How do you choose the right audition monologue? With no further ado, let me present some hard-and-fast rules and a few guiding principles:
€ Be your best self. Just as developing writers strive to find their own unique "voice," so do developing actors (and we're always developing, right?) need to identify their "type." Actors want to grow and expand, and not be typecast, agreed-but nevertheless, every actor has a distinct quality that's different from everyone else's. Fully understanding that essential individuality is the most important rule in choosing audition monologues.
Choose a character that feels real, with whom you identify, who's within five years of your real age, who matches your physical type, and whose "native tempo," as American Conservatory Theater casting director Meryl Shaw calls it, matches your own. "If you've got a nervous, urban, edgy quality, choose a character who allows you to showcase that," she explained. "Or if your native tempo is laconic and laid-back, you might want to do a Sam Shepard piece, something that allows you to indulge in the language."
There's more: Choose a role that you'd want to be (and would be likely to be) cast in, with language that, as Shaw said, "you can wrap your tongue around easily." I asked her for a few examples of good and bad type fits. "A smart, witty woman, not an ingenue, did a very funny, witty Shaw piece that in one fell swoop showed her wit, her ability to handle language, her perfect British accent, her self-effacing humor," said Shaw. (Beware, though: Generally, if you're doing only one monologue, you should use your own accent and natural speaking voice.)
On the minus side, said Shaw, another lovely young ingenue auditioned with Caliban. "She didn't capitalize at all on what she has to offer; I didn't learn whether she was able to do the ingenue roles for which she is obviously a candidate."
Agreed South Coast Rep's casting director and artistic associate Joanne DeNaut, "If you're a character actor, don't do a leading man. If you only get two minutes, you want to give the auditor the best possible idea of who you are and what you can do." Mary Coleman, casting consultant for San Francisco's Magic Theatre, said, "A very bright young woman chose a cheesecake monologue. Not only was it a piece of fluff, but it gave a first impression of her as an airhead. Of course we know the difference between an actor and a character-but you still have to think about making a good impression. She was so smart; why would she choose to present herself this way?" Coleman eventually recommended a Claire Chafee monologue to her, which turned out to be a much better choice. Conversely, another actor chose a George Walker monologue with "high style and wild energy-and those are the unique qualities that actor brings to the theatre," said Coleman.
Shaw added, "Choose something that allows you to get vulnerable, to express your inner self. I've seen stunning auditions that were comedic and those that were dramatic. It doesn't matter."
In The Stage Directions Guide to Auditions (Heinemann, 1999), Gerald Lee Ratliff suggests choosing material that "encourages a personal signature-an immediate identification with the character's given circumstances, mood, attitude, and reaction or response to the situation being described... that encourages instinctive acting and making bold, daring performance choices." Or, as Shaw put it, stick close to home.
€ Love it or leave it. Coleman pointed out that you're going to be saying these words over and over, so choose a monologue about which you feel passionate, that proclaims, "This is my aesthetic." "It takes time to prepare an audition," noted Coleman. "So it's got to be material you'll enjoy spending time with and can discover new layers, rich enough to keep you interested, pieces that you can keep in your repertoire and not get sick of."
"You can always tell when an actor has a really strong connection with the material," observed Shaw.
DeNaut pointed out that if you stop working on a monologue, it can come across as stale. It's unrealistic to be continually changing monologues, since you need a full stable, so Coleman's suggestion-to choose work you can grow with-makes sense.
Guiding Principles
€ Look for structure. Gerald Lee Ratliff writes, "Choose a monologue with a beginning, middle, and end-a structured sequence of events that allows the character to express a point of view, develop a sense of direction, and pursue a course of action."
Teacher and actor Ed Hooks, author of The Audition Book (1989) and The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook (1994), both published by Back Stage Books, is even more specific. "I contend that a monologue is really a duologue," he told me, "and a duologue is a scene, and a scene is a negotiation. A monologue ideally will have those elements. Too many actors get up there and tell stories."
"The best monologues," said Shaw, "are those where you have room to move inside the monologue, so it doesn't start at one emotional level and stay there."
€ Try something new. If you choose a commonly used monologue, and don't do that monologue better than the last actor who did it, you're dead meat. So start reading. Joanne suggested looking at plays by Richard Korder, Richard Greenberg, Donald Margulies, Amy Freed. "Stay away from characters like Stanley Kowalski, Willy Loman, Blanche DuBois," she warned. "People have a set image of those characters." Overdone monologues? Several casting directors mentioned material from I Hate Hamlet, Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women, anything by Christopher Durang. "There's new Wendy Wasserstein that I never see," griped DeNaut.
Shaw, on the other hand, doesn't think actors should be discouraged from doing a monologue just because others are doing the same one. "Even if I've seen it 20 times that day, if you do it brilliantly, I'll still snap to attention," she said.
€ Be nice. Not namby-pamby, of course-but racist or sexist characters, overtly sexual or violent material, and profanity can make a bad impression. "Aggression is easy to do and tiresome to watch," Meg Patterson, artistic director of Mendocino County's Warehouse Rep, told me a few years ago. Jill Charles of the Dorset Theatre Festival in Vermont once polled a large group of producers at an East Coast regional audition, and their biggest complaints were about "ugly" monologues-foul language, tirades, squashed-puppy speeches, stomach-churners. The fact is, directors want to hire actors that seem likable and easy to work with. "If you choose two axe-murderer monologues, I'll wonder if you're secretly trying to tell me something," said Robert Kelley, the artistic director of Palo Alto's TheatreWorks, only half joking.
On the other hand, Amy Potozkin, Berkeley Rep's casting director, said that she doesn't mind racist or sexist characters, but recommends avoiding sexual monologues. "Out of context, they sometimes seem cheap," she told me.
€ Be appropriate. You'll want to have several monologues on hand (classical and contemporary) so you can pull from your hat one that at least remotely matches whatever you're auditioning for. Hooks recommends that San Francisco actors choose comic monologues if they're auditioning for a talent agent, because "agents here are oriented to commercial residuals. I see a lot of actors screw up on this one, going in to meet an agent and doing something from, say, 'Night, Mother." ('Night, Mother, by the way, is another overused monologue.)
Perfect Fit
Still uncertain about a best fit? "I'd love to believe that you're drawn to things that are right for you, but that's not always true," sighed Coleman. Right, I agreed-neither on the stage nor in life. So you can always ask a trusted source to pinpoint your special qualities. Or just keep reading and going to plays until you see characters that feel familiar.
Hooks shared a good tip: When you see an actor in a role you feel you could have played, read that actor's bio in the program, then go to the bookstore and read every play mentioned in the bio. "I found some of my own personal best stuff that way," he said.
Some actors write their own monologues. I've almost never seen any that are good, but you might try it if you're a really good writer.
Having watched hundreds of audition monologues over the years, I'd only add: Keep it simple. Pick a character you can play with the utmost truthfulness. An audition situation is not the place to stretch or get fancy. After all, the idea is to show off your best, most dynamic self, and within that, to demonstrate some of (but not your entire) emotional range. And don't forget to choose something that "actively engages both voice and body," as Ratliff writes. If comedy is your strong suit, go for something funny. If you have terrific concentration and easy access to your deepest emotions, think dramatic. Shaw tells actors, "Hit me with your best shot right away." Just be sure you know what your best shot really is. BSW
