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Choosing the right monologue is crucial for a successful theater audition. It’s important to consider the genre, style, and characters of the play. Contrasting monologues can showcase your range, but avoid overused famous speeches. Monologue books can be helpful, but it’s recommended to have a portfolio of four or five memorized pieces ready at all times.
Most auditions for plays, musicals, or theater companies involve performing a monologue to assess your skill level. These are generally talks one or two minutes into a game. An actor’s chosen speech can have a huge impact on his ability to land a part or earn a place in a company.
When choosing a monologue, many experts believe that the most important factor is knowing what genre of play you’re auditioning for. Is it a comedy or a tragedy? Shakespeare or Rogers and Hammerstein? In choosing a piece to audition, you should ideally look for a talk that is in the same style, time period, or authorship as the work you are auditioning. It’s not recommended to pick a piece from the performance you’re listening for, and some listeners specifically forbid doing so.
It’s also helpful to know the specific characters in the game. If the main character of the play is a depressed 50-year-old woman, you don’t want to audition with a monologue from a carefree 20-year-old cowgirl. One of the goals of an audition is to get listeners to imagine you in the desired role. By choosing a speech that could be given by a similar character, you can give them a picture of how you would do in the part.
In auditions for a theater company or repertoire, auditors may ask for contrasting monologues. Typically, this means two monologues contrasting in tone and time frame. For example, you might perform a dramatic Shakespeare piece and a modern farcical one. Alternatively, you could do a comedic speech from one of Oscar Wilde’s 19th-century plays and a gritty dramatic monologue from a modern play. With contrasting monologues, listeners are looking for how broad your performance range is, so be sure to pick pieces that are as different from each other as possible.
When choosing your monologue, you are tempted to give an interpretation of a famous speech from a play. This is not recommended by most listeners. With a famous piece, like the “To Be Or Not To Be” speech in Hamlet, seasoned theater professionals are likely to have heard it dozens or hundreds of times and may be bored. If you love a famous person and want to use one of their monologues, choose one that you don’t know.
Many people use monologue books to help them find material. Many are available in bookstores and can be very useful tools. These books are especially useful if you’re in a hurry to find a piece, as they’re often indexed by subject, time period, or style. You may not want to rely on them totally, however, as many people use them and they can lead to repetition of pieces.
Some theater experts recommend keeping a portfolio of four or five monologues in memory at all times, so you’re ready for any audition. The portfolio should consist of at least two comedic and two dramatic pieces and a “wild card” monologue that can be used for an unusual situation. Two of the pieces in your portfolio should be pre-twentieth century and two should be contemporary. Having a portfolio memorized allows you to prepare for an audition at your leisure, rather than rushing to memorize a new monologue on short notice.
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