7. What Monologue ?
For the purposes of acting, a monologue (or monolog) is a performance in which one actor speaks alone. The performance can last for less than a minute or go as long as several hours (as when one does a one person play.)For auditions, a monolog is usually one to three minutes in length. Frequently, auditioners are requested to perform two "contrasting" monologs. For example:
- A comedic monologue
A tragic monologue - A monologue with lots of energy, movement and a highly animated character
A monologue with low energy, not much movement and a lifeless character.
Monolog books contain monologs. Some of them also contain two or three person scenes. The monologs are usually from produced plays although some books contain stand-alone monologs that are written specifically for audition purposes and are not part of a play.
Most monologues books will provide a brief character description and synopsis of the scene in which the monologue occurs. When preparing to rehearse a monolog, it is best to read the play from which the monolog comes. This will help you better understand your character, the circumstances that lead up to the point in the play when the monolog occurs and the relationship(s) between the monolog's character and the other character(s) in the play to whom the actor might be speaking or speaking about.
Where can you find monologue books? You can buy them from our online store you can also find monologue books at most well stocked libraries. If you live in a small town and do not have any useful monolog books in your town library, ask the librarian what might be available through an inter-library loan program. You can also find monologue books for sale in many bookstores, although the selection is generally limited.
You will not find any good, contemporary monologue on-line. Why? Because good monologue usually come from well-written scripts. Writers who write good scripts publish their work and want to get paid for it. They simply will not post their good material on-line for anyone to download for free. You can find some sites with poorly written monologue posted, but if you are looking for quality material (which is what you want), you will need to go to the library or purchase monologue books.
You can, however, find the text to some public domain plays and some classical plays, like Shakespeare's complete works, on the Internet to download for free.
