Every actor should have a few acting monologues prepared and ready just incase a monologue battle breaks out. Just kidding….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason is simple: the monologue is an invite into a character\u2019s world (point of view) through their speech, movements, tone, and feelings he or she conveys to the audience. It\u2019s the moment when a character vocalizes their thoughts, giving us insights that\u2019ll get to know them better and move the story forward.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The better you get at delivering monologues, the sharper your acting skills get.<\/strong> There seems to be an “idea” around monologues that automatically connects them to a long, overly-dramatic block of text. We can actually categorize monologues into three different types. \u00b7 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dramatic:<\/strong> The word \u201cdramatic\u201d here doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that the character\u2019s speech will be sad. A dramatic monologue can be serious, but it can also be funny depending on the plot. The main characteristic of this kind of monologue is that it\u2019s given to the audience or to another character. \u00b7 Interior:<\/strong> In an interior monologue, characters vocalize their thoughts. In film and TV, internal monologues are the words heard in the character\u2019s voice during voiceovers, for example. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Soliloquy:<\/strong> A soliloquy can be described as a character talking to themselves as if they were alone, or \u201cthinking out loud\u201d as though the audience isn\u2019t listening or watching the scene unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a number of reasons why actors should have at least one monologue memorized and ready to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Memorized that monologue? Great. Now perfect it. Try different things with it. Understand the character\u2019s motivation behind it. One of the best things about any monologue is that you only need yourself to hone your skills and learn a lot more about who you\u2019re playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a demo reel is a must but also having a great monologue separately recoded can be super useful. Why? Because it could be the turning point when a director decides to cast you. Besides a collection of jobs you\u2019ve been a part of, it\u2019s essential to have something that shows what you are capable of as an actor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Get a monologue on tape or have it memorized and you\u2019ll always have something else to show. Also, you\u2019ll be ready to submit it anytime. Having it ready not only reveals your commitment to a certain job, but it shows you\u2019re capable of performing a variety of roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Below are a few renowned monologues you can start working on right now. Remember to choose one that better represents you. Some of these are one-minute monologues, others are slightly longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PALE: Well, see, fine, you got these little social phrases and politenesses–all they show me is this–like–giganticness of unconcern with your \u201cI\u2019m sorrys,\u201d man. The fuckin\u2019 world is going down the fuckin\u2019 toilet on \u201cI\u2019m sorrys.\u201d I\u2019m sorry is this roll of toilet paper–they\u2019re growing whole forests, for people to wipe their asses on with their \u201cI\u2019m sorrys.\u201d Be a tree. For one day. And know that that tree over there is gonna be maybe music paper, the Boss is gonna make forty million writin\u2019 some poor-slob-can\u2019t-get-work song on. This tree is gonna be ten-dollar bills, get passed around, buy things, mean something, hear stories; we got sketch pads and fuckin\u2019 \u201cI don\u2019t love you anymore\u201d letters pinned to some creep\u2019s pillow–something of import. Headlines, box scores, some great book or movie script–Jack Nicholson\u2019s gonna mark you all up, say whatever he wishes to, anyway, out in some fuckin\u2019 desert, you\u2019re supposed to be his text, he\u2019s gonna lay out this line of coke on you-Tree over there is gonna be in some four-star restaurant, they\u2019re gonna call him parchment, bake pompano in him. And you\u2019re stuck in the ground, you can\u2019t go nowhere, all you know is some fuckin\u2019 junkie\u2019s gonna wipe his ass and flush you down the East River. Go floating out past the Statue of Liberty all limp and covered with shit, get tangled up in some Saudi Arabian oil tanker\u2019s fuckin\u2019 propellers–you got maybe three hundred years before you drift down to Brazil somewhere and get a chance to maybe be a coffee bush. \u201cI\u2019m sorrys\u201d are fuck, man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ah, Faustus,Now has thou but one bare hour to live,<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then thou must be damn\u2019d perpetually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stand still, you ever-moving spheres of heaven,<\/p>\n\n\n\n That time may cease and midnight never come;<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fair nature\u2019s eye, rise, rise again, and make<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perpetual day; or let this hour be but<\/p>\n\n\n\n A year, a month, a week, a natural day,<\/p>\n\n\n\n That Faustus may repent and save his soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O lente lente currite noctis equi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,<\/p>\n\n\n\n The devil will come, and Faustus must be damn\u2019d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O, I\u2019ll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down?<\/p>\n\n\n\n See, see where Christ\u2019s blood streams in the firmament!<\/p>\n\n\n\n One drop would save my soul, half a drop. Ah, my Christ! \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rend not my heart for naming of my Christ;<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet will I call on him. O, spare me, Lucifer! \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years,<\/p>\n\n\n\n A hundred thousand, and at last be sav\u2019d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O, no end is limited to damned souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curs\u2019d be the parents that engender\u2019d me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n No, Faustus, curse thyself, curse Lucifer<\/p>\n\n\n\n That hath depriv\u2019d thee of the joys of heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O, it strikes, it strikes! Now, body, turn to air,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or Lucifer will bear thee quick to hell! <\/p>\n\n\n\n O soul, be changed into little water drops,<\/p>\n\n\n\n And fall into the ocean, ne\u2019er be found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My God, my God! Look not so fierce on me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adders and serpents let me breathe awhile!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ugly hell, gape not! Come not, Lucifer;<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll burn my books! \u2013 Ah, Mephostophilis!<\/p>\n\n\n\n DON JUAN:What! Would you have a man tie himself up to the first woman that captures his fancy, renounce the world for her, and never again look at anyone else? That is a fine idea, I must say, to make a virtue of faithfulness, to bury oneself for good and all in one single passion and remain blind ever after to all other beauties that might catch one\u2019s eye! No! Let fools make a virtue of constancy! All beautiful women have a right to our love, and the accident of being the first comer shouldn\u2019t rob others of a fair share in our hearts. As for me, beauty delights me wherever I find it and I freely surrender myself to its charms. No matter how far I\u2019m committed \u2013 the fact that I am in love with one person shall never make me unjust to the others. I keep an eye for the merits of all of them and render each one the homage, pay each one the tribute that nature enjoins. Come what may, I cannot refuse love to what I find lovable, and so, when a beautiful face is asking for love, if I had ten thousand hearts I would freely bestow every one of them. After all, there is something inexpressibly charming in falling in love and, surely, the whole pleasure lies in the fact that love isn\u2019t lasting. How delightful, how entrancing it is to lay liege with a hundred attentions to a young woman\u2019s heart; to see, day by day, how one makes slight advances; to pit one\u2019s exaltation, one\u2019s sighs and one\u2019s tears, against the modest reluctance of a heart unwilling to yield; to surmount, step by step, all the little barriers by which she resists; to overcome her proud scruples and bring her at last to consent. But once one succeeds, what else remains? What more can one wish for? All that delights one in passion is over and one can only sink into a tame and slumbrous affection \u2013 until a new love comes along to awaken desire and offer the charm of new conquests. There is no pleasure to compare with the conquest of beauty, and my ambition is that of all the great conquerors who could never find it in them to set bounds to their ambitions, but must go on for ever from conquest to conquest. Nothing can restrain my impetuous desires. I feel it is in me to love the whole world, and like Alexander still wish for new worlds to conquer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ALGERNON:I haven\u2019t the smallest intention of doing anything of the kind. To begin with, I dined there on Monday, and once a week is quite enough to dine with one\u2019s own relations. In the second place, whenever I do dine there I am always treated as a member of the family, and sent down with either no woman at all, or two. In the third place, I know perfectly well whom she will place me next to, tonight. She will place me next Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent . . . and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase. The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one\u2019s clean linen in public. Besides, now that I know you to be a confirmed Bunburyist I naturally want to talk to you about Bunburying. I want to tell you the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TOM: I didn\u2019t go to the moon. I went much further\u2013for time is the longest distance between two places. Not long after that I was fired for writing a poem on the lid of a shoebox. I left St. Louis. I descended the steps of the fire escape for a last time and followed, from then on, in my father\u2019s footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space. I traveled around a great deal. The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly coloured but torn away from their branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass. Perhaps I am walking along a street at night, in some strange city, before I have found companions. I pass the lighted window of a shop where perfume is sold. The window is filled with pieces of coloured glass, tiny transparent bottles in delicate colours, like bits of a shattered rainbow. Then all at once my sister touches my shoulder. I turn around and look into her eyes. Oh Laura, Laura, I tried to leave you behind me, but I am more faithful than I intended to be! I reach for a cigarette, I cross the street, I run into the movies or a bar, I buy a drink, I speak to the nearest stranger\u2013anything that can blow your candles out! For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura \u2013 and so goodbye\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every actor should have a few acting monologues prepared and ready just incase a monologue battle breaks out. Just kidding…. The reason is simple: the monologue is an invite into a character\u2019s world (point of view) through their speech, movements, tone, and feelings he or she conveys to the audience. It\u2019s the moment when a character vocalizes their thoughts, giving us insights that\u2019ll get to know them better and move the story forward. The better you get at delivering monologues, the sharper your acting skills get. There seems to be an “idea” around monologues that automatically connects them to a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_eb_attr":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-blog-posts","category-monologues-for-men"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Importance of Monologues for Actors<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You can use it as a training tool anytime<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re a great supplement to your acting reel.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
They Take the Edge Off \u201cWhat Else Have You Got for Us?\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Examples of Monologues (For Men)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Burn This By Lanford Wilson<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Faustus – <\/strong>Christopher Marlowe<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Don Juan \u2013 Moliere<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Importance of Being Earnest \u2013 Oscar Wilde<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Glass Menagerie \u2013 Tennessee Williams<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n