How to Prepare a Monologue

A well-prepared monologue will help you get roles.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Blank Tapes
• Cassette Tape Recorders
• Plays

1. Read the entire play from which your monologue comes, several times.

2. Memorize the monologue thoroughly.

3. Break down the character. What does the character in the monologue want? How will the character get it?

4. Break down the monologue into a beginning, middle and end.

5. Practice keeping hand gestures, walking, pantomiming and use of props to a minimum.

6. Imagine the person you're speaking to in the monologue, and keep her clearly in your mind's eye at all times as you speak. Imagine her reactions, and see the other person in the piece. Remember, monologues are really dialogues in which the other person doesn't speak.

7. Practice performing the monologue first to an inanimate object. Then perform it for a trusted professional, such as a fellow actor or a casting director, and get feedback.

8. Try performing the monologue in several different ways. Be prepared to perform it more than one way at the audition.

9. Time yourself and make sure the monologue fits the length acceptable for the audition (usually one to three minutes).

Tips & Warnings

• Be brave and adventuresome in your initial interpretation and performance of the monologue. Then hone your vision in time for the audition.
• Choose material that you have an immediate gut reaction to - material that touches you or moves you.
• Record your monologue on tape and play it back to yourself repeatedly to help you memorize it.
• Choose a monologue from a play you love; don't choose one from a book of monologues. Those tend to be overused, and casting directors tire of them.
• Keep it within the time limits. Never go over!
• Don't look down at your feet.
• Don't move around too much; it's distracting.
• Don't perform the monologue too close to the casting director. Stand at least 5 feet away, and don't touch him or her.

[k-rey-c]

on 4/28/2009 Good post. And looking at your feet is normally a "no-no"

on 6/30/2006 You should always clear your mind from everything from the second you get to the audition area until you finish your audition. If you get distracted it could cause you to forget a line, or get even more nervous than you already are. Besides, it makes you look much more professional, and casters love that.

on 12/16/2005 When you are reading your monologue, always move your hands with the words you are saying. It helps you memorize it much more easier!

on 8/29/2007 Make sure your intentions are clear when performing a monologue. By doing so it reveals the character's goals.

on 11/22/2005 Here's a little opus on auditioning for you. This is what I was taught while in acting school, and I have found it to be very successful. First off, to be competitive as a professional actor for the stage you need to have about twenty monologues that you can use at any time, that show off different facets of your skill and range as an actor. Quite often auditors will ask you to do an extra monologue to see what else you can do, you need to be able to show them something strong. So only having two or three monologues ready is a big mistake. Of these twenty there should be monologues that cover all of the major theatrical styles that are regularly performed (classical, contemporary, experimental or alternative, comedic, dramatic, etc.).

For the purposes of this technique you need to consider any monologue as being one of three types: a journey, a choice, or a story. A journey is a monologue where the character is different at the end of the monologue than he or she was at the beginning, for example realizing something about oneself that had never occurred to the character before. A choice is just that, a choice. The character is choosing between two ideas. A story monologue is where the character is telling a story to someone else. Memorize the monologue in any way you like, by rote if that works for you, and then get ready to put it on it's feet.

Here's the performance end of this. It boils down to about five steps with slight variations depending on which type of monologue you are performing. The first step for each type is the same. It is called calibrating. When you enter (exuding personality and likability and all smiles), walk up to the auditor and shake his or her hand. Then try to start some small talk. What you are really doing here is stalling for a few seconds of time, because you should be backing up with small steps to determine where the auditor's circle of personal space is. With some practice you should be able to find it. It varies from person to person, but it is mostly a gut instinct thing (if you are too close you will know it, if you are too far you will know that, too). Once you are right on the edge of the auditor's imaginary circle of personal space (from taking tiny backpedaling steps to find it), stop for a second, finish off the small talk, and then take two large steps backward and introduce your piece. This should make it as if there is an imaginary circle of personal space around the auditor, and an imaginary circle of personal space around yourself. It usually works out to about six to eight feet between you and the auditor, but it can be more or less depending on the person you are auditioning for. This is very tricky to get right, so practice calibrating with several different people until you get the feel for it. Everyone that you calibrate off of will be different. Ask the person you are practicing on for feedback. At first it will feel like you are too far back.

If you are doing a journey type of monologue, you need to actually take a little journey through the space during the course of a piece. Break your monologue down into three different kinds of ideas during your preparation phase.
1. Anything referring to the thing that your character is journeying toward.
2. Anytime the character breaks out of the journey and talks directly to the character who is present.
3. Any information in the past.
At first you should highlight these three different types of lines in different colors. In the actual audition you are going to place the delivery of these three different types of lines in three different locations in the audition space. The person you are talking to will be over either the left or right shoulder of the auditor (by over, I mean directly over the auditor's shoulder), don't put it three feet off to the side. This is very important, as I will explain at the end of this post. The thing or idea that you are journeying toward will be directly over the other shoulder. Any information that is back story will be placed behind you, and will be referenced as a throw off during the course of the monologue. Once you have calibrated and introduced your piece, take another two steps back and step over until you are in front of the auditor's opposite shoulder to the one that you decided to place the thing you are journeying toward. Now start your monologue. Whenever, during the course of the monologue, the lines indicate you get closer to reaching the end of your journey, take a step toward that spot that you chose to place that idea. Whenever you go away from that take a step backward. If you break out of your realization for a moment (like an aside in Shakespeare) just turn your head to the other spot over the auditor's other shoulder to tell that to the person you are talking to, then go back into your journey. If you reference something from the past, throw that idea over your shoulder toward that spot that you picked on the wall behind you, and go back into your journey. By the end of the monologue you should be much closer to the auditor than when you started, but be sure that you don't cross into her circle of personal space that you established during calibration. Your journey should be slightly diagonal in relation to the auditor. If you placed the idea you are journeying toward over the auditor's left shoulder, you start on the right shoulder and cross diagonally to the left during the course of the monologue, being sure to cross through the center line of the auditor's body at the point that your character first realizes whatever it is that he realizes.

Whew! I hope I explained that clearly. The journey is by far the hardest to explain.

Now for the choice. Again, go through beforehand and identify three types of dialog, and add a fourth in there as well only for choice monologues.
1. The first idea or thing you are choosing from.
2. The second idea or thing you are choosing from.
3. Any line talking directly to the person you are speaking to.
4. Anything in the past that is referenced in the monologue.
Now for performing. Go in and calibrate, being sure to set up your personal space and the auditor's. Do not take any more steps back after this. This is not a journey monologue. Now pick a spot directly over the auditor's head. This is where the person you are talking to is. Directly over each shoulder, you place each of the things you are trying to choose between (so for the Hamlet monologue, anything having to do with "to be" goes over the left shoulder, and everything to do with the idea "not to be" goes over the right shoulder, or vice versa, your choice). Everything in the past goes over either your left or right shoulder and is referenced as a throw off during the monologue. When you are going through the monologue, if you are talking directly to the person who is present during the piece, turn your upper body to the spot in the center. If you are considering the first idea, turn to the corresponding spot over the auditor's shoulder, and if you are considering the other idea, turn your upper body to the other spot over the auditor's other shoulder. Anything that has to do with the past, and is not directly related to the point of the monologue, should be quickly referenced over your shoulder behind you. At the end of the monologue it is nice if you can find some physical way to represent bringing these two ideas into direct opposition, but that can't always be done.

Now for the story monologue. Identify the following:
1. Any lines that have to do with the story being told.
2. Any lines that are directly to the character listening to the story (like an aside).
3. Any lines that have to do with past information, not directly related to the story your character is telling. Now in performance, after you have calibrated, choose three spots. Over one of the auditor's shoulders, direct anything having to do with the story being told. Over the other shoulder, place any time the character breaks out of the story and talks directly to the other character. Anything that is in the past, and doesn't have to do with the story at hand, should be placed behind you and referenced quickly. Go through the monologue, and find a way to bring it closure.

This technique is in addition to all that good acting stuff that you should know before you ever start to audition for anything. If you don't know the basics of physical and internal actions, voice, speech, movement, and so forth, don't waste anyone's time by auditioning for parts. This is advanced, and is mainly a technique that increases your chances of holding the auditor's attention during an actual audition. It has to do with the triangulation effect that is achieved by placing the different ideas over the auditor's shoulders in combination with the distance that you are from the auditor when you start the audition (the calibration phase). For whatever reason, it has the effect of the auditors paying more attention to what you are performing. With this technique, don't let it be wooden and robotic, make it your own. Figure out how to make it like that's just the way this character does things. Identify a strong beginning, middle and end. Use all of that other stuff first. Apply this to all of your monologues and practice all of your monologues at least every other day, in as close to audition conditions as you can. You will see results. Also, just as a guideline, most of your audition pieces should be between 60 and 90 seconds long, but you should have a couple that go for 2 and a half minutes, for those rare long audition formats.