After 18 posts on monologues, you’re probably wondering when I’m finally going to talk about finding material that is right for you and how to develop a repertoire of monologues that can support an ongoing professional career.
I haven’t gotten into monologue scripts for a good reason. Unless you understand how to evoke a nonverbal environment between you and your audience, the words really don’t make a difference. Even the most well written monologue is doomed to become an empty recitation of the words.
Take Shakespeare for instance. He’s considered to be the greatest writer in the English language. If great dramatic literature automatically yielded great performances, then every Shakespearian production would be brilliant. I can assure you, that is not the case.
Actors spin their wheels looking for well written monologues. They’re thinking that great words will automatically elevate their audition. As with Shakespeare, this is not the case.
Relying solely on the words to engage the casting director is misguided for the following reasons.
Reason #1
In an audition you are not selling the literature. You are selling yourself. If someone is holding a casting for a production, they already have the production rights to the script, so they already have the words. What they need are actors who can create a universe in which those words can thrive.
Reason #2
Actors think that by manipulating the words through clever line readings they will automatically evoke the character. Words don’t create the character. The actor creates the character by using the words as stimulus to the creative process.
Reason #3
It’s not about the quality of the words. It’s about the potential that the actor sees in those words. If a monologue doesn’t fire your imagination beyond what the words alone convey, then your audition is condemned to be an accurate recitation of the words.
Next… Who am I?
Labels: audition monologue casting director