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Position:Home>Theater & Acting> Should I avoid certain playwrights when choosing a monologue?Question: Should I avoid certain playwrights when choosing a monologue!? I've heard that for a college audition monologue, you should avoid anything by Neil Simon or Tennessee Williams!. Is this true!? I'm auditioning at a small school, and only for scholarships, not for actual entry into the program!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Yes and no!. Yes there are playwrights like Simon and Williams who's plays are overdone!. However, if you do a monologue from one of those shows amazingly well then by all means do it!. Seeing an overdone monologue done beautifully will surprise them more than seeing a weird monologue done decently!. And don't avoid Shakespeare, embrace him!. Again here you may just not want to do the incredibly famous soliloquies like "To be or not to be" or the Balcony monologues from Romeo and Juliet!. But again, if you do them so amazingly and you really love one of them, go ahead!. Www@QuestionHome@Com You may want to avoid Tennessee Williams or Neil Simon as the first answer suggests, but it would be a mistake to avoid Shakespeare if you need a classical monologue -- Shakespeare wrote a whole lot of material, and you should be able to find something that's not overdone if you look through the plays!. Another suggestion is to look through a couple of books of monologues and see which ones sound interesting, and go look up another play by that playwright just in case the monologue in the book you were looking at is one that's overdone!. In any case, be sure to choose a monologue you relate to strongly and you feel at home in!. If it's one that's done fairly frequently just make it so real that the people watching you have to take notice!. Remember: they want you to be great as much as you want to be great for them! Break a leg!.Www@QuestionHome@Com i think that certain monologues are over used, and this simply means that whomever you are auditioning for has seen them over and over and over and over!.!.!.!.you want to give them something that takes them away from the fact that you auditioning!. you are telling them a story and you want them to be in the story, not saying to themselves, "well, here we go again!" and i wouldn't say it's particular playwrights so much as particular monologues!. what you want is a piece that is under the time restrictions, contains a beginning/middle/end, that promotes and highlights your attributes, and isn't from a movie!. there are SOOOO MANY monologues out there, that's why i think they get frustrated when they see something over and over again!. i would stay away from looking online and stick with reading thru plays!. see if you can get your hands on a play list for your semester and start with those plays!. or if you have a favorite, start there!. if you want to be ballsy!.!.!.simply ask!. ask whom your auditioning for what they DO NOT want to see!. Www@QuestionHome@Com Yes it is a good idea to avoid the classics (Simon, Williams, and Shakespeare) Try something by Nicky Silver!. Www@QuestionHome@Com |