Every actor just beginning has one or two monologues they do for every audition. But these can become stale and boring for both the actor and audience after some time. Whether you want to add more to your audition book or you want to refresh it, here's a rough guide to what you should have in your back pocket. Before I begin, it should be made clear that this is advice given to me by my professors that I am passing along to you.
If you ask anyone what you should bring to a general audition, they’ll tell you to bring two contrasting monologues, one classical and one contemporary. And yes, that is very common. But you need more than just one classical and one contemporary monologue. I recommend having 4 contemporary and 4 classical monologues.
Contemporary monologues can include monologues from films, musicals, and plays written after 1900. I like to have one dramatic, one comedic, one romantic, and one of whatever I want. And I keep at least one from a straight play. Likewise I keep one in whatever languages I speak.
Classical monologues are typically considered to be from theatre before 1900. Most places will ask for Shakespeare, but you can also have Greek, Restoration Comedy, plays by Oscar Wilde, etc, etc. My professors suggested having three classical monologues in my rep book. I prefer to have at least 5. 3 Shakespeare: 1 comedic, 1 dramatic, 1 romantic. 2 Non-Shakespeare but still classical: 1 comedic, one dramatic.
Then we come to the fun part. Although you should not bring this into an audition as the way you present yourself, it is good to have on hand if casting asks for something else. This 1 “weird one” can be from a published work of some kind. My professor used a news article as hers. You can also take sonnets, animal works, monologues from books, monologues from radio, video games, even established DND campaigns. Then you get 2 wildcard pieces. These can be whatever you want, show off special skills like accents or other languages.
Of course, this is not to say that you cannot have more than these. As of writing this, I personally have about 30 different monologues in my repertoire, most of which can be performed with just a five minute touch up.
Some professors have said that you should have at least one monologue in your rep book that fits how other people see you, or your typecast. I have a longer post about typecasting in the works. But long story short, typecasts are inconsistent and may not work for you. I keep one monologue that fits what I’ve been told is my typecast, and that’s as much thought as I give that.
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