Choosing your monologue.
The first step to having a great monologue audition is... having a great monologue! A monologue is a short speech spoken by one character. Performing a monologue gives you a chance to embody that character, show us who they are, and bring us into a part of that person's story. Great monologues should have the following characteristics:
1. Great monologues come from plays. If you google "middle school monologues," you'll find a zillion links. These are free monologues that are available on the internet because some random person wrote them and posted them online. That random person MIGHT be a brilliant playwright. But it also might be Crazy Aunt Alice, who has 19 cats and 39 blue hats and writes monologues and poetry that... falls flat. And since brilliant playwrights are usually busy, y'know, writing plays, my money's on Alice.
2. Great monologues have a character you love. After all, if you don't love the character, how can we? That doesn't mean you LIKE the character- evil villains are AMAZING characters to play, but you probably don't want to invite them over for dinner. But there should be something about the character that you find exciting to play.
3. Great monologues take the character on a journey. If at the beginning of the monologue the character loves her sister, and in the middle of the monologue the character loves her sister, and at the end of the monologue the character loves her sister, how boring is THAT? I got bored just writing about it1 If at the beginning of the monologue the character loves her sister, in the middle she starts to feel worried about her, and at the end she is enraged by her- now that's a compelling story!
4. Great monologues are in the style of the play you are auditioning for. If you are auditioning for Jack and the Beanstalk, don't do a Shakespearean monologue, no matter how much you love it. And if you're auditioning for Shakespeare, don't do a monologue from Jack and the Beanstalk!
1. Great monologues come from plays. If you google "middle school monologues," you'll find a zillion links. These are free monologues that are available on the internet because some random person wrote them and posted them online. That random person MIGHT be a brilliant playwright. But it also might be Crazy Aunt Alice, who has 19 cats and 39 blue hats and writes monologues and poetry that... falls flat. And since brilliant playwrights are usually busy, y'know, writing plays, my money's on Alice.
2. Great monologues have a character you love. After all, if you don't love the character, how can we? That doesn't mean you LIKE the character- evil villains are AMAZING characters to play, but you probably don't want to invite them over for dinner. But there should be something about the character that you find exciting to play.
3. Great monologues take the character on a journey. If at the beginning of the monologue the character loves her sister, and in the middle of the monologue the character loves her sister, and at the end of the monologue the character loves her sister, how boring is THAT? I got bored just writing about it1 If at the beginning of the monologue the character loves her sister, in the middle she starts to feel worried about her, and at the end she is enraged by her- now that's a compelling story!
4. Great monologues are in the style of the play you are auditioning for. If you are auditioning for Jack and the Beanstalk, don't do a Shakespearean monologue, no matter how much you love it. And if you're auditioning for Shakespeare, don't do a monologue from Jack and the Beanstalk!
Preparing Your Monologue
If you prepare your monologue the night before- that's better than not preparing at all! But you can bet there will be folks at auditions who are more prepared than that, and don't you want to be as well prepared as they are?
1. Give yourself plenty of time to learn your monologue. That means time to memorize it, sure, but also...
2. Take time to really read and think about your monologue. What can you tell about the character from the text? What do they want? What is their journey? What else do you imagine about the character? The more detailed you are in imagining the character, the easier it will be to...
3. Make bold physical and vocal choices. How does your character walk? Gesture? Sound? What kind of faces do they make? Your character is not a Bigelow Middle School student- so they probably don't act or sound like one!
4. Perform your monologue for other people. Perform it for your mom, your best friend, your grandpa and your dog. The more times you've performed it in front of an audience, the less scary it will be to perform it in front of us at auditions. Please note that you don't have to take any of these people's advice- if your grandpa says you should skip during the entire monologue, you don't have to do that if that seems like a terrible idea. You just need to practice performing somewhere besides your in your room alone, because that isn't where or how we're having auditions.
1. Give yourself plenty of time to learn your monologue. That means time to memorize it, sure, but also...
2. Take time to really read and think about your monologue. What can you tell about the character from the text? What do they want? What is their journey? What else do you imagine about the character? The more detailed you are in imagining the character, the easier it will be to...
3. Make bold physical and vocal choices. How does your character walk? Gesture? Sound? What kind of faces do they make? Your character is not a Bigelow Middle School student- so they probably don't act or sound like one!
4. Perform your monologue for other people. Perform it for your mom, your best friend, your grandpa and your dog. The more times you've performed it in front of an audience, the less scary it will be to perform it in front of us at auditions. Please note that you don't have to take any of these people's advice- if your grandpa says you should skip during the entire monologue, you don't have to do that if that seems like a terrible idea. You just need to practice performing somewhere besides your in your room alone, because that isn't where or how we're having auditions.
