{"id":26561,"date":"2022-07-12T16:41:31","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T15:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weareactors.com\/?p=26561"},"modified":"2023-01-15T06:58:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-15T06:58:37","slug":"john-patrick-shanley-monologues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weareactors.com\/john-patrick-shanley-monologues\/","title":{"rendered":"John Patrick Shanley Monologues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"John<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

John Patrick Shanley is is one of the more prominent modern playwrights who\u2019s work is worked on by actors in drama schools all over the world. For that reason we have compiled a list of John Patrick Shanley Monologues to help you with some material to work on in class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doubt: A Parable Monologues<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Summary: Mrs. Mueller tells Sister Aloysius that her son needs a man in his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MRS. MULLER:<\/strong> You accept what you got to accept and you work with it. \u2026 Well he\u2019s got to be somewhere, maybe he\u2019s doin\u2019 some good too \u2026 Well maybe some of them boys want to get caught. \u2026 That\u2019s why his father beat him. Not the wine. \u2026 I\u2019m talkin\u2019 about the boy\u2019s nature, nun. Not anything he\u2019s done. You can\u2019t hold a child responsible for what God gave him to be. \u2026 But then there\u2019s the boy\u2019s nature \u2026 Forget it then. Forcing people to say things. My boy came to your school \u2018cause they were gonna kill him in the public schools. His father don\u2019t like him. He come to your school, kids don\u2019t like him. One man is good to him, this priest. And does a man have his reasons? Yes. Everybody does. You have your reasons but, do I ask the man why he\u2019s good to my son? No. I don\u2019t care why. My son needs some man to care about him. And to see him through the way he wants to go. And thank God this educated man, with some kindness in him, wants to do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 30s 40s
Gender: Monologues For Women
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download This Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FLYNN<\/strong>: It\u2019s me that cares about that boy, not her. Has she ever reached out a hand to that child or any child in this school? She’s a block of ice! Children need warmth, kindness, understanding! What does she give them? Rules. That black boy needs a helping hand or he\u2019s not going to make it here! But if she has her way, he\u2019ll be left to his own undoing. Why do you think he was in the sacristy drinking wine that day? He\u2019s in trouble! She sees me talk in a human way to these children and she immediately assumes there must be something wrong with it. Something dirty. Well, I\u2019m not going to let her keep this parish in the Dark Ages! And I\u2019m not going to let her destroy my spirit of compassion! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

SISTER JAMES: I’m sure that’s not her intent.<\/del><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FLYNN: I care about this congregation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SISTER JAMES: I know you do.<\/del><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FLYNN: Like you care about your class! You love them, don’t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SISTER JAMES: Yes.<\/del><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FLYNN: That’s natural. How else would you relate to children? I can look at your face and know your philosophy: kindness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SISTER JAMES: I don’t know. I mean, of course.<\/del><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FLYNN: What is Sister Aloysius\u2019 philosophy do you suppose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SISTER JAMES: I don’t have to suppose. She’s told me. She discourages… warmth. She’s suggest I be more… formal.<\/del><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FLYNN: There are people who go after your humanity, Sister James, who tell you the light in your heart is a weakness. That your soft feelings betray you. I don\u2019t believe that. It\u2019s an old tactic of the cruel people to kill kindness in the name of virtue. Don\u2019t believe it. There\u2019s nothing wrong with love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SISTER JAMES: Of course not, but… <\/del> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FLYNN: Have you forgotten hat was the message of the Savior to us all? Love. Not suspicion, disapproval and judgement. Love of people. Have you found Sister Aloysius a positive inspiration?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 30s 40s 50s 60s
Gender: Monologues For Men
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download This Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Dreamer examines His Pillow Monologues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DONNA<\/strong>: Alright. [a long pause<\/em>] Tommy an me \u2026 When he loves me. In bed. When he puts his arms around me, and I can feel his skin, his heart beating, his breath, and I smell him, it\u2019s like Africa. It\u2019s like, I get scared because all of my guts shake \u2026 Sometimes I press my hands against myself because I think things are coming loose inside. He just touches me, starts to barely touch me, and I\u2019m so frightened because it\u2019s so much, it\u2019s so hot, it\u2019s so close to losing my mind. It\u2019s beyond pleasure. It\u2019s \u2026 he takes me over. Like there\u2019s a storm, I get caught in this storm with electricity and rain and noise and I\u2019m blind I\u2019m blind. I\u2019m seeing things, but just wild, wild shapes flying by like white flyin rain and black shapes. I feel I feel this this rising thing like a yell a flame. My hair I can feel my hair like slowly going up on its toes on my skull my skull. Everything goes up through me from my belly and legs and feet to my head and all these tears come out but it can\u2019t get out that way, so it goes down against my throat swells an through down to where it can get out GET OUT GET OUT. But it doesn\u2019t go out, so I, I EXPAND. Like to an ocean. To hold the size of it. An then it\u2019s maybe something you could speak of as pleasure, since then somehow I can hold it. I\u2019m this ocean with a thousand moons and comets reflecting in me. And then I come back. Slowly. Slowly. From such a long way. And such a different size. And I\u2019m wet. My body my hair. The bed is just soaked, torn up and soaked. There ain\u2019t a muscle left in me. I\u2019m all eyes. My eyes are the size of like two black pools of water in the middle of an endless night. And Tommy\u2019s there. And he did it to me. He took me completely. I wasn\u2019t me anymore. I was just a blast a light out in the stars. What could be better than that? What could be better? It\u2019s like gettin to die, an get past death, to get to the universe, an then come back. In the world where we talk and fight and he fucks me over, it all just seems so unimportant after that. I don\u2019t understand how he can do that for me an then turn around an be such a, well, smaller. It is a small world this world, in comparison to where we go in bed. And I guess we gotta be smaller in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 20s 30s
Gender: Monologues For Women
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download this Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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DONNA<\/strong>: An Mona. A really lousy picture, self-picture. But it scared me. I think more than anything that\u2019s ever happened to me. I heard the fuckin Twilight Zone music. Cause here I am, goin along, thinkin things are one way, that I\u2019m choosin an goin my own way, an maybe doin a terrible fuckin botch a that, but doin it. An then I see this picture. And I think, Do I really know what\u2019s goin on in my life? Or am I just a complete molecule or some shit. If this guy Tommy is turnin into you, then I\u2019m in some kinda car I don\u2019t even know I\u2019m in, and some guy inna scary mask is drivin, an he\u2019s had the route the map since the doctor smacked my ass. Where am I? I\u2019m in love with this guy Tommy. He\u2019s drivin me crazy, yeah. He\u2019s tearin my heart out an steppin on it, yes. The whole thing I\u2019m doin looks to be a total fuckup, but I can deal with that I can live with that. But what I wanna know gotta know is IS THIS MY LIFE OR WHAT? Is this my pain? My love? Or if what\u2019s goin on here like history? You treated my mother like shit. You cheated on her. You lied to her. You humiliated her in public. When you had money, you wouldn\u2019t give her any. When she had money, you took it. You walked on her face with muddy shoes. When she was in the hospital, you didn\u2019t visit her. And then finally she just fuckin died. Now I hate your fuckin guts for that, but I decided a long time since that I wasn\u2019t gonna spend my whole life wishin you dead or different, cause I didn\u2019t want my life bossed by your life. I even thought, Maybe she deserved it. I knew I didn\u2019t know the whole story and never would an what was it my business anyway? But that was before. Today, I saw that picture on Tommy\u2019s wall, an it was writin on the wall to me, an the writin said, Watch Out. You could be in the middle of somebody else\u2019s life. So that\u2019s why I\u2019m here. Because before I thought I didn\u2019t have to know about you to do my life, and now I see I better find out a few things. It\u2019s like medical history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 20s 30s
Gender: Monologues For Women
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download This Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Savage In Limbo Monologues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

(Tony Aronica describes why he’ll only date ugly girls from now on.)<\/strong>
Tony:<\/strong> I was in my car outside this place over the weekend. I hadda couple a drinks and I was a little fuzzy, so I was waitin till I cleared. It was dark. I was sittin there. And this unknown girl got in. She just got in the car. And she started talkin to me. She started rappin to me about the Soviet Union. Yeah. ’bout their economy. Housin. How they feel about China bein’ right there. Everything. Everything about the Soviet Union. She musta talked for two hours. Russian paranoia. Tass. The Gulag. I’m sittin there an’ I’m takin’ this in. The Trans-Siberian Railroad. hat kinda tanks they got in Eastern Europe. Why they need American wheat. And then she was finished. She’d told me everything she knew. So I took her in the back seat and I banged her. And do you know something? It was the best. It was the best I ever had. And it whadn’t cause she knew a lotta tricks or like that. It was ’cause she’d told me about the Soviet Union. And then she left. Now here’s the thing. She was very ugly. I don’t even wanna talk about how she looked. Mucho ugly. I didn’t think I could ever be with a woman like that. But it came about outta whatever, happpenstance, and I was. And it turned out to be better than what I went after. Do you see what I mean? Do you see what I’m comin’ towards? I always went for the girl like you. And what finally fuckin’ come to me, what finally fuckin’ penetrated the wall here, was that there was somethin’ else. Somethin’ I never even thought about, didn’t have a clue about. When I talked to you, I called it ugly girls. I don’t know what to call it. There’s other people. Like in science fiction. Another dimension right there but you can’t see it. I got into it for a minute by accident. Through a crack. I caught a flash. The dimension a ugly girls. I’m like one a those guys inna factory and they bring in all new machines. That’s what I feel like. Like I gotta retrain or I’m gonna lose my place. Some girls you look at some girls you don’t. I wanna see the things I didn’t see before an let the stuff I was lookin at go by. I’ve done the fuckin thing we’re in. Linda. I’ve been with you, I talked to you. I know what that is. That’s what I meant when I said you didn’t know nothin, but I whadn’t sayin it right. You look at what I look at. You know what I know. I wanna look at somethin else. I wanna know somethin else. I’m thirty-two years old. I wanna change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 20s 30s 40s
Gender: Monologues For Men
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download This Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SAVAGE: <\/strong>I feel strong. Like I\u2019m wearin chains and I could snap \u2019em any time. I feel ready. I go to work and I feel like I could take over the company, but I just type. I go home and I see my mother in her chair and I feel like I could pick her up with one hand and chuck her out the window and roll up the rug and throw a big party. Everybody\u2019s invited. I go to the library and I wanna take the books down off the shelves and open all the books on the tables and argue with everybody about ideas. I wanna think out loud. I wanna think out loud with other people. You know what\u2019s wrong with everybody? Too smart. I know it sounds crazy. I know. But it\u2019s true. Everybody\u2019s too smart. It\u2019s like everybody knows everything and everybody argued everything and everything got hashed out and settled the day before I was born. It\u2019s not fair. They know about gravity so nobody talks about gravity. It\u2019s a dead issue. Look at me. My feet are stuck to the fuckin floor. Fantastic. But no. That\u2019s gravity. Forget it. It\u2019s been done it\u2019s been said it\u2019s been thought, so fuck it. It\u2019s not fair. I\u2019ve been shut outta everything that mighta been good by a smartness around that won\u2019t let me think one new thing. And it\u2019s been like that with love, too. You\u2019re a little girl and you see the movies and maybe you talk to your mother and you definitely talk to your friends and then you know, right? So you go ahead and you do love. And somethin a what somebody told ya inna movie or in your ear is what love is. And where the fuck are you then, that\u2019s what I wanna know? Where the fuck are you when you\u2019ve done love, and you can point to love, and you can name it, and love is the same as gravity the same as everything else, and everything else is a totally dead fuckin issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 20s 30s
Gender: Monologues For Women
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download This Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Danny And The Deep Blue Sea Monologue<\/h2>\n\n\n\nROBERTA:\u00a0<\/strong>That\u2019s what it is. There\u2019s boats right up by Westchester Square. What\u2019s that, twenty blocks? Look sometime, you\u2019ll see \u2019em. Not the real big ones, but big. Sea boats.I met a sailor in the bar one time. In the outfit, you know? I was all over him. But he turned out to be nothin but a pothead. He giggled a lot. It was too bad because \u2026 Well, it was too bad.<\/p>When we got married, me and Billy, that was my husband, we smoked a ball of opium one night. It really knocked me out. I fell asleep like immediately. And I dreamed about the ocean. It was real blue. And there was the sun, and it was real yellow. And I was out there, right in the middle of the ocean, and I heard this noise. I turned around, and whaddaya think I saw? Just about right next to me. A whale! A whale carne shootin straight outta the water! A whale! Yeah! And he opened up his mouth and closed it while he-was up there in the air. And people on the boat said, Look! The whales are jumpin! And no shit, these whales start jumpin outta the water all over the place. And I can see them! Through one a those round windows. Or right out in the open. Whales! Gushin outta the water, and the water gushin outta their heads, you know, spoutin! And then, after a while, they all stopped jumpin. It got quiet. Everybody went away. The water smoothed out. But I kept lookin at the ocean. So deep and blue. And different. It was different then. \u2018Cause I knew it had all them whales in it.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 20s 30s 40s
Gender: Monologues For Women
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download This Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Italian American Reconciliation Monologue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

ALDO:<\/strong> So our fathers are dead. We can’t go on trying ta make our fathers love us or fightin our fathers or tryin ta kill our fathers. What’s the point of killing a dead man cause he won’t love you? A dead man don’t need killin and a dead man can’t love you at all. I know you’re crazy and just me talking ain’t gonna make you sane. But comon! We’re all crazy, that ain’t no excuse. You been treated me bad my whole life and enough already. I been nuts, too. I’m tryin to be well, too. Let’s drop this shitload, this weight of sorrow, these sandbags on our necks from a million years ago, and try to talk to each other about now. You can’t kill me Janice. You been trying your whole life, an I just won’t die. Even when you fire a gun at me, it explodes in your hand. Even if I die, I’ll still be jumping around inside your head. You know, this distance you are from me, this distance now, if we talk to each other, this could be the least distance there ever has been between us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s somethin I’ve wanted to say to you for a long time but I never did. I’m sorry your marriage broke up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Age: 20s 30s 40s
Gender: Monologues For Men
Type: Monologues From Plays
Genre: Drama<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download This Monologue Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hope you have enjoyed this list of John Patrick Shanley Monologues. Please see our other Shanley related article below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"John<\/a><\/figure>
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John Patrick Shanley Plays<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

John Patrick Shanley is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film Moonstruck.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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