Good Authors for Monologues

Video Transcript

"Good day. I'm Dr. Charles Grimes, and I'm speaking today on behalf of Expert Village about finding a theatrical monologue for use in auditions. As you look for monologues, you need to look for good authors who will give you excellent rewarding material to look on and to work on. You need to present yourself as an intelligent artist, capable of dealing with many different scripts and many different texts. You don't want to waste your time working on a monologue that will show you to be an unsophisticated person. That's why I say, don't waste your time on Neil Simon or Bernard Slade or other plays that are just too popular and the director will have seen them, ad infinitum, and you will give yourself nothing to challenge yourself with as an actor. Many actors say, I don't want to find a monologue that's been done too often, and that is a significant problem. Let me suggest some good authors to look at. First, try seventeenth and eighteenth century comic writers, such as Richard Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith, George Farquar, and William Congreath. These give you excellent language to work with, and they have not been seen too often by any director. The unfortunate thing about Shakespeare is that, especially for young people, all of these monologues will have been seen by directors all across the world. So I suggest moving away from Shakespeare, and off into some contemporary playwrights of his, for instance, Ben Johnson. These will not have been seen by everyone in the world, and their cousin. I also suggest plays by contemporary American playwrights. Here's some one act plays by Tennessee Williams, which have just been rediscovered and put into book form and is an excellent option to choose. I also like Suzanne Laurie Parks, a contemporary American African American playwright, who provides excellent parts for all kinds of actors. Other contemporary authors: Nicki Silver, David Greenspan, Toni Kishner, Neil Labutte. If you look at newer material, you're more likely to find pieces which have no been over done."