Getting the Part: Seizing the Power of the Monologue for Auditions

We actors are always looking for ways to get an edge up on the competition. Auditions are packed with hopefuls out to make an impression on producers and casting agents, and rising above the pack can be a challenge.

One method of doing so is through the use of the one-character speech, also known as the monologue.

The monologue, for those who don’t already know this, is a speech made by one character that conveys their inner emotion. Ideally, it will demand a range of emotions and paint a visual picture in the mind of the audience.

Wikipedia defines a monologue as ‘an extended uninterrupted speech by a character in a drama. The character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character, or speaking to the audience, especially the former.’

No matter how it’s defined, the monologue has been around for a long time, and this time honored oratory was certainly used by the earliest practictioners of drama. Shakespeare was rather fond of them, and David Mamet has made a bit of a name for himself with them. Tennessee Williams was brilliant at putting highly visual speeches in his dramas that stand up just as well today as when they were written.

The reason the monolgue remains such a powerful tool today is that its beauty and power does not rely on the interaction between two characters. It’s the equivalent of an instrumental solo, to borrow a music analogy. It can he honed and crafted to perfection without the need for lengthy rehearsals with other actors, ‘portable as the Self and twice as reliable,’ I like to say!

The other great advantage of the monologue as an audition-winning tool is that it can be custom –fitted (or selected) to the actor’s strengths and tailored to showcase the many shades of character a specific actor can bring to that role.

In some cases, writer-actors can write their own monologues, often creating characters from their own experiences or imaginations. Chazz Palmintari is a good example of one such actor, who created a one-man play based on characters he met while he was growing up in the Bronx. He played each character on the stage himself, each role being its own monologue, and throughout the play he switched roles and brought each character to life.

For those of you who don’t already know the outcome to his story, while he was performing his play in a small theater in Hollywood, Chazz was discovered by Robert DiNiro, who not only made “A Bronx Tale” into a major film in which Chazz Palminatari also starred, but launched the career of Mr. Paliminatri from zero to hero and made him a big star in the process.

But let’s get back to the audition!

To get noticed in the audition, it helps to have in your toolbox several monologues which compliment your talents. Ideally, it should a visual story that resonates to the inner core of your being. The more invested you are into the character, the more passion and realism you will bring to the monologue.

Actors in my classes always ask: “But, where do I find great monologues?”

The answer is, everywhere! They exist in books, in plays, in film scripts; anywhere there is drama there is a monologue not far away. There are even anthologies of excerpts and monologues rom plays, popular movies, even old radio shows.

These are good places to start.

But if you really want to make an impression and not get stuck doing the same monologues other actors have done in audition after audition, you might consider writing one yourself.

You might also consider working with a writer who can craft one from a character idea or scene you have thought of, or you can develop one in collaboration with that writer or other writers and actors.

It’s fun to create characters and bring them to life, and can only help you in your development as an actor. But be warned; if the writing is flat and one-dimensional, so will be your performance, for the performance can be no better than the character and writing itself!

In the many acting and writing workshops I’ve attended or directed, I always loved the monologues I’d heard, and one night I went home and wrote one myself.

Since that time, I’ve been writing my own monologues based on ideas I came up with while working onstage with other actors, and in some cases those scenes and monologues went on to become full stage shows, and in one case one was even made into a TV pilot!

I’ve always encouraged actors to use the power of the monologue form for auditions, particularly original scenes that resonate with believable, multi-dimensional characters that come alive and scan compliment their own unique talents.

Only then can we aspsire to capture the hearts of producers and casting directors and then ultimately… the audience.