ULTIMATE MONOLOGUE

GUIDE

ACTING GUIDES

Brought to you by the team @ StageMilk

StageMilk

A comprehensive guide for finding, preparing and performing

monologues.

So you have an audition coming up and they’ve asked you to prepare your own monologue. Or, you’re auditioning for drama school and you have to prepare multiple monologues to perform to a panel. Or you’re just looking for a great monologue to sink your teeth into and use to practice and sharpen your skills. In the words of Larry Moss, there is no reason why every actor shouldn’t be working on a different 4x monologues every month!

We better get started then…

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How to find the right monologue for you.

Often the perfect monologue isn’t going to just magically jump out at you in a 5 minute Google search. Whilst we have endeavoured to compile great monologue resources for actors both on StageMilk.com, and in StageMilk Drama Club, there are thousands upon thousands of monologues out there, and thousands upon thousands of actors to perform them. Here’s how we suggest you find the right monologue for you.

1. Who are you?

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First of all, you need to figure out who you are as a performer. Where do your strengths lie? Where are your weaknesses? What gets you excited? What kinds of characters can you relate to? What kinds of situations can you relate to? For example, say I grew up in a small rural town in outback Australia, and I found this great little play set in a rural town, about a girl who wanted more for herself. Get a blank piece of paper, and mind map, or make a list of things that interest you, and refer back to this as we move on.

2. Go to the source. Whilst yes, you could spend hours on Google, or combing through monologue books - you could also go to the source. Find plays and read them. Find plays that resonate with you, where the premise interests you, where the characters intrigue you. Don’t know where to start? Ask for recommendations! Other actors will be more than happy to share some of their favourite plays with you! Then take yourself off to a book shop and if you’re on a budget, read the plays whilst your in the shop, and you don’t have to buy them! Or if you’re a StageMilk Drama Club Member, you have access to Drama Online’s database of over 2500+ plays which you can read online.

3. Be active.

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4. Let your personality shine through.

Although it’s impossible to fit everything into a short monologue, you still need to find one with an arc. Choose a work that has the character end up in a different place than when they started. There should be an active emotional journey within the piece. This will ensure that you have room to play and deliver an engaging performance. It gives you something to explore, something to wrestle with and will ultimately make for a much more enjoyable process and performance. Imagine watching 2 whole minutes of a character complaining that the love of their life doesn’t reciprocate their feelings, or that their mother is overbearing, or their father is in the war. Without the context of watching the whole play, the audience will tire after about 15 seconds.

When you’re auditioning, a monologue is an opportunity to showcase “you.” Casting wants to see why “you” are different from everyone else and can bring this role to life. Give them something to remember by letting your personality shine through the text. For example, if you find a dramatic monologue you love, but don’t relate to how the character cries at the end of the scene – then don’t cry! 99% of the time casting has seen that character cry (if it’s a well known piece), so if you go in and react as you would (maybe you would laugh uncomfortably?) then it’s more likely you’ll stand out. Honour the text, but also honour your own instincts. If you’re not sure, ask an actor friend to watch you perform, and get some feedback.

5. Stick to your guns! It’s all too easy to pick a monologue, rehearse it a couple times, fall out of love with it, or get bored, and be tempted to find another. We recommend compiling a list of a couple monologues that you really like, and then choosing the one which really stands out to you, and gets you the most excited. Often your first instincts are the best, and when you start to overthink it you question yourself and lose faith. Go with your gut feeling, and don’t try to please the panel, or the director. If you’re passionate about it, they will be too.

How to prepare a monologue.Monologues can be tough. They’re usually big chunks of text that are often performed in isolation. You feel like you have to summon emotion out of nowhere, and create an imaginary world without any context, and this can leave actors flailing. So I wanted to give you guys some techniques that will help you prepare your next monologue so that you can perform with confidence...

1. Read the play. Always read the play from which the monologue originates. It gives context to the monologue and depth to your character. Without reading the play you are stabbing in the dark and making choices that may not be true to the character. The play will provide you with a valuable well of information from which you can draw on, and will give you a good starting point for preparing your monologue. So find the play online, borrow it from the library, or buy it from a bookstore, and get reading!

2. Be a detective. Read the play again and again. And then go through the text. Ask questions and investigate what it’s about and who your character is. If time is limited, make some choices about your character using the information available. The better you understand the play, the better your monologue will be. There are many techniques one can use to help breakdown a monologue but they all have the same goal: we want to take the monologue from the general to the specific. We don’t want to fall into a wash of one emotion. Do an extensive amount of research on the time, the place, the circumstances, and the other characters involved in the play. It’s also worth learning more about the playwright and the context of the play: there is no such thing as too much research. 4

3. Dictionary work. If you are doing a monologue with unfamiliar language, look up all the foreign words in a dictionary. This is especially important with a Shakespearean monologue. You can also use Shakespeare’s Words, which is an excellent dictionary specifically for Shakespearean language.

4. Backstory. This is the fun part! You need to bring your character to life by creating a backstory for your character. Where have they come from, where are they going and what do they want in life? And how is that affected by their past experiences. Go to town! Some people like to write this as diary entries, or as a 1000 word bio, or as a stream of consciousness writing - this is an amazing way to really get inside your character and see what comes out instinctively.

5. Understanding style & tone.Whatever style your monologue is written in, you always have to play for truth. We value truthfulness in performance above all else. That being said, you have to understand the style and tone of the piece. I would recommend reading similar plays from the era, if it’s a period piece, or researching the style. You don’t have to ‘play the genre’, but being informed will help guide you with your acting choices.

6. Don’t just learn the lines, learn your lines backwards. You never want to be struggling to remember your lines during a scene or monologue. And when nerves hit, your lines are the first thing to go from your memory. It can help to learn the intentions behind each line. If you clearly understand the motivation behind the lines, you can then use a little bit of improv to get yourself out of trouble if you ever mess up a line or two. (However, this can be very tough for Shakespeare!)

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7. Inner monologue.One acting technique I love when working on a monologue is investigating the inner monologue of the character. The inner monologue is what your character is really thinking, and understanding this helps bring out the subtext of the piece. Even if a character is talking to themselves in a monologue there is often something they are hiding. We never say everything we are feeling! Go through your monologue and write out what the inner thoughts are of your character. Even if you just do this as an exercise you will learn something about your monologue.

8. Who are you talking to?This seems like an obvious point, but it is often ignored. Are you talking to another character? If so, who is it and what is your relationship to that person? Are you talking to the audience? In that case where is the audience in the room you are performing in? Are they directly in front of you or all around you? There are no right and wrong answers here, but you do have to have an answer. When you generalise and don’t know who you are talking to the monologue comes across monotonous and un-engaging. More often than not, unless doing a Shakespearean soliloquy, directing your monologue at another character is preferable. Work this out in your preparation, as it will inform your choices. If you are auditioning for drama school they will usually have actors there you can target your monologue at.

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9. Physicality and Movement.This part of monologue preparation is most often ignored. You want your monologue to feel natural and spontaneous when you perform, but preparing a rough blocking for your monologue can really help you in telling your story. Keep your character in mind, keep the given circumstances in mind, and most importantly your objective - see what you can come up with. If you suffer from performance anxiety (I certainly do) I definitely recommend blocking out a plan of when and where you move, otherwise you’ll probably end up standing dead still and your performance will come across quite stiff. Yes, there is a time and place for stillness and neutrality - but you don’t want to feel constrained. When we are truly connected to a monologue our body is responding freely.

10. Use an acting method.When working on your text use the approach that works for you. For some people that might just be thinking about the piece and working out exactly what you are saying, for others that might mean actioning the whole piece and doing a lot of intellectual work on the lines. Don’t be afraid to try something different, I find I use different techniques for different pieces depending on the script, characters, genre, and format. For example Stanislavski works well for me when I’m working on classical texts, and sometimes Chubbuck works wonders when doing a dark, emotional, contemporary piece. Whatever approach you use, make sure you are comfortable with it and not just doing it because a teacher or friend told you you have to. We do have more videos that go specifically into acting methods, so please check them out.

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11. Practice your piece different ways.Please, please, don’t get stuck in a pattern. Try practicing your monologue over the top, or in an accent. Try it lying down or bouncing around your room at home. It may seem silly, but it might unlock something for you, or at the very least, train you to be more flexible in your work. The actors that work the most these days, are the actors that are flexible and can take direction. They bring interesting choices to the roles they play, and directors love working with them because they think outside the box, always have ideas, and most importantly are open to direction.

12. Rehearse in front of someone. This has two benefits. Firstly, rehearsing the monologue in front of people gets you more comfortable performing, and will lessen your anxiety when you perform your monologue for real. Rehearsing can also be great to get feedback on your monologue. I would recommend performing your piece to a select group of people: peers you trust, directors, and more experienced actors. Performing for people outside of the industry, or close friends, can sometimes give you a skewed perspective of your monologue.

BE FLEXIBLE AND TAKE DIRECTION

However good your monologue is, if they like you they will give you some direction. This isn’t because you did it wrong, it’s

because taking direction is an essential part of being an actor. Always, always keep your process flexible so you can take on

what the director, acting teacher or casting director is asking for.

So there are my steps for preparing and rehearsing a monologue. Remember it’s about refining your own process and finding what works for you.

Audition Tip:

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How to learn lines for a monologue.

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A lot of actors look at that big chunk of text before them and get very intimidated. I remember when I was auditioning for drama school and learning lots of monologues I used to always pick the smallest! Because I was so scared of learning and possibly forgetting lines. So here are a few tips:

#1 Take your time. Especially if you are auditioning for drama school, you should have plenty of lead in time. Don’t leave your preparation to the last minute and instead work on your monologue a little bit every few days. That consistent work is a much better way to lock it in your memory.

#2 Learn the intention behind the lines. I always recommend learning the thoughts, not just the words. If you try to just learn the monologue for the sake of getting it in your memory, it will take longer to solidify. Work through the piece and really understand everything you are talking about.

#3 Break it into sections. Most monologues have distinct beat changes throughout. Understanding these big shifts and learning each section one at a time will really help. Learning a paragraph is much less intimidating than learning a page of text! Take it piece by piece.

#4 Learn your way. When you’re nervous, under stress and overwhelmed, the first thing to go will be your lines. So learn your lines under extraordinary circumstances - practice them whilst riding your bike, whilst cooking, whilst walking your dog, on your way to work, cleaning the dishes. If you can say your monologue at speed, and bake a cake with the TV on in background, you’re probably in a good spot!

How to perform a monologue.Let’s be honest: performing a monologue is terrifying. We’re actors and we love to be in relationship with another actor on stage. We love scenes, we love conflict, we love drama. This can be a daunting, but there are a few ways of making it a more positive and, hopefully, more enjoyable experience. So here is how to perform a monologue in 12 easy steps.

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1. Reminder: this is an opportunity to act.It is a chance to do what you love. We put so much pressure on auditions that we often forget that we are doing something we enjoy. When you start to think about auditions as simply acting it takes some of the pressure off the audition.

If, like me, you are always dreading auditions because you put so much pressure on yourself, then it’s worth working out how to change this. Auditioning is a big part of an actor’s life, and the continuous anxiety and stress can be harmful.

Enjoy it for what it is and then forget the rest. When we change our mindset, many of the common acting problems are solved. If you can bring a sense of play into your work it will be physically and vocally free, and your acting will have a sense of ease and enjoyment - which is infectious to watch.

You simply have to warm up, this is NON-NEGOTIABLE.

Find some time to warm up before you perform. Even if it’s just a 5-10 minute warm up, it will get you focused and ready to go. You will not only perform better, but you will feel better walking into the audition. That being said, you need to be aware of how best to warm up your own body, voice and mind. You might need 10 minutes of breathing and meditation, 20 minutes of yoga, and then 5 minutes of articulation. Or you might be someone who needs to go for a jog, do star jumps, burpees, and then tongue stretches. You need to develop your own unique warm up.

Head to StageMilk.com for plenty of warm up techniques, resources and plans.

2. Warm Up

Be confident as you walk into the audition room and be genuine with the people you are auditioning for. Go up and introduce yourself with a hand shake and feel self-assured in knowing that they wanted to see you!

They asked for you. They want you to get the role.

As cliche as it is, just be yourself. There’s a reason that phrase is thrown about all the time when it comes to auditioning - because it’s true. Some actors like to walk in to an audition as the character. And whilst I can see how this could help some actors, I also believe that your job is to be an actor. That is your craft. I think it’s much more impressive for an actor to walk confidently into a room, have a chat with the panel/director/casting director and then launch into an incredible performance where you barely recognise the actor underneath. This is what yo should strive towards.

At the end of the day it’s your audition. Do whatever helps you. For some that means running lines and talking with the casting director, for others that means diving straight into the scene. Find your own audition process.

3. Confidence and authenticity.

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4. Be flexible, take direction.Funnily enough, it’s not just about your acting

Theatre has a long and intimate rehearsal process. And Film and Television requires hours and hours of tedious work and also a lot of waiting around.

Creating a positive and supportive atmosphere in the rehearsal room and on set is a director’s chief aim. At an audition, the director will want to see that you are open and great to work with. Showing passion for the project, offering unique ideas and sharing opinions about the piece are great ways to do this.

You also need to be able to take direction. You will inevitably be given notes after your performance, so you better be more than ready to take them on and run with it, no matter how bizarre they might seem. In which case, I recommend you rehearse your monologue a million different ways in order to prepare for any direction the director might throw at you.

If they give you some direction as you don’t understand it, for goodness sake don’t just continue on and stab in the dark - ASK FOR CLARIFICATION. That does not make you a bad actor, or a bad human - if something doesn’t make sense, it doesn't make sense. Back yourself.

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A lot of actors misinterpret this advice, and they think making bold choices means delivering an over-the-top, inauthentic performance that doesn’t honour the text and doesn’t make any sense in the story. This is not going to do you any favours.

Make bold INFORMED choices. And in order to do this, you need to have a really strong grasp of the text - either from the play, or from the film or television series from which the monologue originates.

Always follow your instinct. But don’t leave it to the last minute to decide to do something radical, make sure it is something you have prepared and worked on. If it’s completely weird and doesn’t work, don’t worry! The director can always give you a note to tone it down, try something different or offer another idea. What they won’t do, is tell you to “tone it up” or “shine brighter”! If you don’t offer a bold choice, they’ll presume you are incapable of doing so.

If done right, interesting, unique choices show bravery and creativity. But this hinges on your ability to pull them off. Which is why you need to rehearse til the cows come home, and as part of your daily acting life, be constantly working on scripts and practicing making those choices and see them either soar, or fall flat. You might be able to fluke it once or twice, but continuously being an interesting performer is something you need to WORK HARD for.

5. Make bold choices.

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A monologue is never planned. A character wants to say one line, doesn’t get what they want, so they then try something else. They are always striving to do something with their words, which causes them to keep speaking. If they got what they wanted, they’d shut up and get on with it. But instead they keep on speaking. Investigate what it is your character wants, but isn’t getting, and keep in mind the spontaneity that comes with not knowing what you’re going to get.

This is where objectives come in… work hard and find reasons to keep speaking that aren’t because you like the sound of your own voice or because you have more lines coming up. Keep speaking because you NEED to, because if you don’t, you won’t get what you want. Monologues can be intimidating blocks of text, and it is tempting to rush through, and get it over with. But you need to find a way to breathe throughout your performance, stay grounded, alert and keep that drive, objective or goal throughout it all. Play to win. This is a great phrase - don’t ever slack off, be relentless in the pursuit of your objective, it makes for amazing drama.

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6. Chase your objectives.

7. Forget your prep. Be in the moment.Preparation is vital, but once you are in the audition room and performing your monologue don’t get caught up trying to remember all your preparation. If you have rehearsed well, it will be in your muscle memory and you will be able to just relax and perform.

Simply allow your prep to boil away underneath. It should inform your work, but it shouldn’t ever be a mechanical repeat of what you’ve practiced a hundred times at home. Your character is saying this monologue for the first time.

This is pretty obvious, but it’s amazing how often we forget this. Each word, each line, each idea is a discovery in the moment. Don’t cling onto your preparation.

What if something goes wrong? GREAT. Forgetting a line or changing the intention of the monologue half way through can actually be a good thing. Les Chantery, one of the best acting coaches I know, calls these gift’s from the acting gods. Les argues that these “mistakes” often allow you to stop being mechanical and force you into the present moment.

8. Be clear and direct. Use your full voice, and be clear and direct with the person/audience you are speaking to. If you are auditioning for theatre, they are not just looking at your acting ability, but also your movement, posture, voice and confidence. So show them you are a well-rounded performer. If you're not a well-rounded performer, then get to work! Get into voice class, get into yoga and physical classes - master the skills you need to perform your best work. At the end of the day, if the director can't hear you, or see you, or understand any of what’s going on for this character - then what on earth is the point? It becomes an entirely missed opportunity. I suggest filming your monologue at home and watching it back. You can be the judge of how well your performance is coming across on camera, and make adjustments as necessary.

The Creative Work

Don’t look the director in the eye. (It’s just awkward) This is a classic rule. It makes the people you are auditioning for feel uncomfortable and it can also make you uncomfortable and throw your performance. As a general rule I recommend placing your eye line just above their heads at about eye level.

At most auditions they will have an actor there for this reason, so take advantage of that. If they don’t then perform the monologue to a mark in the room. Don’t perform it to the director. If you’re not sure, then just ask!

9. Never look at the people you’re auditioning for.

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Don’t use excessive gestures. In some circumstances it can really work to be very physical, but for most monologues you are better off keeping movement to a minimum. If you can stand (or sit) still and deliver a monologue that is very powerful and impressive.

Do you make gestures to show your acting? Do you make excessive gestures because you’re nervous? Do you make gestures out of habit? These are the most common reasons, and all can be tackled through self awareness, physical work and experience.

Exercise A simple exercise is to try your monologue sitting on your hands. You will quickly see how much you have been moving, and how that movement is distracting from the monologue.

The key to battling this problem is preparing your monologue properly so that you know what your objective is and who you’re talking to in the monologue. Is it a friend? Lover? Parent? Understand your relationship to the person you are performing your monologue to. When you are really transcended within the monologue a lot of your physical habits dissipate.

10. Minimise gestures and movement.

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12. Drive it home. Thought changes. What we all love to see when watching great actors is an elasticity of thoughts. Human beings never think about 1 idea for more than a few seconds, we are constantly thinking, evolving, coming up with new ideas, solving problems, and reacting to stimuli - do not forget the extraordinary capabilities of the mind when performing your monologue. Mark out these thought changes on the page, and be clear when and why you are shifting thoughts. Remember who you are talking to: Make sure this is clear in your mind. Think also about your relationship to that person, or the audience, and the reason for speaking to them. This will help with drive.

So there you have it. Everything you could ever need to find, prepare and perform a great monologue. Remember the goal is to perform something truthful. Always seek out a monologue that you connect with and love. And then do the work that allows you to really find the detail within the piece.

In order to be spontaneous and exciting as a performer, I believe preparation is vital. It relaxes you and gives you confidence in your work, so put in the time when preparing and you will reap the rewards. Keep your work simple and direct and don’t try to do too much in two or three minutes.

We have had the privilege of working with and interviewing many of the best directors alive today, and one thing that has stood out is that everyone talks about how they look for someone they want to work with. In fact most of them say, “someone they can have a beer with.” Your work is important, but your attitude in the room is just as important. Be yourself, be genuine and be someone that people would love to work with.

Conclusion

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11. Get on with it.Don’t waste time. It is absolutely fine to take a beat before you start your monologue, but don’t do a full vocal warm up or meditation session in the room. Show them that you are the kind of actor who loves to work. Get in there, be professional and get the job done. At times it comes across as indulgent if you take a lot of time to prepare before your monologue, to “get in the zone.” Take a breath, bring to mind your objective and visualise who you’re talking to, then begin. The more you perform monologues, the better you will get at dropping in in a moment’s time.

ACTING GUIDES

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