some other resources available on the StageMilk site. Whatever you need, we’ve got you covered!

Updated 23rd November, 2023.

Why Perform Copyright-Free Scripts?

It’s not something we tend to think about, but most scripts that you’ll encounter as an actor are protected by copyright. This means that you should technically be paying a writer for its use if you intend to record or perform it. However, as most actors aren’t using monologues or scenes for direct financial gain, there is a bit of legal wiggle room when it comes to using such material. It’s also extremely difficult to enforce copyright laws on every actor with a stack of photocopied monologues from their local library.

Our advice, however, is to have a think about where your scripts come from. If you can, find ways to support and respect the artists who wrote them. Can you buy their work in another form, or support them via a Patreon or the like? At the very least, can you try tagging them via social media or reaching out to them directly for permission? If you’ve found their work in a book you always use, consider getting it as a gift for an actor friend! Do your best to pay it forward when you can.

The good news is that this page is written with this conundrum directly in mind! These scripts are fair game, so you can work on them and perform them guilt free!

A Quick Note from a Writer

Hello! My name is Alexander Lee-Rekers; I’m a professional playwright and screenwriter, as well as the author of most of the scripts on this page. I hereby give you permission to use the scenes on this page for personal practice, as well as showreels and auditions. All I ask is that you credit my work—especially if you post it on social media. (If you’re feeling brave, you can tag me via @alexnobodyfamous so I can see what you do with it!) None of these scenes are to be recorded, filmed, staged, re-written, developed or adapted for professional purposes. Additionally, no learning institutions may use these materials in classes, for showreel/demo reel filming or any context wherein participants pay for their use (except for the good folk here at StageMilk). Legal stuff aside: go for it! 

Free Short Monologues For Actors

The following scenes have been purpose-written for actors to use in auditions, demo reels and showcases. The format of the scripts is the in-house formatting we use in our online Scene Club, which is actually where these scripts originated. If you like what you read, consider joining up for coaching sessions each month and the chance to read some fresh original material. You’ll hear it there, first!

We’ve included a few details on casting and performance on each script below, but feel free to take these more as guidelines than hard-and-fast rules. You’ll be the best judge of whether or not a script is right for you. And an age/gender swap/total disregard can be an excellent challenge!

BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Genre: Drama
Length: 3 mins
Synopsis: A detective tries to coax a confession out of a silent suspect.

Performance Notes: Sandy’s a good detective. More than that, she’s a natural performer. Ask yourself what her tactic is before she goes into this room with this young offender. What’s the game plan? Does she expect him to be a certain way: angry? Apologetic? Nervous? Spend time looking at the given circumstances of this scene, as well as map out what has come before. Without the writer’s express say-so, it’s up to you to fill in the gaps as best you can.

PORCELAIN FROGS

Genre: Comedy
Length: 1 – 2 mins
Synopsis: Emma makes a bold move, asking out the sales clerk at the porcelain frog shop.

Performance Notes: The action of this scene is pretty low stakes on the page. For the protagonist Emma, it’s a pretty major turning point. Not only do they finally ask out the person they’ve fallen for, they summon the courage to do so. In some ways, this second point is more impactful than the first! In this scene, remember to ‘check in’ with your scene partner. How are they taking this declaration? Are they amused? Horrified? Happy? Use their reactions to navigate your way through the scene.

VENICE

Genre: Drama
Length: 1 min
Synopsis: Karen, a waitress in a middle-of-nowhere cafe, rehearses what she’s going to tell her boss in order to secure time off for a much-needed holiday.

Performance Notes: Consider the given circumstances of this scene: where Karen is, what time it is, where she’s come from and where she’s going. There’s plenty of context that can be suggested to the audience by how she delivers this speech. It’s also worth putting some consideration into her scene partner. Who is Cal? Are Karen and Cal close? Finally, play with the fact that Karen is ‘performing’ what she’s going to say. How does this differ from her usual way of speaking with somebody?

RED PATTERN

Genre: Drama
Length: 2 mins
Synopsis: Tyson returns home with a present for his wife and a story about a strange ordeal at a department store.

Performance Notes: There is a lot to be done in determining character relationships in this monologue. Are they close, or have they been having problems for a while now. More importantly: is Tyson’s admission a shock to his wife, or something she suspected? Think about how Tyson’s wife is receiving this information and reacting—and remind yourself that a monologue is still a scene between two people, even if only one character gets to speak.

MR. JENKINS AND MY MOTHER

Genre: Comedy
Length: 1 – 2 mins
Synopsis: Gus relays a painful childhood memory to his therapist about a beloved talking teddy bear.

Performance Notes: Spend time on the moment before this monologue. What has the therapist said to prompt this discussion about Mr. Jenkins? Why hasn’t Gus brought this painful memory up before? When playing Gus, be sure to play with imagery: help us see what you do when you relay this memory, and help us experience not only the story, but how you feel when recounting it.

BRITTLE

Genre: Drama
Length: 1 – 2 mins
Synopsis: Gemma talks about her life working in a shop after an unspecified personal ordeal.

Performance Notes: The writer has left plenty of room in this monologue for you to really build the character and world of Gemma as you see fit. Work out the facts you have to play with in the scene by studying the text, and ask questions around those to fill in the gaps and make this speech feel real. Who is Gemma speaking to? Where do they work? What’s happened in their life that got them to this moment?

THE MONEY DANCE

Genre: Comedy
Length: 1 min
Synopsis: Greta justifies quitting their job to a horrified housemate.

Performance Notes: Comedy is often about the clash between the mundane and extraordinary: a ridiculous character in a normal world, or the only sane person in a land of madness. Greta considers herself firmly as the latter. Work to making her piece feel grounded, play to the urgency of the situation and her objective of convincing her housemate. The funny will come naturally.

GUTTING FISH

Genre: Drama
Length: 2 mins
Synopsis: Out on a fishing trip, Ian tries to connect with his step-son on the troubled topic of fatherhood.

Performance Notes: Take your time with this one. Ian’s approach might not be perfect, but it’s the best he could possibly come up with given the problem he’s facing. Imagery is going to help with this piece, not just in the telling of Ian’s memories about his own father, but in conveying how these memories make him feel. Finally, don’t forget Zack in all of this. While the story is about Ian’s father, it’s far more about his present, and what this could mean for his future with his son. Don’t get lost in the past.

FERRIS WHEEL

Genre: Comedy/Drama
Length: 2 mins
Synopsis: Hank tells a loved one about an occurrence in their childhood, and how that has since affected their outlook on living.

Performance Notes: Weird piece, huh? Just as the audience might be thrown by that first line, it’s up to you to think about who the person you’re speaking to in the scene might take it. Are they surprised? Did they already know? Is this a speech you give them a lot? As with any monologue, remember that your job is to communicate ideas to your scene partner, so have an objective in mind with this piece. Why are you telling them these things? To amuse them? To comfort them? To apologise?

FESS UP

Genre: Drama
Length: 1 – 2 mins
Synopsis: Gripe talks to Olly in an alley behind a bar … full of questions and thoughts about a recent police interview.

Performance Notes: What’s happened before this scene? What incident is Gripe talking about? It’s up to you to answer this (using clues from the writer via script analysis) and keep it in mind throughout the scene. It’s also worth thinking about how truthful Gripe is being: about their involvement in the crime, what really happened at the police station. Finally, what is their objective in this moment? What do they want from Olly?

FRIENDSHIP by Andrew Hearle

Genre: Drama
Length: 2 mins
Synopsis: Sam talks to an old friend, Mary, at the grave of their mutual friend Essie.

Performance Notes: Despite this being a monologue, there are actually three characters to consider in this piece: Sam, Mary and Essie. Consider mapping out their relationships, plotting out their personal histories and working out what might have happened to bring them to this place. How did Essie die? Did Sam and Mary have anything to do with it? Had Sam and Mary planned to run into each other in this scene? Also, take note of the line breaks in this scene: why has the writer broken the dialogue into the chunks they have? Can they denote different ideas, attitudes or actions?

BORING SEX DREAM

Genre: Comedy
Length: 2 mins
Synopsis: Althea relays an interesting dream to her ex-partner Chris at a pub.

Performance Notes: Althea’s dream gives us direct access to her subconscious; for this reason the monologue is great for letting you tap directly into a character and get a sense of them unfiltered. At the same time, you’ll need to make a call on whether or not this encounter has a hidden motive. Is Althea really over Chris? And if not, is she even aware of this fact? This monologue grants plenty of opportunities for you to ‘check in’ with the character of Chris. How does he take this information? What’s he doing: laughing, frowning, squirming, checking his phone? And how do his reactions make Althea change the tack of her words so that she still gets what she wants?

ROPE CAMP

Genre: Drama
Length: 2 mins
Synopsis: Mack confronts a childhood acquaintance at a book signing.

Performance Notes: Before you tackle with anything else in this scene, consider the given circumstances. Where is it set? Who else is around? How might the setting make Mack feel? Let these modifiers play into how this scene is spoken—it’s very important that a monologue such as this feels informed by the world of the story, and doesn’t simply play out in a vacuum. Also worth consideration is the veracity of Mack’s claims. Is he remembering things correctly? Or has he buried some uncomfortable truths that are just now bubbling up to the surface… Don’t be afraid for this piece to feel menacing.

END OF A CHAPTER

Genre: Drama
Length: 1 min
Synopsis: “Entrepreneur” Murray is mid-break-up with his partner, and is trying to convince her to stay.

Performance Notes: In a fairly fun reversal of “The Money Dance” (above) Murray is a ridiculous character in a normal world. The key to playing this successfully, however, is for him to believe the exact opposite is true. He is certain he’s got this right, he’s going to be taken seriously and be vindicated! So play the truth in this scene. Murray is engaging in some high stakes relationship work, here. The more natural and normal you can make it sound, the more hilarious the end result will be!

THE FACE AT THE WINDOW

Genre: Drama/Horror
Length: 2 – 3 mins
Synopsis: When paranormal investigators visit Megan at her place of work, they bring up a traumatic memory of a ghostly encounter.

Performance Notes: Try t0 track the shift in Megan during this scene as she finds herself thinking back to her childhood. What starts out as simply telling a story ends up with her back there—in the memory—which clearly still has its claws in her. Also worth consideration are her scene partners. She says a lot of people come in asking her about the face at the window. What makes these two different? Of all the times the writer could have chosen to show her telling this story to people coming in, why is today different?

OVERDRAWN

Genre: Comedy
Length: 2 mins
Synopsis: Hal relays a stressful encounter at the local bank, that may just end in a robbery.

Performance Notes: To truly play the comedy of Hal’s predicament, look for the tragedy. While the monologue is amusing, it’s also the story of the worst day of their life. As they retell what happened, keep them in that moment that has them feeling helpless, breathless and looking forward to the future. What are the stakes of this scene? What do they stand to win or lose having experienced this ordeal?

Tips for Performing Monologues

Once you’ve selected a piece that resonates with you, it’s worth considering a few of the below points before diving in. Most importantly: these monologues do not come from larger works. Whatever you can learn about these stories is all you have to work with. And hey, this might be scary for you to consider. You can’t look at the end of the script or watch the movie to answer a question about the scene or the character. Context be damned!

But what this actually means is that you have the chance to put a personal spin on the piece. Anything you can extrapolate from the text is fair game to build your performance on. So engage in some script analysis and ask questions that will give some depth to the world.

Know who you’re speaking to in the scene. Just because a monologue is one character talking doesn’t mean you don’t want something from the person you’re talking to. Who is that? And what about their identity modifies the words? We talk differently to an enemy than we do a friend, or a lover, or a police officer, or an auntie. Work out who you’re speaking to and communicate with them. Connect!

Consider your actions and objective. Your objective is what you want from your scene partner: it’s the reason your character shows up in the first place. Your actions are the tactics you play to get what you want. Plot them out and play them until you’ve exhausted that particular tactic, then pivot to something else. Threatening somebody not working? Try flirting, or bargaining, or distracting…

Additional Monologue Resources

There you have it: custom-written, original monologues for you to bring to life! If you’re still looking for other options, or would love to do some further reading on the subject, take a look at the additional resources below.

• Script Analysis: How to Get the Most out of a Scene
• What is a Monologue?
• How to Perform a Monologue
• How to Write a Monologue
• How to Pick a Drama School Audition Monologue

For additional monologue material:

• Comedy Monologues
• Monologues from Movies
• Monologues from TV
• Shakespeare Comedy Monologues
• Monologues Unpacked: A comprehensive collection of Shakespearean monologues, including context, analysis and performance notes.

Finally, we have some additional copyright-free original scenes available at: Practice Scripts for Actors. Both of these pages are updated regularly, so be sure to keep checking in for any fresh material.

Good luck!

The post Practice Monologues For Actors appeared first on StageMilk.

Updated 8th December, 2022.

Stemming from the Greek words “monos” (alone) and “logos” (speech), a monologue is the term used to describe a speech by a single character in a dramatic context: a play, film, tv show, video game, etc. A monologue can be spoken to another person, alone or to the audience as a soliloquy; it can drive the action of the scene forward or present a narrative from earlier in the character’s life. Most actors encounter monologues as audition pieces, as they grant directors an opportunity to see an actor create a character and world without the need for a larger dramatic context.

Types of Monologue

Monologues have various functions in dramatic texts. They can be deployed by an author to drive the story forward, deliver exposition or give insight as to a character’s motivations or backstory. As most monologues are delivered to another character, they exhibit a great opportunity for the speaking character to challenge or reverse their power or status in a scene.

When you encounter a monologue—within a larger text, or presented on its own—the first and most important consideration you have to make is what kind of monologue it is. This will give you some idea as to why it exists, and therefore how best to approach it as an actor.

Linking Monologue

A ‘linking’ monologue, first made popular in Classical Roman drama, would connect two separate scenes to denote a passing of time or action that may otherwise prove difficult (or tedious) on stage. Years, generations, wars, transformations would be explained to audiences directly. Linking monologues are less common in contemporary dramatic texts: stage works tend to try and keep the action ‘on’ the stage in front o the audience—whereas film can cut to or represent that action without any interruption to the story. However, Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 film Henry V has an excellent examples of linking monologues throughout:

Active Monologue

In an active monologue, an actor pursues a clear narrative objective: they have a goal in mind and employ different actions to pursue it. Another common term for this is dramatic monologue, as the words are being spoken to another person rather than being internalised. As there is no set length for a monologue, it can be argued that active monologues can be found within most dialogue scenes; however, it is likely that at least one beat change has to occur within the monologue for it to be considered one. Take a look at this incredible example from Taraji P. Henson in Hidden Figures:

Narrative Monologue

In a narrative monologue, a character tells a story to other characters (and also, by extension, the audience). It’s usually delivered in past tense, and allows the audience (and also by extension, the other characters) a glimpse into the speaker’s past and/or inner psyche. There are few greater examples we can link to than Cap’n Quint in Jaws:

Interior Monologue

An interior monologue has a character ‘externalising’ their inner thoughts and emotions. This is often presented in contrast to dramatic monologue—although there are situations in which an interior monologue can be delivered to another character, as opposed to an audience who would actually be listening to a soliloquy. As an example, we’ve included one of the great underrated monologues in modern cinema from the opening of Michael Clayton.

Remember that a monologue may sit comfortably across a few of these classifications. Note that while the Michael Clayton speech is an interior monologue, it’s also an active monologue in which one character implores another to think of them as sane. Furthermore, the linking monologue in Henry V is a soliloquy and yet still seeks to drive the story forward in an active fashion.

What’s the Difference Between a Monologue and a Soliloquy?

Good question. In short, a soliloquy is performed directly to the audience—similar to an aside, but typically longer than a throwaway comment. A monologue can be performed to an audience, but is also be for the benefit of another character in a play. Therefore: all soliloquies are monologues, but not all monologues are soliloquys.

In both instances of monologues and soliloquies, one must always consider who the character is speaking to and why. Take this fairly famous example from theatre. You may have heard of it:

In this famous speech from Hamlet, the young Prince of Indecision Denmark contemplates suicide, death and the great beyond. He speaks to nobody onstage, and so the audience is his assumed, well, audience. Only problem is, that’s not completely true. Just as Hamlet is speaking to us, he’s also speaking to himself. Convincing himself. If he weren’t, there’d be no dramatic tension in the scene—no obstacle to overcome, no objective to strive for and no actions to play.

In any of the above examples from film that we’ve included, you’ll notice that another character is present. They are the focus of the speaker’s words, and the relationship between these characters is affected by way of the telling/hearing of what’s being said.

However, it’s still important to consider how the words being spoken affect the speaker themselves. Is this the first time they’ve said these things out loud? Admitted them to themselves? How do they feel in this situation: relieved, embarrassed, empowered, ashamed?

Quick Tip: If your monologue is a soliloquy, be sure to check out our guide on performing a soliloquy.

How to Perform a Monologue

Preparing and performing a monologue can seem like a daunting task. There’s a lot to think about, especially when you remember there’s nobody speaking in that moment except for you! For this reason, we’ve included a few tips below to get you on your way:

#1 Preparation

• Start with script analysis. Just as you would with any other scene, pour through the words on the page for the writer’s intentions. What can you learn about the character and the world they inhabit? What are the solid facts you can pick up, and the questions the writer leaves you to answer? Pay attention to punctuation, word choice and style: these are the ways that writers will often direct you right off the page!
• Nail your objective. Think about what your character wants in the scene. What’s so important that they begin to speak at all? It has to be something so worth fighting for that they don’t end the monologue until they’ve given that goal their everything!
• Plot your beats, plan your actions. Once you work out what your character wants in the monologue, establish the how. Find the gear shifts in energy or tactic as your character progresses through the words: do they start out lecturing and end up begging? Perhaps they threaten before pivoting to flirting? Remember to follow a given action (or tactic) as far as you possibly can—don’t give up simply because you think a different tactic would be more interesting.

#2 Rehearsal

• Think about your scene partner/audience. Who are you speaking to? What is your relationship like with them? Are you close, distant? How’s the power dynamic between you: are you their subordinate or do you tower over them? Most importantly, what do you want from them? Your objective should always relate to the person you’re speaking to—even if it’s yourself or the audience!
• Establish your ‘moment before’. Think about what drove you to say these words. Was it a comment from the other person? A distant memory or a recent event? Have you been talking to your scene partner before this or is this the first thing out of your mouth when you walked in the door?

#3 Performance

• Be mindful of your body and voice. As you prepare the monologue, don’t forget to check in with what your body is doing: consider starting your rehearsal with articulation and breathing exercises, and some light physical warm ups. It can be all too easy, when it’s just you speaking, to forget that somebody else needs to hear you (especially an audience). The same is true for the way you hold yourself on stage or screen. When so much of monologue prep is about the words themselves, the physicality of your performance risks being forgotten.
• Practice in front of others. Finally, perform your monologue for close friends and colleagues. Get some praise, get some feedback and keep working at it. Performing a monologue out loud helps remind you that it is, after all, a performance intended for an audience: not just you to saying it and feel good saying it.

How do I Choose a Good Monologue?

It’s simple! Ish! Find a monologue that resonates with you. Thematically, stylistically—find a character you love who speaks to a topic you’re passionate about. After all, it’s up to you to ‘sell’ what they’re saying to the audience! If you’re picking a monologue for an audition, a good choice can be half the battle before you even begin. It should showcase your talents without being too flashy, illustrate your range without yo-yoing the audition panel through too many emotions.

Some actors like to have a go-to ‘party piece’ monologue for auditions and the like. Our recommendation is to work on a few, and keep adding to a repertoire that offers you some choice. Be on the lookout for monologues online, in classic plays, in Shakespeare and in the films, television and theatre you consume. Right here on StageMilk, we send a selection of monologues out to our Scene Club members every month. We even offer custom feedback, so you can get a sense of where your monologue prep is at!

While we’re on the subject of all things StageMilk, check out our page of practice monologues for actors: these are distinct as they are written specifically for us as standalone pieces for auditions, not from any existing IP. Take it as a challenge to build an entire character and world from a half-page of dialogue!

Conclusion

Honestly, the best monologue to choose is one that gets you working straight away. Don’t waste your life looking for that perfect piece, jump in and get to work. Now go for it!

The post What is a Monologue? appeared first on StageMilk.

Jump to: 

• Miranda Monologue (Act 1, Scene 2)
• Ariel Monologue (Act 1, Scene 2) 
• Caliban Monologue (Act 3, Scene 2)
• Ariel Monologue (Act 3, Scene 3)
• Prospero Monologue (Act 4, Scene 1)
• Prospero Monologue (Act 5, Scene 1) 
• Prospero Epilogue

It is widely understood to be one of Shakespeare’s last plays, and so there is a nostalgic, reflective quality in a number of the monologues, particularly from Prospero. Some even posit that Prospero represents Shakespeare, and his iconic speech from Act 5 Scene 1 about “breaking his staff” is Shakespeare giving up his pen and retiring to Stratford. There is no data for this, but it does offer a romantic image of the genius playwright saying goodbye poetically through one of his most vivid characters.

This play features magic and has an otherworldly quality similar to Shakespeare’s earlier work A Midsummer A Night’s Dream. But as I mentioned before the text can be more challenging. As Shakespeare developed he began to break the metre more and more, and so the text can feel more abrupt and disjointed. However, Shakespeare was an actor through and through, and if you allow him to support you through the text you will find your way. Remember he was writing for YOU.

Have a read through some of these incredible monologues from the Tempest, and definitely consider tackling them for any upcoming auditions, class environments or just for personal practice. We recommend regularly working on Shakespeare monologues as actors and hopefully you learn a lot from tackling one of these incredible monologues.

Best monologues from The Tempest: 

Miranda Monologue (Act 1 Scene 2)

MIRANDA

If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch
But that the sea, mounting to th’ welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer – a brave vessel
(Who had no doubt some noble creature in her)
Dashed all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her.

Ariel Monologue Act 1 Scene 2

To every article.
I boarded the king’s ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement: sometime I’d divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove’s lightnings, the precursors
O’ the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune (F)
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake.

Prospero: My brave spirit!
Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil
Would not infect his reason?

Ariel: Not a soul
But felt a fever of the mad and play’d
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me: the king’s son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring,—then like reeds, not hair,—
Was the first man that leap’d; cried, ‘Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.’

For a full analysis of Ariel Monologue Act 1 Scene 2

Caliban Monologue Act 3 Scene 2

Caliban is speaking to Stephano and Trinculo.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices,
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.

Ariel Monologue Act 3 Scene 3

Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel…

ARIEL

You are three men of sin, whom destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
And what is in’t, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you , and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit – you ’mongst men
Being most unfit to live – I have made you mad;
And even with such-like valour, men hang and drown
Their proper selves.

Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio draw their swords.

You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of fate. The elements
Of whom your swords are tempered may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemocked-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowl that’s in my plume. My fellow ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths
And will not be uplifted. But remember
(For that’s my business to you) that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero,
Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him and his innocent child; for which foul deed,
The powers delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the seas and shores – yea, all the creatures –
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft, and do pronounce by me
Ling’ring perdition, worse than any death
Can be at once, shall step by step attend
You and your ways, whose wraths to guard you from –
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads – is nothing but heart’s sorrow
And a clear life ensuing.

Prospero Monologue Act 4 Scene 1

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And – like the baseless fabric of this vision –
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vexed;
Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.
Be not disturbed with my infirmity.
If you be pleased, retire into my cell
And there repose. A turn or two I’ll walk
To still my beating mind.

Full extract

Prospero Monologue Act 5 Scene 1

PROSPERO

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight-mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew, by whose aid –
Weak masters though ye be – I have bedimmed
The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds,
And ’twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war; to the dread-rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt: the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked up
The pine and cedar; graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, ope’d and let ’em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure; and when I have required
Some heavenly music (which even now I do)
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.

Prospero Epilogue

The is spoken at the end of the play and is arguably Shakespeare’s most famous epilogue.

Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant;
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself, and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed our list of best monologues from The Tempest. I highly recommend reading the play as a first step. Try to understand the story and get a sense of which characters resonate with you. If you do find there is a part that you connect with grab a monologue and get started. If you need help on how to prepare a monologue. If you find The Tempest isn’t for you, check out our full list of Shakespeare monologues.

The post The Tempest Monologues appeared first on StageMilk.

Play Synopsis

No matter what piece, scene or speech you’re working on, understanding the story and the context is always the most important starting point.

The play begins with what is known as an “induction”; it’s basically a little play within the play, but often this is cut entirely and, in the most recent production I saw, it was not featured. So we won’t delve into it here.

The play begins in earnest with the arrival of Lucentio to Padua, accompanied by his servant Tranio. They have come to seek an education, which is quickly thrown out the window when Luenctio comes across Bianca Minola. Bianca is the beautiful daughter of the rich Baptista Minola and is the most sought after young woman in town.

However, Lucentio is not the only one who is interested in Bianca. He is competing for her love with Hortensio and the older Gremio. All of these have no hope of marriage, as Baptista makes it very clear no one will be marrying Bianca until his other daughter Katharina (the “Shrew”) is married. Katharina is strong-willed and fiercely independent, and the prospect of her getting married seems inconceivable.

But then here comes Petruchio!

Petruchio, a friend of Hortensio, is fresh home from the wars, and is eager to get himself a rich wife. Hortensio cannot believe his luck, and Petruchio takes very little convincing to come around to the idea of marrying the feisty Katharina. He loves the challenge of wooing Katharina and in one of the most famous scenes of the play (Act 2 Scene 1) featured below, Petruchio does woo Katharina (sort of).

In one of the strangest and most entertaining marriage proposals ever written, Petruchio seems to get what he wants and a date is set for their marriage.

After all the melodrama of the courting, the wedding day finally comes and we begin to believe that Petruchio has abandoned Kate. Eventually, he arrives, dressed up in silly clothes and mocking the whole event. Though this is incredibly insulting, the wedding goes ahead. The feast is underway and celebration ensues before Petruchio abruptly pulls Kate away and takes her back to his house.

Lucentio and Hortensio have in the meantime decided the only way to continue wooing Bianca is to pretend to be teachers. Baptista has recently asked for teachers to further Bianca’s education and so both men dress up as teachers. Eventually, Bianca and Lucentio fall for each other (much to the chargrin of Hortensio). Baptisa gives permission for them to be married, if the promised dowry can be settled on, and so Tranio (Lucentio’s servant) decides to dress up as Lunceitos father Vincentio to give promise of the dowry.

This is where the torture begins and Petruchio proceeds to torment Kate. After continual abuse from Petruchio she is beginning to be “tamed”. Eventually, they come back to Padua for Bianca’s wedding. In a famous scene, Petruchio makes Kate admit the sun is in fact the moon, and it seems finally the mind-washing/abuse is instilled.

At the end of the play, all the couples test their new wives and place a wager on who will be most loyal (Hortensio since married a rich widow ). Kate is the only one to be truly loyal and comes back and gives a famous monologue (listed below) reprimanding the other wives and telling them to honour their husbands.

As always, the best way to understand the play is the READ it. But if you do struggle reading Shakespeare plays there is a fantastic 1967 Shakespeare film with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor that is worth checking out. 

Taming of the Shrew Honest Video Synopsis

Character List

Katherina Minola (often called Kate – she is the “shrew”)
Bianca Minola (Katharina’s sister)
Baptista Minola (Their father)

Lucentio (suitor to Bianca)
Tranio (his servant)
Biondello (also, his servant)
Vincentio (Lucentio’s father)

Petruchio (suitor to Katherina)
Grumio (Petruchio’s servant)

Hortensio (suitor to Bianca)
Gremio (suitor to Bianca)

There are a bunch more characters, but these are the core roles.

The Taming of the Shrew Monologues

Act 1 Scene 1

LUCENTIO:

Tranio, since for the great desire I had
To see fair Padua, nursery of arts,
I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy ,
The pleasant garden of great Italy,
And by my father’s love and leave am armed
With his good will and thy good company –
My trusty servant, well approved in all –
Here let us breathe and haply institute
A course of learning and ingenious studies.
Pisa, renowned for grave citizens,
Gave me my being and my father first –
A merchant of great traffic through the world –
Vincentio, come of the Bentivogli .
Vincentio’s son, brought up in Florence,
It shall become to serve all hopes conceived
To deck his fortune with his virtuous deeds:
And therefore, Tranio, for the time I study,
Virtue and that part of philosophy
Will I apply that treats of happiness
By virtue specially to be achieved.
Tell me thy mind, for I have Pisa left
And am to Padua come, as he that leaves
A shallow plash to plunge him in the deep,
And with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.

Act 2 Scene 1

PETRUCHIO

No, not a whit; I find you passing gentle.
‘Twas told me you were rough, and coy, and sullen,
And now I find report a very liar;
For thou art pleasant, gamesome, passing courteous,
But slow in speech, yet sweet as springtime flowers.
Thou canst not frown, thou canst not look askance,
Nor bite the lip, as angry wenches will,
Nor hast thou pleasure to be cross in talk;
But thou with mildness entertain’st thy wooers;
With gentle conference, soft and affable.
Why does the world report that Kate doth limp?
O sland’rous world! Kate like the hazel-twig
Is straight and slender, and as brown in hue
As hazel-nuts, and sweeter than the kernels.
O, let me see thee walk. Thou dost not halt.

Act 2 Scene 1

PETRUCHIO: 

I’ll attend her here,
And woo her with some spirit when she comes.
Say that she rail; why, then I’ll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale.
Say that she frown; I’ll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash’d with dew.
Say she be mute, and will not speak a word;
Then I’ll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence.
If she do bid me pack, I’ll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week;
If she deny to wed, I’ll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns, and when be married.

Full monologue breakdown of “I’ll attend her here, and woo her with some spirit when she comes.”

Act 3 Scene 2

KATHERINA: 

No shame but mine. I must forsooth be forced
To give my hand opposed against my heart
Unto a mad-brain rudesby full of spleen
Who wooed in haste and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behaviour,
And to be noted for a merry man,
He’ll woo a thousand, ‘point the day of marriage,
Make feast, invite friends, and proclaim the banns,
Yet never means to wed where he hath wooed.
Now must the world point at poor Katherine
And say, ‘Lo, there is mad Petruccio’s wife,
If it would please him come and marry her.’

Act 4 Scene 1

PETRUCHIO: 

Thus have I politicly begun my reign,
And ’tis my hope to end successfully.
My falcon now is sharp and passing empty,
And till she stoop she must not be full-gorged ,
For then she never looks upon her lure.
Another way I have to man my haggard,
To make her come and know her keeper’s call:
That is, to watch her, as we watch these kites
That bate, and beat, and will not be obedient.
She ate no meat today, nor none shall eat;
Last night she slept not, nor tonight she shall not.
As with the meat, some undeserved fault
I’ll find about the making of the bed,
And here I’ll fling the pillow, there the bolster,
This way the coverlet, another way the sheets.
Ay, and amid this hurly I intend
That all is done in reverend care of her;
And in conclusion she shall watch all night,
And if she chance to nod I’ll rail and brawl
And with the clamour keep her still awake.
This is a way to kill a wife with kindness,
And thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humour.
He that knows better how to tame a shrew,
Now let him speak; ’tis charity to show.

Act 4 Scene 3

KATHERINA:

The more my wrong, the more his spite appears.
What, did he marry me to famish me?
Beggars that come unto my father’s door
Upon entreaty have a present alms;
If not, elsewhere they meet with charity.
But I, who never knew how to entreat,
Nor never needed that I should entreat,
Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep,
With oaths kept waking and with brawling fed;
And that which spites me more than all these wants,
He does it under name of perfect love,
As who should say, if I should sleep or eat
’Twere deadly sickness or else present death.
I prithee, go and get me some repast –
I care not what, so it be wholesome food.

Act 4 Scene 3

PETRUCHIO:

Well, come, my Kate, we will unto your father’s,
Even in these honest mean habiliments:
our purses shall be proud, our garments poor,
For ’tis the mind that makes the body rich,
And as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds,
So honour peereth in the meanest habit.
What is the jay more precious than the lark
Because his feathers are more beautiful?
Or is the adder better than the eel
Because his painted skin contents the eye?
O no, good Kate; neither art thou the worse
For this poor furniture and mean array.
If thou account’st it shame, lay it on me,
And therefore frolic: we will hence forthwith
To feast and sport us at thy father’s house.
– Go call my men, and let us straight to him,
And bring our horses unto Long-lane end.
There will we mount, and thither walk on foot.
Let’s see, I think ’tis now some seven o’clock,
And well we may come there by dinner-time.

Act 5 Scene 2

KATHERINA: 

Fie, fie, unknit that threatening unkind brow,
And dart not scornful glances from those eyes
To wound thy lord, thy king, thy governor.
It blots thy beauty as frosts do bite the meads,
Confounds thy fame as whirlwinds shake fair buds
And in no sense is meet or amiable.
A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,
Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty
And while it is so, none so dry or thirsty
Will deign to sip or touch one drop of it.
Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign: one that cares for thee
And for thy maintenance; commits his body
To painful labour both by sea and land,
To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,
Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,
And craves no other tribute at thy hands
But love, fair looks and true obedience –
Too little payment for so great a debt.
Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway
When they are bound to serve, love and obey.
Why are our bodies soft, and weak, and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?
Come, come, you froward and unable worms,
My mind hath been as big as one of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply more,
To bandy word for word and frown for frown.
But now I see our lances are but straws,
Our strength as weak, our weakness past compare,
That seeming to be most which we indeed least are.
Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot,
And place your hands below your husband’s foot:
In token of which duty, if he please,
My hand is ready, may it do him ease.

The post The Taming of the Shrew Monologues appeared first on StageMilk.

Julius Caesar has returned to Rome from war victorious and is greeted with adoration by the people of Rome. Sounds pretty good for Caesar right? Well unfortunately for him not everyone is too keen on him. Cassius, Brutus and a number of other conspirators plan to kill Caesar before he can be made King in order to quash his power. When they invite Caesar to the senate, they all take turns stabbing him one by one, even Brutus. After the assassination, the lead conspirators call on Marc Antony who has since run home. They want to quash any doubts that Antony will be on their side, and they strike a deal with him. He will be loyal to them, so long as they allow him to speak at Caesar’s funeral. So we’re all mates then yes? Well yes, but also, no. Cassius is afraid of what Antony will do at the funeral, and rightly so, as we find out in this speech that takes place the moment Antony is left alone with the corpse of what was once Julius Caesar.

Original Text

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever livèd in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy—
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue—
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Verse Breakdown

Bold = Stressed
Unbold = Unstressed
(F) = Feminine Ending

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers! (F)
Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
That ever livèd in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy—
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips
To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue—
A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
And dreadful objects so familiar,
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.

Modern Translation

Oh pardon me you bleeding corpse of this earth
That I am polite and calm with these murderers
You are the corpse of the most noble man
That ever lived, in all time
I hope woe comes to the hand that shed this valuable blood
Over your wounds now I see the future
Which do open and weep blood like speechless mouths
And beg me to speak
A curse shall come down upon the people
Fury and fierce civil war
Shall weigh down upon this all the parts of Italy
Blood and destruction will be so common
And weapons so familiar
That mothers will merely smile when they see
Their babies chopped to pieces by the hands of war
All pity will be choked out of people who are so used to horrible deeds
And Caesar’s spirit hunting for revenge
With Ate by his side coming fast from hell
Shall in this place and with the voice of a monarch
Cry “Havoc” and unleash the dogs of war
This horrible deed will stink all the way up to heaven
Of the bodies of the dead begging to be buried

Thought Breakdown & Analysis 

O, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
(Oh pardon me, you bleeding corpse of this earth)
Marc Antony is apologising to Caesar’s corpse. He cares so much for him that he’s apologising to his dead body as it lies bleeding on the floor.

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
(That I am polite and calm with these murderers!)
This is what he’s apologising to Caesar for. He has remained civil and diplomatic throughout this whole event and has even come to an agreement with the conspirators/assassins. It’s also worth noting that this line is eleven beats, which throws our ears of kilter. It’s a good insight for the actor into how Antony is feeling, just in case the words didn’t quite make it clear enough. However, clear or not, the rhythm of this line really does convey the sense of despair he feels. Eleven syllable lines generally tend to have a sense of trailing off and be unfinal. Which whether we realise it or not, gives us a sense of uncertainty too.

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man
(You are what remains of the most noble man.)
He’s telling the body of Caesar how noble he thought he was.

That ever livèd in the tide of times.
(That ever lived, throughout all time.)
Antony tells Caesar that he was the noblest man that ever lived throughout all time.

Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
(I wish woe upon the person that shed this valuable blood!)
Antony curses the murderers.

Over thy wounds now do I prophesy—
(Over your wounds now I’m seeing the future.)
Here’s our turning point in the soliloquy. Antony has mourned and grieved mostly throughout the first part of the speech and now we’re getting into the consequences of the actions.

Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips
(Which like speechless mouths open their blood covered lips)
He sees the wounds like a pack of mouths about to say something. But what?

To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue—
(To be me to speak my voice.)
The ruby lips of the wounds have opened their mouths speechless and begged Marc Antony to speak (according to him).

A curse shall light upon the limbs of men.
(A curse shall come down upon the bodies of men.)
This is the prophecy he saw over the wounds of Caesar.

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
(Fury and fierce civil war.)

Shall cumber all the parts of Italy.
(Shall weigh down every part of Italy.)
Fury, and civil war are coming for every part of Italy according to the prophecy so far.

Blood and destruction shall be so in use,
(Blood and destruction will be so common.)

And dreadful objects so familiar,
(And horrible weapons will be so familiar to the people of Italy.)
Okay so blood, destruction and horrible objects, or weapons will be so common so familiar that… what?

That mothers shall but smile when they behold
(That mother will merely smile when they see.)

Their infants quartered with the hands of war,
(Their babies cut into pieces by the hands of war.)
This is a long thought so let’s have a look at it. Blood destruction and weapons will be so familiar to the people of Italy that mothers will merely smile when they see their babies, their children cut to pieces, quartered by the hands of war. What a horrific, dark and grim prophecy Antony is seeing. This is how enraged, how horrified he is by what he considers to be regicide, the murder of his leader. And we’re not at the end yet.

All pity choked with custom of fell deeds,
(All pity will be choked out of people with familiarity with the horrid deeds.)
All of the people of Italy will have any pity, any compassion, any empathy choked out of them simply from the pure familiarity they will have with the horrific acts of war they will endure and commit.

And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
(And Caesar’s ghost hunting for revenge,)

With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
(With Ate by his side coming up fast from hell)
So Caesar’s ghost is on the hunt for revenge with the goddess Ate coming up fast from hell. Ate is the ancient Greek Goddess of mischief, delusion, folly and RUIN.

Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
(Will in this place with the voice of a monarch)

Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war,
(Cry ‘Havoc!’ and unleash the dogs of war)
So to recap, there will be blood destruction and civil war so horrific, so horrible, that the people will be unphased by it. Caesar will hunt for his revenge with the Goddess Ate and unleash the dogs of war. 

That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
(This horrible deed will be smelled all the way in heaven)
To cap this off Antony says this deed is so horrible that…

With carrion men, groaning for burial.
(With the bodies of men, groaning for burial)
This deed and what it will create, i.e the bodies of all those who will suffer and cry out to just let them die due to the consequences of these actions will be smelled in heaven, that’s just how bad this is, and will be.

Unfamiliar Language

Gentle (adj.)
courteous, friendly, kind

Time (n.)
past time, history

Tide (n.)
course, stream, passage

Ope (v.)
open

Domestic (adj.)
old form: Domesticke
internal, to do with home affairs, local

Cumber (v.)
distress, trouble, burden

Use (n.)
old form: vse
usual practice, habit, custom

Quarter (v.)
cut to pieces, hack, mutilate

Fell (adj.)
cruel, fierce, savage

Custom (n.)
old form: custome
habit, usual practice, customary use

Range (v.)
wander freely, roam, rove

Confine (n.)
territory, region, domain

Slip, let
let go, allow to leave, unleash

Havoc (n.)
old form: hauocke
[in fighting and hunting: calling for] total slaughter, general devastation

Carrion (adj.)
lean as carrion, skeleton-like; or: putrefying

The post Marc Antony Monologue: Julius Caesar Act 3 Scene 1 appeared first on StageMilk.

Older Elizabeth in When the Rain Stops Falling by Andrew Bovell 

Bovell’s When the Rain Stops Falling is an intergenerational story about a family in Alice Springs, Australia. Our protagonist, Gabriel York is the grandson of Henry and Elizabeth Law, who we meet in London in 1959. Gabriel York’s father, Gabriel Law, has a strained relationship with his mother as a result of her refusal to shed light on the mysterious disappearance of his father when Gabriel Law was only seven years old. This monologue, which can be found towards the end of the play, sheds light on exactly what happened to make Gabriel Law’s father leave. In this monologue, after throwing a glass on wine in his face, Elizabeth confronts her husband, Henry, about a visit she received earlier that day from two policemen, and the accusations they made against Henry. She explains how she immediately defended him to the policemen, but then as she set about cleaning and painting their house, she makes a horrifying discovery. For most of the monologue, Elizabeth is using the metaphor of cleaning their neglected home to express the realisation she’s made about their neglected relationship and all the things she’s swept under the rug, until now. A powerful dramatic monologue, with a horrifying twist. 

Elizabeth:
That’s what I said. I said this is not right. How dare you accuse my husband of such a thing. Against nature. And I sent them on their way, Henry. I showed them the door. I could not have been more indignant. And when they were gone and I was alone it felt to me as if the world had been turned upside down. And I looked around and saw just how dirty our room was. Filthy, in fact. In the corners and on the window sills and the ceilings. Layers of dust and dirt and grime and dead insects. Years of neglect, Henry. How did we let it come to this? And so I began to clean it. A bucket of hot water and soap suds. I washed the walls, the ceilings, even the light fittings were scrubbed. I washed the door handles and the light switches and the dark corners behind the furniture. I scrubbed the table and the floor and polished the windows. I dusted the books and the lampshade and even took to the grouting between the tiles with a toothbrush. And when I finished I looked around and it looked exactly the same. So I found an old tin of leftover paint in the cupboard. And as the tanks rolled into Prague I painted. And I painted. And I painted. Then I hung the pictures back on the walls. And put the books back on the bookshelves and moved the furniture back into position and it was when I was moving the wardrobe that it tilted slightly and something slipped from the top… and landed at my feet. [Beat.] A leather satchel. Quite old. Quite worn. Good quality leather. Something you have had since you were a child. Given to you by an uncle, you once said. And inside there is a collection of photographs of young children, boys mainly, naked, some involved in sexual acts with adults. Some of them clearly distressed. Clearly frightened. And among the photographs. Among the photographs, Henry, are pictures of our own son. Silence. Have you touched him?

Rose in The Children by Lucy Kirkwood 

Inspired by the Fukushima nuclear explosion in Japan in 2011, Kirkwood’s play, The Children is about three nuclear physicists coming to terms with a major disaster at a nuclear power station. In a monologue towards the end of the play, Rose is attempting to convince her friends Hazel and Robin that the right thing to do is go back to work, take the place of the younger generation, and face the fatal risks involved in cleaning up after a nuclear disaster. The monologue, which begins “It’ll sound silly but. You were who I wanted to be when I grew up” is addressed to Hazel. Rose, who, like Hazel, is in her sixties, is the less responsible of the pair, but for the first time ever, she is the one being the adult. 

Earlier in the play, Rose delivers another monologue to Hazel’s husband, Robin.  Beginning with “Because I’m the sort of woman who forgets to take a pill in the morning,” this monologue is a confession by Rose of all of the horrible things she’d wished had happened to Hazel and Robin’s child when the child was firstborn. This love triangle between the three characters reveals a refreshingly messy representation of people in their sixties who don’t have the answers but are trying desperately hard to find them. Rose is a unique and eccentric character with a great set of monologues for women over 60 to tackle. 

Rose – Monologue 1:
It’ll sound silly but. You were who I wanted to be when Igrew up. I thought, one day I’ll be like Hazel. I won’t smoke cigarettes and I’ll wear suncream and plan the week’s meals ahead and get a slow cooker and not just buy sandwiches from petrol stations and I’ll keep the bathroom really clean not just give it a wipe when people are coming over and I’ll stop crying all the time and I’ll do exercise and have a really neat handbag and do washing regularly not just when I’ve run out of knickers and stop losing earrings and not stay awake reading till four in the morning and feel like shit the next day and I’ll find out how tracker mortgages work and be fifteen minutes early to everything and most of all most of all I’ll know when I’ve had enough. But I never quite got there. And I think it’s a bit late now. And then tonight I saw your washing outside, on the line, and I thought about you, pegging it out, and how many times in your life you’d done that and no one noticed. And I thought, that woman holds up the world. So that’s why, really.

Rose – Monologue 2:
Because I’m the sort of woman who forgets to take a pill in the morning, I’m just that sort of person, I don’t make lists or eat salad, I don’t do yoga or – I don’t have a pension even. But Hazel was a very cautious person. I remember when we were on night shifts together, she always – this sounds funny but, she always smelt so lovely. And at first I thought it was you, I thought I was smelling you on her and that was what I found so… but then one day I asked her, what’s that lovely smell you always have? And she said it’s suncream. And I thought, it’s January and it’s night. And I wondered if maybe she was a bit mentally ill, but I did understand, in that moment, the fundamental difference between Hazel and me, and why you might be more drawn to… To that sort of woman. To the sort of woman who is cautious, and doesn’t make mistakes (…) No, it is, so when Lauren happened, I knew it wasn’t an accident at all, it was entirely intentional. And I remember, at the time, thinking, it might have been easier Hazel, it might have been easier if you’d just pissed on him. , The summer before she was born. Coming here. Watching you prowl around this table, I prayed, I really prayed that something terrible would happen and she’d lose it. Lauren. Don’t you think that’s wicked?

Hazel in The Children by Lucy Kirkwood

The Children also has two monologues for the other female character in the play, Hazel. Hazel is a retired mother of four; she practices yoga, she’s super-organised, and is the epitome of domestic efficiency. She lives on a farm with her husband, and has led an environmentally responsible life that she feels now warrants being a little selfish. Her monologue, early in the play, is about the decision she and Robin made to stay and fix up their property, and look after their animals, despite what she feels; that they had earnt the right to take the easier route just this one time. It begins “And then I had this amazing thought: we don’t have to. We don’t actually have to. To clear it up.” 

Earlier in the play Hazel has another monologue which is more of a meditation on getting older. It is also addressed to her old friend, Rose, and begins “I’m growing a beard you know.” She talks a lot about aging gracefully, and even more about body hair. It’s certainly a lighter alternative, and can even come across quite funny if the actor makes some strong decisions about Hazel’s quirks and sense of certainty in the face of the uncertain. 

Hazel – Monologue 1:
And then I had this amazing thought: we don’t have to. We don’t actually have to. To clear it up. It was like e equals m c squared, one of those exquisite pieces of thinking that’s so simple, you feel like Archimedes running naked to the king, screaming ‘eureka!’ Because when I told Robin, the relief on his face. And you know all our lives we’ve been those kind of people, when we have a picnic or, camping we don’t just clear up our own litter, we go around and pick up other people’s too, I have a little stash of plastic bags in my cagoule, that’s just our policy, leave a place cleaner than you found it but but but so you see we’d earned it. We’d earned the right, on this one occasion, just to say: at our time of life, we simply cannot deal with this shit. And we decided to leave that night. And we went down to the barns and we fed the cows for the last time and I just wept, I honestly, to think what they’d been exposed to, their big brown eyes looking back at me but what choice did we have? They always say you shouldn’t name them, but of course we’d named them, you can’t not name them, so I’m leaning out of the taxi like a mad woman, ‘Goodbye Daisy! Goodbye Bluebell! Goodbye Heisenberg!’ We drove away and we knew they’d all be dead in days.

Hazel – Monologue 2:
I’m growing a beard you know. This morning – I found two hairs on my chin and I looked at them, for a good minute, and I tried to convince myself this was alright , it’s natural, it’s chemical, it’s your age, you know? She takes an apple from the fruit bowl, begins to polish it on her top or a tea towel. Just oestrogen declining. Because you know I don’t hold with people our age trying to look twenty-two, because you see these women don’t you, in the paper, looking like stretched eggs, trying to hide it when all it’s doing is shouting it out loud isn’t it, ‘I’m old and I’m frightened of it!’ I mean and because I’m not frightened of it so so so so but then I thought no. No because this is how it starts isn’t it, the slow descent into the coffin it starts with two black hairs on your chin that you let run wild one day and you don’t even know it but right there, in that moment, you’ve lost, you’ve lowered your defences and the enemy’s got in hasn’t it yes so I went at these hairs I went at them ruthlessly with a pair of tweezers and I can’t describe to you the sense of triumph.
[HAZEL puts the apple on the table. It rolls down the table away from her. ROSE catches the apple, returns it to the bowl.]

Alice in The Dance of Death by August Strindberg 

In Strindberg’s The Dance of Death, Alise, in her early forties, is married to the tyrannous Captain. She is also cousin to Kurt, the Quarantine Master whose home this scene is set in. This monologue is delivered to Allan, Kurt’s son, who is in love with Alice’s only daughter, Judith. Judith has been flirting with Allan, and Allan is clearly very much in love with her. However, Judith has been playing mind games with him, flirting with other men, and being particularly cruel towards Allan. Alice, who demonstrates very little love towards her daughter, consoles Allan. But she’s also manipulating him and suggests he take a different approach. The monologue requires a little editing around Allan’s interjections, but begins with “You mustn’t be afraid of me, Allan – you’re in no danger from me.” 

Alice:
(Gentle, feminine, with genuine concern) You mustn’t be afraid of me, Allan – you’re in no danger from me. What’s the matter? Aren’t you feeling well? What is it? Have you a headache? Is it your heart? Are you in pain? Pain, terrible pain – as if your heart were melting away! And something tugging at it, tearing it apart… And you want to die, you wish you were dead, everything seems so impossible. And all you can think of is one thing – one person. But if two people can only think of the same person, then one of them is headed for sorrow. It’s a sickness, and there’s no cure for it. You can’t eat, you don’t want to drink, all you want to do is weep – so bitterly. You’d like to hide away in the forest, where nobody can see you, because it’s the kind of affliction people laugh at – people are so cruel! Ugh! And what is it you want from her? Nothing! You don’t want to kiss her lips, because you know you’d die if you did. Whenever your thoughts fly to her, you can feel death drawing nearer. And it truly is death, my child – the death that brings life. But you don’t understand that yet. There’s a scent of violets – it’s her! Yes, it’s her – she’s everywhere, she and she alone! Oh, you poor boy! You poor, poor boy! Oh, how painful it all is! There, there! Yes, cry – cry all you want. You’ll feel better for it – it’ll ease the pain in your heart. But now you must stand up, Allan, and be a man – Otherwise she won’t give you a second glance! That cruel girl, who isn’t really cruel! Has she been tormenting you? With the Lieutenant? Then listen to me, my boy – You’ve got to make friends with the Lieutenant, so you can talk about her together – that’ll help a little too. Listen, silly – it won’t be long before the Lieutenant comes to see you, to discuss her with you! Because . . . (Allan looks up, hopefully.) Shall I be kind and tell you why? (Allan nods.) Because he’s just as miserable as you! He certainly is, and whenever Judith hurts his feelings, he needs someone to bare his soul to. There – you’re looking more cheerful already! She doesn’t want either of you, my dear – she wants the Colonel! ( Allan looks thoroughly miserable.) What, the water works again? Well, you’re not getting this handkerchief back – Judith likes to hang onto her belongings, and she has a round dozen of these! (Allan is crestfallen.) I’m afraid that’s just the way she is. Now, sit over there while I write another letter, then you can run an errand for me.

Helene in Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen 

In Henrik Ibsen’s three-act drama about a widowed mother and the return of her prodigal son. In a monologue towards the end of act one, Helene Alving, forty-five, is revealing all the horrible things her husband did to her to the minister, Pastor Manders. When Pastor Manders suggests that by having ‘wayward ideas’ and denying her duties Helene had brought upon herself her dysfunctional relationship with her son, she decides that it is time to reveal the truth: the drinking, violence, and boastful infidelity of her husband created an environment so toxic for her son that she had no choice but to do what she did. The piece contains interjections by Manders that would have to be edited out, but with very few changes this would make a great monologue for a performer who is confident at playing with status, class and emotional vulnerability. 

Helene:
It’s my duty to tell you this. You’ve spoken and I’ve listened and tomorrow you’ll speak again in public but now it’s my turn. Nothing that you’ve said about me and my husband after you’d ‘led me back to the road of righteousness’, or whatever you called it, is based on what you actually saw. None of it. Was it? Because after that night when I came to you in utter despair, the second I came back to my husband, you never came near us again. And you never came to visit until after his death – and then it was only because of the business of the Orphanage. You have no idea. You have no idea. The truth. I promised myself that one day I’d tell you. The truth… My husband never reformed. He was the same when he died as he was when we married. ‘Full of energy and mischief.’ Ha! Even if he couldn’t do anything he was just as… debauched at the end as he was at the beginning. He calmed down a bit after Oswald was born, but I had to work even harder now I had a child so no one would find out that the boy’s father was a drunk and a lecher. But you know how charming he was – no one could ever believe anything bad about him. So I had to put up with it the things he got up to in town… the drinking, the flirting, the… whoring, because, well, it wasn’t in public, or at least wasn’t in my face, but then…The thing that really sickened me happened here. In this house. In that room. I came in here for something and that door was slightly ajar and I heard voices – my husband’s and the maid’s. ( Smiling briefly .) I can still hear them. There was a sort of murmur from him, then there was a laugh, the scrape of a chair, a sort of giggle… then she whispered: ‘Don’t, sir, you can’t…’ He slept with the girl. And it wasn’t once or twice. It was often. Beneath my roof, in her room, with her consent. And there were consequences. Oh, this house was a… university of suffering for me. To keep him home after that I had to sit in his study, night after night, while he drank and made me drink and forced me to listen to the foul stories of his sexual exploits and then he’d get violent and I’d have to wrestle with him to drag him to bed. The maid was the last straw. I thought: ‘That’s it! Enough!’ I took control of the house, everything, and he couldn’t object. I sent Oswald away – he was seven – I know – he’d sensed something going on, the way children do. I thought he’d get poisoned just by breathing the air in this house. That’s why I never let him come here while his father was alive. You have no idea what this has cost me. It was the work that got me through. God, how I worked. All the things he was praised for – the new properties and the improvements and the extensions and the innovations, and all the maintenance – do you imagine he could have done that? He’d just lie on a sofa all day with a bottle and a book about family trees. And I’ll tell you this: it was me who pushed him along on his good days, and I carried the whole business on my back when he was off womanising or wallowing in misery and self-pity.

Annette God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza 

Yasmina Reza’s God of Carnage, (originally Le Dieu du Carnage) is about two sets of parents who meet to discuss their children’s bad behaviour; one child has hurt the other in a public park, and the parents are agreeing to discuss the matter as civilised adults. Naturally, the ‘civilised’ nature of the meeting disintegrates into increasingly childish, chaotic behaviour. Annette Reille is a well dressed ‘wealth manager’ of her husband’s wealth. She is married to Alan, and the mother of Ferdinand, the child who knocks out the other child’s teeth with a stick. Towards the end of the play, and more than a few drinks in, Annette delivers a monologue about what men should and shouldn’t carry with them in public. 

Annette:
Well, if you ask me, everyone’s feeling fine. If you ask me, everyone’s feeling better. (Pause.) . . . Everyone’s much calmer, don’t you think? … Men are so wedded to their gadgets . . . It belittles them … It takes away all their authority . . . A man needs to keep his hands free . . . if you ask me. Even an attaché case is enough to put me off. There was a man, once, I found really attractive, then I saw him with a square shoulder-bag, a man’s shoulder-bag, but that was it. There’s nothing worse than a shoulder bag. Although there’s also nothing worse than a cell phone. A man ought to give the impression that he’s alone . . . if you ask me. I mean, that he’s capable of being alone …! I also have a John Wayne-ish idea of virility. And what was it he had? A Colt .45. A device for creating a vacuum . . . A man who can’t give the impression that he’s a loner has no texture … So, Michael, are you happy? Is it somewhat fractured, our little … What was it you said? … I’ve forgotten the word, . . . but in the end . . . everyone’s feeling more or less all right . . . if you ask me.

Augusta in The Turquoise Elephant by Stephen Carleton 

Set in Sydney, Australia in the not so distant future, Stephen Carleton’s The Turquoise Elephant is about a black political farce concerning the life of Augusta, her sister, Olympia, and their niece, Basra. Augusta Macquarie lives behind triple glazed glass to protect herself from the seemingly undeniable effects of climate change. Yet, deny them she does; this matriarchal powerhouse and conservative politician delivers a speech to her supporter at the end of scene five that begins, “They say all the grand certainties are dead. God. History. Truth. All dead. The weather – the seasons as we know them. Apparently even capitalism itself is dying! Please! You wish!” This is political rhetoric from a powerful character, so sure of herself and her cause. The speech is a great opportunity for an actor to play off their imagined audience of supporters, and demonstrate how words can be used as a political weapon. 

Augusta:
Everything’s dying, apparently. The weather – the planet as we know it. Apparently even Capitalism itself is dying! [Laughter.] Please! You wish! [Applause.] Oh, yes – it’s the end of days! But who exactly is complaining? The Chinese are investing in cloud seeding. Saudi Arabia is making a fortune out of drought-resistant crop technology. They’re growing food in dustbowls, and they’re making trillions in the process! If this is the apocalypse, I say bring it on! [Cheers] The smart people are thriving. The smart people see business opportunity in what’s happening to our planet. We have gathered here to solve the world’s problems, and we all know the solution is Fossil Fuels! [Loud cheers.] Petroleum and coal are the energy sources our planet needs to see it through this time of flux! The timing is urgent.
[Vika appears on the stage behind her. She walks slowly towards her, in the shadows.] There are actually those – the enemy within – who would have us live in permanent terror and apprehension about common sense solutions we are proposing. [laughter and applause. Vika approaches her.] Well, we’re not afraid of you! [cheers] To this home-grown enemy, to the faceless and so-called ‘cultural’ terrorists, this “Front”, these Turquoise militants, I say…up yours!!
[Vika presses a device cloaked within her clothes, around her chest. A massive bomb blast rips through the building. Screams. Sirens. Blackout.]

Eve in Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America by Stephen Sewell 

Stephe Sewell’s Myth, Propoganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America, is about the reverberate after-math of September 11 and is set during the Bush Administration in America. The protagonist, Talbot, is an Australian lecturer at an unnamed New York University who is struggling to hold back his criticism of America’s War on Terror. In scene thirteen, Talbot’s partner, Eve is speaking to her therapist and a thought about the rise of artificial intelligence launches Eve into a moment of self-realisation… 

Eve:
I suppose I am angry, but it’s so far down, I’m barely aware of it. I hate this, this floundering. I read this thing the other day, about self awareness— did you read it? That they’re trying to write software for machines to have self awareness— isn’t that a strange idea? And the reason is to try to improve their mobility, because if a machine isn’t really aware where it is in an environment, then it can’t really navigate properly— So the idea is to write a program which allows the machine to locate itself in an environment— and that’s a kind of self awareness; and so there I was thinking, is that all it is? All this goo in the middle of us, all this— who am I, where am I going, what does it mean? All that stuff that’s kept the motor of our civilization going for the last three thousand years— is just so I can get from the front door to the supermarket and back— And then I got a flash of one of those endless repetitive things— one of those Escher moments as I saw myself seeing myself seeing myself, all of us caught in a kind of transparent sphere of consciousness expanding at the speed of light— and you just wonder, don’t you— is Douglas Adams right, and the answer is forty-two? Well, he’d know now, wouldn’t he; or he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t if he’s just gone to dust, gone to cosmic dust disappearing into the darkness, and if machines can locate themselves in an environment, will they start wondering what it all means, too? And when they break down and decay, will they rage against fate and feel betrayed and alone? Will they feel angry that something has given them the ability to locate themselves in an environment, but never told them why they’re there? Am I making sense? Is any of this making sense?

Elaine in Breathing Corpses by Laura Wade

Breathing Corpses is a play by British playwright, Laura Wade, about the discovery of two separate corpses, and the characters tied to the events. In scene four, Elaine is talking to her husband, Jim, who has been going through a tough time after discovering one of these dead bodies in a crate. She enters this scene to find; ‘Jim sits cross-legged on the floor, carefully removing the crews from a brass door handle. Beside him, underneath a camping groundsheet, is a pile of doors.” Jim can’t move past the idea that the moment he opened the crate he cemented the dead woman’s fate: “Maybe in that second when I opened the box, maybe – Like if I hadn’t, maybe she’d have turned up at home a few days later”. And so,  in response, Jim has resolved to take all of the doors off their hinges. Elaine, whose patience has completely dried up, is in this monologue trying to get Jim to snap out of it. He’s already ruined Christmas, no one can get through to him, and she thinks enough time has passed for him to be returning to normal. 

Elaine:
Alright then. Can I say something?

I’m a bit- I’m a little bit sick of this. You let this mess up all of Christmas, our only time with the boys till what, a couple of days at Easter if we’re lucky and you hardly said a word to anyone you’d barely look at them and I don’t know if you noticed from in there but it was awful, Jim.  Cause bless them, they tried – taking you out to the pub and – and you just stared into your pint for an hour, no wonder they both went off straight after Boxing Day…

Will you stop clicking that, please?

I mean I feel like. I feel like you’re letting this get in the way when it really- It’s a bit. I’m a bit- the doors and the talking rubbish about fish in your eyes and- I’m sorry it happened but I won’t take responsibility and you shouldn’t because we had nothing to do with it and we’re not people that kill people and we’re not-

I don’t think you’re trying. I can’t believe how unimportant I-

Jim?

I don’t care about the business, if you don’t want it anymore, fine, we’ll sell it I don’t care. But you’ll have to do something else. You can’t just stay at home taking the place apart with a screwdriver.

Jim, you’ve got to put the doors back. I won’t be lonely, I can’t do it.

Unassigned character in Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again by Alice Birch 

In this uber-contemporary, feminist play by Alice Birch the characters are mostly unassigned and so quite a bit of text could be played by a woman of any age. But in particular, a piece of text at the end of a scene called “REVOLUTIONIZE THE BODY (MAKE IT SEXUALLY AVAILABLE. CONSTANTLY)” that begins with “I have felt very tired lately. I could fall asleep standing straight up.” would really suit a woman performer over forty. In response to an onslaught of abuse about her body, this character takes us through the logic behind how she is going to beat the societal pressures on women’s bodies; she is simply going to choose them, as a form of empowerment. No matter what the world throws at her, as long as she chooses it, it’s no longer an attack, right? It’s an intelligent, and interesting piece for an actor looking to perform something a little outside of Realism. This speech would suit a performer with rigorous textual analysis abilities who also wants the freedom to make a piece of text their own through their unique creative choices. 

Monologue:
I have felt very
tired lately.
I could fall asleep standing straight up.
I’m sorry about the watermelon.
I’m not sorry about the watermelon.
.
Where my body stops and the air around it starts has felt a little like this long continuous line of a battleground for about my whole life, I think.
Fortify.
.
I have cut my eyelashes off. I have covered myself in coal and mud. I have bandaged my body up and made myself a collection of straight edges. Fortify. I have rubbed iodine, bleach and the gut of a rabbit into my skin until it began to burn. I have nearly emptied my body of its organs. I stopped eating for one year and three days, my body a bouquet of shell bone. I have eaten only animal fat until I rolled, bubbled and whaled and came quite close to popping. Fortify. Make my edges clear. Where I begin and air stops is my motherland. No? I have sat under sun lamps until my skin crackled, spat and blistered. I have pulled my hair out with my fingers and my teeth out with pliers. I have wrapped myself in clingfilm, foil, clothes, make-up and barbed wire.
No fortification strong enough.
Nothing to stop them wanting to come in.
Lie down.
Lie down and become available. Constantly. Want to be entered. Constantly. It cannot be an Invasion, if you want it. They Cannot Invade if you Want It. Open your legs and throw your dress over your head, pull your knickers down and want it and they can invade you no longer.
Get wet.
Get wet.
Get wetter.
Turn on. Turn on. Turn on.
And want it. And want it. Constantly. Constantly. Constantly want it. Remove the edges of your body. Choose. My body is no battleground, there is no longer a line of defense – I Am Open. There are borders here no more. This body this land is unattackable, unprotected, unconquerable, unclaimable, no different from air around it or bodies coming in because there Is no in to come into, you cannot overpower it because I have given it you cannot rape it because I choose it you cannot take because I give it and because I choose it I choose it I choose it
Constantly.
This World Can Never Attack Me Again.
Because I Choose it. Over and Again and Again and
Over.

For more monologues for actors, head here. 

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Read more: Screen Monologues for Teens

Female Theatre Monologues for Teens

Dry Land (Ruby Rae Speigel)

Ester:
I’ve been sleeping in my swimsuit. I’ve been sleeping in my swimsuit. For superstitious reasons. I haven’t taken it off for a week. Because of this thing tomorrow. Swimming for the coach. One day he’s going to come watch me at a meet, and the next he wants me to come swim my best while he’s taping me from under the water, like invading all that space. And I’ve only seen his face once on a website, like a weird confusing blue website. And this is the only place I’m getting recruited for because a year and a half ago I had this thing where I couldn’t swim for like three months so all the other schools dropped me. And I have a rash. Like a really bad rash. I think. I haven’t seen it. I mean whatever. I’m not trying to make you feel bad for me,I’m just saying that I’m not like physically fit and smiling. I just. My mom is out of town, and her boyfriend is a car salesman with a kid. Who I hate. And I haven’t spoken to my best friend who might be my ex-best friend, I don’t know, we haven’t spoken in a week and she’s not coming to practice so, I told you. Do you feel special?

Dry Land (Ruby Rae Speigel)

Amy:
I used to hang out a lot at the Rock Shop. You know the store by the freeway where you can crack rocks that look like regular dull rocks but actually have this crazy dyed crystal stuff on the inside? I used to hang out there all the time and crack rocks. And hang out with the boys who worked behind the counter and then I went through puberty and they told me that I couldn’t crack the rocks anymore. That it was weird for someone my age with the way I look to be cracking rocks while kids had birthday parties. So you know what I did? I replaced some of the rocks with regular rocks, like from my yard. I never went back to see what happened but I bet they really had to explain when the birthday boy or whatever cracked this big rock and all there was, was more rock. That there wasn’t anything special hiding underneath that it was just more rock.

The Diary of Anne Frank (Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich)

Anne:
Look, Peter, the sky. What a lovely, lovely day! Aren’t the clouds beautiful? You know what I do when it seems as if I couldn’t stand being cooped up for one more minute? I think myself out. I think myself on a walk in the park where I used to go with Pim. Where the jonquils and the crocus and the violets grow down the slopes. You know the most wonderful part about thinking yourself out? You can have it any way you like. You can have roses and violets and chrysanthemums all blooming at the same time? It’s funny. I used to take it all for granted. And now I’ve gone crazy about everything to do with nature. Haven’t you? I wish you had a religion, Peter. Oh, I don’t mean you have to be Orthodox, or believe in heaven and hell and purgatory and things. I just mean some religion. It doesn’t matter what. Just to believe in something! When I think of all that’s out there. The trees. And flowers. And seagulls. When I think of the dearness of you, Peter. And the goodness of people we know, all risking their lives for us every day. When I think of these good things, I’m not afraid anymore. I find myself, and God, and I… We’re not the only people have had to suffer. There’ve always been people that’ve had to. Sometimes one race, sometimes another, and yet…I know it’s terrible, trying to have any faith when people are doing such horrible things, but you know what I sometimes think? I think the world may be going through a phase, the way I was with Mother. It’ll pass, maybe not for hundreds of years, but someday I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart. Peter, if you’d only look at it as part of a great pattern. That we’re just a little minute in the life? Listen to us, going at each other like a couple of stupid grownups! Look at the sky now. Isn’t it lovely?

A Property of the Clan (Nick Enright)

Jade:
I play the song for you…every time I come. The paper said somebody nicked your flowers. People are really off. But they’re planting a tree for you at the front of the school tomorrow at lunchtime. But you probably know that now. I bet you know a lot of things now. I should have been there with you Trace. A few times that night I thought I might sneak out. I really wanted to. Mum was reading in her room and I was just watching TV, I could have just left it on, sneaked out, come and found you. But I didn’t. And I keep thinking, if I had, would it have been different? Nobody seems to say anything straight. All these rumours go round and I just want to yell out, “this is Tracey you’re talking about! She was here last week – working at the Pizza Hut, going to netball, catching the ferry. She was one of us!” I wish I kept them earrings. I woke up that night, faces looking down at me. I should have known. When I went round your place on Sunday and I saw the cop cars and the guys from Channel – I should have realised. You were calling to me. That nightmare, it wasn’t one, it was you calling. The faces – they were guy’s faces, and I knew them all. The cops came round our place too, Mum was spewing. They’re going to interview everyone who was at the party. 70 kids they’re gonna talk to. But no one can talk to you. You can talk to me. Tracey – please talk to me.

Cowboy Mouth (Sam Shepard)

Cavale:
You’re so neat. You’re such a neat guy. I wish I woulda known you when I was little. Not real little. But at the age when you start finding out stuff. When I was cracking rocks apart and looking at their sparkles inside. I would’ve took you to this real neat hideout I had where I made a waterfall with tires and shit, and my own hut. We could’ve taken all our clothes off, and I’d look at your dinger, and you could show me how far you could piss. I bet you would have protected me. People were always giving me shit. Ya know what? Once I was in a play. I was real glad I was in a play ‘cause I thought they were just for pretty people, and I had my dumb eyepatch and those metal plate shoes to correct my duck foot. It was The Ugly Duckling, and I really dug that cause of the happy ending and shit. And I got to be the ugly duckling, and I had to wear some old tattered black cloth and get shit flung at me, but I didn’t mind ‘cause at the end I’d be that pretty swan and all. But you know what they did, Slim? At the end of the play I had to kneel on the stage and cover my head with a black shawl and this real pretty blonde-haired girl dressed in a white ballet dress rose up behind me as the swan. It was really shitty, man. I never got to be the fucking swan. I paid all the dues and up rose ballerina Cathy like the North Star. And afterwards all the parents could talk about was how pretty she looked. Boy, I ran to my hideout and cried and cried. The lousy fucks. I wish you were around then. I bet you would’ve protected me.

Dags (Debra Oswald)

Gillian:
All right. I’m going to admit something I never thought I’d admit to anyone ever. I’ve got a crush on Adam. Head over heels. Uncontrollable passion, etcetera. Unrequited passion, of course. Now I know this sounds like I’m throwing away everything I’ve said so far. And I guess I am. I know every girl at school except Monica is in love with him. I know he’d never go for a dag like me. I know it’s hopeless. I know all that. But I can’t help it. Just thinking he might look at me, my heart starts pounding like mad. And then I worry about whether he can tell my heart’s going crazy, and I have to act really cool. This crush – it’s like a disease. Do you know – oh, I’m almost too embarrassed to admit this – Adam misses the bus sometimes. ‘Cos he’s chatting up some girl or something. And do you know what I do? I get off the bus after one stop and walk back to school, so I can hang round the bus stop hoping he’ll turn up. Just so I can ride on the same bus with him. Isn’t that the most pathetic think you’ve ever heard? I’m crazy. I can lie here for hours thinking about him. Writing these movies in my head where Adam and me are the stars. I try to imagine how he’d notice me and fall hopelessly in love with me and all that. Like, one of my favourites is that the bus breaks down one day in this remote place and there we are stranded together. He discovers that I was this really fascinating woman all along. Far more interesting than all those silly girls at school. But – I say that I can’t bear to be just another notch on his belt. So Adam has to beg me to go out with him. Grovel almost. That’s a pretty over-the-top version.

Silent Disco (Lachlan Philpott)

Tamara:
I look around and see everyone in their own little world smiling- everyone dancing to their own tune not giving a fuck what anyone elsehas playing in their ears. For one whole song everything like that. You and me dance like everyone else, no-one tells us we shouldn’t be there, no one tells us we are dancing the wrong steps or we don’t know shit. The Carnie winks at me and I look back at you Squid. We face each other in the silent disco. I look at your eyes-your tough eyes aren’t tough aren’t hard they’re smiling. Right there and then-everything else blown away-just you and me Squid. You so close I feel you breathe. We’ve never danced like this before. You reach out and pull me closer to you. The way you pull me in-makes me feel like I’m the best thing in the world.

When I was a Girl I used to Scream and Shout (Sharman Macdonald)

Fiona:
Last week, I was on the bus, upstairs. I was going to see Dorothy and this girl up the front, she started having a fit or something. Must have been the heat. There were lots of people there between her and me but they, none of them… I went over to her and did what I could. She was heavy. I’d heard about them biting through their tongues. Epileptics. It wasn’t pretty. Me and this other bloke took her to the hospital. But I saw her first. He wouldn’t have done anything if I hadn’t. I didn’t get to see Dorothy. Well? That’s worth something, isn’t it? God. Are you listening? I’m not trying to bribe you. It’s plain economics. I mean, I’ve made a mistake. It was my fault and I was wrong. I take it all on me. OK. Now if you let it make me pregnant… God. Listen, will you. If I’m pregnant it’ll ruin four people’s lives. Five. Right? My Mum’ll be disappointed and her man’ll walk out on her. That’s two. Are you with me, God? I’ll not be very happy. My mother’ll hate me for the rest of my life for what I’ve done and that’s not easy to live with. That’s three. I’m still counting, God. Ewan’ll be in for it. Well, he can’t avoid it. I’m illegal and I’ve never been out with anybody else. Not that nobody fancied me. I wouldn’t like to think I was unpopular. Lots of people fancied me. My mum said I had to wait till I was sixteen. Then she relented just when Ewan happened to be there. Poor old Ewan. That’s four, God, that’s four. Then there’s the baby. If it’s there and if I have it it’s got no chance. It would be born in Scotland. Still there, are you? I hate Scotland. I mean, look at me. If I have an abortion the baby’ll be dead so that’ll be five anyway.

Eclipsed (Danai Gurira)

The Girl:
I cursed. She curse me, she say, she say “Devil bless you,” and now I, I, I can’t remember whot my moda she look like! I can’t remember! I go, I go get de gals like I always do afta fighting, but dis one, she looking all nice in ha nice cloth, she acting like she betta dan me, I wanted ha to shut ha mout’, to show me respec’. She kept saying, “Devil bless you!” Now she keep coming back to say dat to me, in my head, she won’t shut up her mouth! Den I say okay, I can fight this ting, I just remember my moda saying, “God bless you”— and dis thing gonna disappear. Den, den, I can’t see my moda no more! I can’t hear my moda no more! I just hear dis gal! I had just wanted to shut ha up. I tought…I tought…It neva happen like dat before, I got system. De men have to come to me and discuss which gal dey want, I give dem one. I tell dem—dis gal special, she your wife, she only go wit’ you. But wit’ dis one—I didn’t protec’ ha like I usually do—I just let dem tek ha, because she woz talking too much. Dey do it right in front of us at de camp, dey don’t care, dey don’t care dat God right dere, dat He can see whot dey do. Dey just keep jumpin’ and jumpin’ on ha, it five o’ dem and I see she too small, she just little, small small den me. I want to say stop but I scare dey gon’ come to me if I say sometin’. I see she stressed, she start to vomit — it look like rice or oats or sometin’, den ha eyes start goin’ back. I can’t move; den, den ha eyes just go still, she starting right up to de sky and she not moving; de fifth one he just keep going till he done. She got blood everywhere, dey leave ha lying dere and tell one o’ de small soldier to go get wata so dey can wash deyselves, dey tell me and anoda small soldier to trow ha in de riva, I just do like dey say, I too scare to say nothing. I tek ha armsand he tek ha legs, she still bleedin’ and bleedin’, ha eyes still looking up, I no look at ha no more. We drop ha in de riva and I pray. I pray dat God bless ha soul, dat He no blame me fore whot dosemen do. But it my fault she dead, and she tell me, “Devil bless you,” and now I can’t even see my moda no more! I cursed. I got dis sin on me and I gon’ go to de devil straight.

The Crucible (Arthur Miller)

Abigail:
I cannot bear lewd looks no more, John. My spirit’s changed entirely. I ought to be given Godly looks when I suffer for them as I do. Look at my leg. I’m holes all over from their damned needles and pins. The jab your wife gave me’s not healed yet, y’know. And George Jacobs comes again and again and raps me with his stick – the same spot every night all this week. Looks at the lump I have.

Oh John, the world’s so full of hypocrites! They pray in jail, I’m told they pray in jail! And torture me in my bed while sacred words are coming from their mouths! It will need God Himself to cleanse this town properly. If I live, if I am not murdured, I will surely cry out others until the last hypocrite is dead!

But John, you taught me goodness, therefore you are good. It were a fire you walked me through and all my ignorance was burned away. It were a fire, John, we lay in fire. And from that night no woman called me wicked any more but I knew my answer. I used to weep for my sins when the wind lifted up my skirts; and blushed for shame because some old Rebecca called me loose. And then you burned my ignorance away. As bare as some December tree I saw them all – walking like saints to church, running to feed the sick, and hypocrites in their hearts! And God gave me strength to call them liars and God made men listen to me, and by God, I will scrub the world clean for the love of Him! John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again! You will be amazed to see me every day, a light of heaven in your house!

The Little Foxes (Lillian Hellman)

Alexandra:
Mama, I’m not coming with you. I’m not going to Chicago. I mean what I say with all my heart. There is nothing to talk about. I’m going away from you. Because I want to. Because I know Papa would want me to. Say it, Mama, say it. And see what happens. That would be foolish. It wouldn’t work in the end. You only change your mind when you want to. And I won’t want to. You couldn’t, Mama, because I want to leave here. As I’ve never wanted anything in my life before. Because I understand what Papa was trying to tell me.

All in one day: Addie said there were people who ate the earth and other people who stood around and watched them do it. And just now Uncle Ben said the same thing. Really, he said the same thing. Well, tell him for me, Mama, I’m not going to stand around and watch you do it. Tell him I’ll be fighting as hard as he’ll be fighting some place where people don’t just stand around and watch. Are you afraid, Mama?

Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)

Juliet:
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,
When I, thy three hours’ wife, have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring.
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.
My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain,
And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my husband.
All this is comfort. Wherefore weep I then?
Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s death,
That murdered me. I would forget it fain,
But oh, it presses to my celebration,
Like damnèd guilty deeds to sinners’ minds.
“Tybalt is dead, and Romeo banishèd.”

Male Theatre Monologues for Teens

Fences (August Wilson)

Cory:
I live here too! I ain’t scared of you. I was walking by you to go into the house cause you sitting on the steps drunk, singing to yourself. I ain’t got to say excuse me to you. You don’t count around here any more. Now why don’t you just get out my way. You talking about what you did for me… what’d you ever give me? You ain’t never gave me nothing. You ain’t never done nothing but hold me back. Afraid I was gonna be better than you. All you ever did was try and make me scared of you. I used to tremble every time you called my name. Every time I heard your footsteps in the house. Wondering all the time… what’s Papa gonna say if I do this?… What’s he gonna say if I do that?… What’s he gonna say if I turn on the radio? And Mama, too… she tries… but she’s scared of you. I don’t know how she stand you… after what you did to her. What you gonna do… give me a whupping? You can’t whup me no more. You’re too old. You’re just an old man. You crazy. You know that? You just a crazy old man… talking about I got the devil in me. Come on… put me out. I ain’t scare of you. Come on! Come on, put me out. What’s the matter? You so bad… put me out! Come on! Come on!

Lord of the Flies (William Golding)

Ralph:
What makes things break up like they do? I mean, what is wrong with people? Let’s go to the other side of the island to hunt and have fun…and die here on this bloody island!? Doesn’t anyone care about getting rescued?! The fire should always be the number one priority! If it wasn’t for Jack, I would probably be at home right now…

My hair… it’s so long… I mean, I can barely see. And I can barely get my fingers through it. My clothes… they’re like cardboard. The salt… it’s everywhere. Look at my nails. I would do anything for a bar of soap… anything just to have a bath. Look at my face… look at me! I probably look like one of Jack’s hunters with all this dirt. Stupid face painting…as if they think it actually helped them catch that boar. I could be home right now. I could off this island with mom and dad and…

Mom always told me that sometimes things are better left unsaid and I have tried. I have tried to reason with him. I don’t understand. I was voted chief fair and square. He always says I am afraid and I am sometimes. But who wouldn’t be? Even Jack looked scared when he ran down that mountain. But of course, he will never admit that. What did I ever do to Jack? Why do you hate me, Jack?

I just wanted to work together, get things done on this island, and do everything we can to be rescued. But he doesn’t seem to care. I know he has a family; doesn’t he want to see them? And he is such a show-off: “I cut the pig’s throat, I spilled her blood” So what Jack?! Is that going to get us rescued? Of course not. The fire will. It is our only hope. Only no one understands that. Well, Piggy does, but Piggy understands everything, but it doesn’t matter anyway. There was a ship…

Supposed I stopped caring? Just like the others. Only Piggy seems to care… and I need more than Piggy on my side…So maybe I should forget the fire, put mud and blood on my face and join the rest of them. They seem to be having fun. And they probably have eaten lots of meat. Some meat would taste really good right now… So maybe I should stop caring too…

I’ve Come About the Assassination (Tony Morphett)

Young Man:
Violent? Violent, are we? Tell me what else we’ve ever been shown, Dad. Eh Dad? Eh? What else have we ever seen, eh? Teenager ordered the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, eh Dad? Bit of a kid worked out the answer to the Jewish problem, eh Dad? All you kids. All so violent. You were a violent kid, Dad, weren’t you? Fighting in the revolution. Cutting people’s throats an all. Who was it told you to cut the throats, Dad? Teenager was it? Or was it some old bastard with a grey moustache and one foot in the grave? Eh, Dad? Eh? Who nutted out the area bombing in Germany? Who worked out the flying bombs for England? Who said for every one bomb that drops on our kids, we’ll drop ten on theirs? Rotten pimply-faced teenage hooligans, wasn’t it? Eh, Dad? You know why you say we’re violent? Because some of us have taken a wake-up to you. I wouldn’t swat a fly for you or anyone else your age. But if I needed to, for myself, I’d cut God’s throat. I’m not killing for old men in parliaments. I’m killing for myself. And do you know why, Dad? Because all along, right down the line from the man with the club killing on the witchdoctor’s say-so, right through to the poor helpless bastards spitted on bayonets in what a warm, fat bishop could call a just war, right down the line, there’s always been another generation of kids to send off to get killed. But this is it. Since that bomb. If we muff it, it …. is … this … generation … that… picks … up … the …cheque. So that’s why I’m not listening to anyone but me. And for all sorts of confused reasons, I am going to kill that man in the car.

Gruesome Playground Injuries (Ravij Joseph)

Doug:
You know what, Kayleen? Jesus Christ, you know, I came to your house last year and your dad was there, and I know he hates my guts, he always has, and he’s like She is where she is. I don’t know where the girl is. He said he didn’t care and didn’t care to know. And I was about to just leave, but I didn’t. I didn’t and I said to that son of a bitch… You remember, asshole? You dead piece of shit!? You remember what I said to you!? I said to him, you are fucking worthless. You have a daughter and she is a gift from God. She is the most perfect being to ever walk this earth and you don’t even know it. And she loves you because you’re her stupid father. But you’ve never loved her back, you’ve just damaged her and fucked her up, and never bothered to notice she’s this angel. So fuck you, cocksucker. And then I told him I hoped he’d die alone. Which he did. So I feel a little guilty about that now. I can take care of you, Leenie.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (Simon Stephens)

Christopher:
I remember the 20th of July 2008. I was 9 years old. It was a Saturday. We were on holiday in Cornwall. We were on the beach in a place called Polperro. Mother was wearing a pair of shorts made out of denim and a stripy blue swimming costume, and she was smoking cigarettes called Consulate, which were mint flavour. And she wasn’t swimming. She was sunbathing on a towel, which had red and purple stripes and she was reading a book by Georgette Heyer called the Masqueraders. And then she finished sunbathing and went into the water and said, “Bloody Nora it’s cold.” And she said I should come and swam too, but I didn’t like swimming because I don’t like taking my clothes off. And she said I should just roll my trousers up and walk into the water a little way. So I did. And mother said, “Christopher! Look it’s lovely.” And she jumped backwards and disappeared under the water, and I thought a shark had eaten her and I thought a shark had eaten her and I screamed. And then she stood out of the water and came over to where I was standing and held up her right hand and spread out her fingers like a fan. “Come on Christopher, touch my hand. Come on now. Stop screaming. Touch my hand. Listen to me, Christopher. You can do it. It’s OK Christopher. It’s OK. There aren’t any sharks in Cornwall.”

Punk Rock (Simon Stephens)

Chadwick:
Human beings are pathetic. Everything human beings do finishes up bad in the end. Everything good human beings ever make is built on something monstrous. Nothing lasts. We certainly won’t. We could have made something really extraordinary and we won’t. We’ve been around one hundred thousand years. We’ll have died out before the next two hundred. You know what we’ve got to look forward to? You know what will define the next two hundred years? Religions will become brutalised; crime rates will become hysterical; everybody will become addicted to internet sex; suicidewill become fashionable; there’ll be famine; there’ll be floods; there’ll be fires in the major cities of the Western world. Our education systems will become battered. Our health services unsustainable; our police forces unmanageable; our governments corrupt. There’ll be open brutality in the streets; there’ll be nuclear war; massive depletion of resources on every level; insanely increasing third-world population. It’s happening already. It’s happening now. Thousands die every summer from floods in the Indian monsoon season. Africans from Senegal wash up on the beaches of the Mediterranean and get looked after by guilty holidaymakers. Somalians wait in hostels in Malta or prison islands north of Australia. Hundreds die of heat or fire every year in Paris. Or California. Or Athens. The oceans will rise. The cities will flood. The power stations will flood. Airports will flood. Species will vanish forever. Including ours. So if you think I’m worried by you calling me names, Bennet, you little, little boy, you are fucking kidding yourself.

Away (Michael Gow)

Tom:
Yeah, that’s what I had. An infection. Everyone knew I had some infection. I was sick. I was told the infection was running its course. That I had to fight. I did. One day a doctor came and sat on my bed and had a long talk with me. He told me that before I got completely well again I would get a lot worse, get really, really sick. And no matter how sick I got not to worry because it meant that soon I’d start to get well again. He was full of shit. He couldn’t look me in the face to say it. He stared at the cabinet next to the bed the whole time. And the nurses were really happy whenever they were near me, but when I stared them in the face, in the end they’d look away and bite their lips. When I was able to go home the doctor took me into his office and we had another talk. I had to look after myself. No strain, no dangerous activity. Keep my spirits up. Then he went very quiet, leant over the desk, practically whispering how if I knew a girl it’d be good for me to do it, to try it. ‘It’, he kept calling it. It, it. I put him on the spot. What? Name it. Give it a name. He cleared his throat. ‘Sexual intercourse’. But if I was worried about going all the way I could experiment with mutual masturbation. Know what that is?

Blackrock (Nick Enright)

Ricko:
You back me up, I’ll back you up. Then whatever happened we’re not in it. I know you didn’t kill her! I did. I fucken killed her.

Shana come on to me, then she backed off. Spider says it’s a full moon, heaps of other chicks down the beach, take anyone on. I knew which ones were up for it, mate. We both did. We checked them out together. And they were checking us out, weren’t they? You and me and every other prick. The whole fucken netball squad. So, I get out there. Wazza’s getting head from some bush-pig up against the dunny wall. One of them young babes, Leanne? I don’t know, comes running up to me, calls my name, Ricko, hey, Ricko! She grabs me, pashes me off. She’s on, no, she’s fucken not, she’s with some fucken grommet, he takes her off down the south end. I head towards the rock. I hear my name again. Ricko. Ricko. It’s Tracy. Tracy Warner. I go, right, Jared was here. It’s cool. I’ll take his seconds. She’s on her hands and knees. Says will I help her. She’s lost an earring, belongs to Cherie, she has to give it back. There’s something shiny hanging off the back of her T-shirt. I grab it, I say, here it is. She can’t see it. I give it to her. I say what are you going to give me? She says she’s going home, she’s hurting. I say hurting from what? Guys, she says, those guys. Take me home, Ricko. Tells me I’m a legend, says she feels okay with me. Look after me, Ricko. Take me home. Puts her arms around me. I put mine round her. I feel okay now, Ricko. She feels more than okay. I say I’ll take you home, babe, but first things first. I lay her down on the sand, but she pushes me off. Oh, she likes it rough. I give it to her rough. Then she fucken bites me, kicks me in the nuts. My hand comes down on a rock…A rock in one hand and her earring in the other.

It was like it just happened. The cops wouldn’t buy that, but. Would they? Now if I was with you…Will you back me up mate? You got to. You got to. Please. Please, Jazza.

Romeo and Juliet (William Shakespeare)

Romeo:
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Be not her maid, since she is envious.
Her vestal livery is but sick and green,
And none but fools do wear it. Cast it off.
It is my lady; O, it is my love!
O that she knew she were!
She speaks, yet she says nothing. What of that?
Her eye discourses; I will answer it.
I am too bold; ’tis not to me she speaks.
Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return.
What if her eyes were there, they in her head?
The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars
As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven
Would through the airy region stream so bright
That birds would sing and think it were not night.
See how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand,
That I might touch that cheek!

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