Pro-tips for audition monologues:
Please MEMORIZE. When you present:
1) Set up the stage as you want it (one chair will be available if needed);
2) Then slate: “My name is _____________. I’ll be playing _______________ from Ever in the Glades.”;
3) Take a moment to get into character and begin;
4) At the end of your scene, do not say “SCENE.” Simply stay frozen for just a minute to let the period fall on the end of your sentence, thank the panel, clear the stage, and leave.
Do the work for the panel.
1) Set up the stage as you want it (one chair will be available if needed);
2) Then slate: “My name is _____________. I’ll be playing _______________ from Ever in the Glades.”;
3) Take a moment to get into character and begin;
4) At the end of your scene, do not say “SCENE.” Simply stay frozen for just a minute to let the period fall on the end of your sentence, thank the panel, clear the stage, and leave.
Do the work for the panel.
- Choose a character and help us see what you bring to that character. This can include clothing items you think would be true to the character.
- Remember that acting is more than saying lines. Plan your movement or blocking. Show us that you have rehearsed; that you have thought about the part; and that you are ready.
- Don’t take audition decisions personally. Disappointment is natural. Don’t steal someone else’s joy by second-guessing decisions or talking badly about people who get parts. That makes you look bad and can tarnish others’ experiences.
Monologue Options:
Mercy: Mercy. He’s calling for mercy, Sticks! Child, my father didn’t name me Mercy on accounts mercy’s what I have. The doctor said, “We need a name sir,” and my father said, “I don’t care–call her ‘not my boy,’ call her ‘not my son.’ My father
looked at the doctor’s name tag where it said Mercy General Hospital, and said, “Just call her THAT.” So I wasn’t named for Mercy on accounts Mercy’s what I have.”
Mr. G: You’re gonna consider it. I put a roof over your head. I put clothes on your back. Your mama left, but I didn’t, so you’re gonna consider it….(softens a little.) Also there’s money in it, and we could use some money right now. You think this pawnshop’s gonna carry us?
Elijah: Whoo-boy, that’. OK. Well, first off, I guess I’d say that both of you’ve been through more in these several years than most of us have to face in our lifetimes. And it can’t feel good to hold onto all that pain. Cuz I gotta imagine it’s like–it’s like wearing a wool sweater in the hottest day in June, ‘cept you’ve been wearing it since you were little so now it’s cuttin’ off your circulation and you’ve sweat through it so many times it’s sticking to your skin, might BE your skin at this point, and so it’s binding you, isn’t it, it’s binding you in place–you can’t breathe it’s binding you so tight and you sure can’t grow in any direction. But baptism–a true baptism? That’s your chance to take that sweater off. And people are gonna help you do it. Other hands are gonna grab hold of it and pull with you. And it’s gonna hurt, for a second it’s gonna burn and it’s gonna itch and it’s gonna feel like you’re standing bare as the day you were born in a room full of strangers, but then you know what’s gonna happen? There’s gonna be a cool breeze off the water, and your lungs are gonna open, and you’re gonna take the first free breath you’ve taken in years.
Junker G: Dad? You awake? It’s OK if you’re not. It’s easier for me to say what I gotta say if you’re dreaming and thinking I’m a part of it. I’d like to be part of your dream, Dad, that’d be cool. Anyway. I gotta thank you, Dad. You’re not the nicest man. If there’s something less than nice but still OK…I mean, you’re not that either. But you stuck around. Mom left, but you stuck around. And I think you want something good for me. I’m gonna choose to think it’s because you believe this army thing is a better life. So thank you, Dad, for opening that door. I’m not going through it, but I appreciate the thought. And I hope you can forgive me. I really do. Cuz then maybe you can forgive her? And then maybe, next time that warbler comes around–you can just let it sing.
Z: I gotta say something true, so here it goes….My father was a hard man. I think most of you knew that, and when my mama passed away….well the sickness that took her, that wasn’t anybody’s fault–but she didn’t have to go as fast as she went, A person who wants to live in this world has got to be driven to die, and my mother had two kids, and her love for us? There aren’t words big enough for it. That woman was everything good in our lives and we were everything good in hers–so she wanted to live, believe that. And my father didn’t kill her, that’s not what I’m sayin’--but he sure didn’t help her to live. So then I had my brother. And now he’s everything good in my life and I knew–see my father didn’t like other people to have good things, so I knew–eventually–he’d take that too, and I wasn’t gonna let that happen–(Turning to Ames)--I mean, I ain’t got your talent, Ames, I ain't got your vision–the only thing I got–in this whole world–is you.
Delia: I don’t have to go though, right? I could stay here with you. No now it could happen. Let's calculate the odds, what are the possible outcomes? One–Mama and I leave together, that’s a high probability. Two; we leave with him. No, nothing’s certain. Three: we stay here together. Four: we stay with him, or Five: they leave me here with you–it could happen. Or Gram! We could flip the odds! If we convince Mama that some guy’s not the answer. If we convince her that the three of us? We’re ENOUGH. You know what, Gram? If I have a daughter, I’m gonna get a big old map and roll it out on the floor and I’ll say to her–where do you wanna live, go on, pick anywhere at all. And she’ll choose a spot, and we’ll go there, just me and her, and then–I’ll put down a whole orchard and grow up in its shade.
Rev. Brown Well now, that’s awful dark talk for such a young man and we’ve got to drive that darkness away. It’s why I was so proud of you coming back to church last Sunday. …..You know, pretty soon now Elijah will stand at our pulpit and deliver his first sermon. We call it his Recognition Day–the day Elijah becomes a shepherd, and you, Ames, could become the first member of his first flock….I don’t mind telling you, it’s been hard days for our church lately. After your father was murdered–after that tragedy, doubt settled over our congregation. People started leaving the church…when they should’ve been running towards! So it would go a long way with our congregation to hear that Ames Johnson was seeking salvation.
Gram (OLS): People got their own kind of math, Delia. Some people are capable of addition. Some people are fixed….Don’t hate her, darlin’. She grew up in a swamp with a freakshow for a mother. I got her what she needed, but needs and wants ‘re two separate things. It’s my fault she’s restless, not your’s. Lately, [though] ‘round this house? There’s a current of fresh air mixed in with the usual. The cicadas’re singin’ louder than they do this time of year. And I been hearing footsteps, treadin’ careful and light–every time I close my eyes. Means there might be an outcome you haven’t yet considered. Means another life might come knocking soon. (hear knock) You see what I mean?
looked at the doctor’s name tag where it said Mercy General Hospital, and said, “Just call her THAT.” So I wasn’t named for Mercy on accounts Mercy’s what I have.”
Mr. G: You’re gonna consider it. I put a roof over your head. I put clothes on your back. Your mama left, but I didn’t, so you’re gonna consider it….(softens a little.) Also there’s money in it, and we could use some money right now. You think this pawnshop’s gonna carry us?
Elijah: Whoo-boy, that’. OK. Well, first off, I guess I’d say that both of you’ve been through more in these several years than most of us have to face in our lifetimes. And it can’t feel good to hold onto all that pain. Cuz I gotta imagine it’s like–it’s like wearing a wool sweater in the hottest day in June, ‘cept you’ve been wearing it since you were little so now it’s cuttin’ off your circulation and you’ve sweat through it so many times it’s sticking to your skin, might BE your skin at this point, and so it’s binding you, isn’t it, it’s binding you in place–you can’t breathe it’s binding you so tight and you sure can’t grow in any direction. But baptism–a true baptism? That’s your chance to take that sweater off. And people are gonna help you do it. Other hands are gonna grab hold of it and pull with you. And it’s gonna hurt, for a second it’s gonna burn and it’s gonna itch and it’s gonna feel like you’re standing bare as the day you were born in a room full of strangers, but then you know what’s gonna happen? There’s gonna be a cool breeze off the water, and your lungs are gonna open, and you’re gonna take the first free breath you’ve taken in years.
Junker G: Dad? You awake? It’s OK if you’re not. It’s easier for me to say what I gotta say if you’re dreaming and thinking I’m a part of it. I’d like to be part of your dream, Dad, that’d be cool. Anyway. I gotta thank you, Dad. You’re not the nicest man. If there’s something less than nice but still OK…I mean, you’re not that either. But you stuck around. Mom left, but you stuck around. And I think you want something good for me. I’m gonna choose to think it’s because you believe this army thing is a better life. So thank you, Dad, for opening that door. I’m not going through it, but I appreciate the thought. And I hope you can forgive me. I really do. Cuz then maybe you can forgive her? And then maybe, next time that warbler comes around–you can just let it sing.
Z: I gotta say something true, so here it goes….My father was a hard man. I think most of you knew that, and when my mama passed away….well the sickness that took her, that wasn’t anybody’s fault–but she didn’t have to go as fast as she went, A person who wants to live in this world has got to be driven to die, and my mother had two kids, and her love for us? There aren’t words big enough for it. That woman was everything good in our lives and we were everything good in hers–so she wanted to live, believe that. And my father didn’t kill her, that’s not what I’m sayin’--but he sure didn’t help her to live. So then I had my brother. And now he’s everything good in my life and I knew–see my father didn’t like other people to have good things, so I knew–eventually–he’d take that too, and I wasn’t gonna let that happen–(Turning to Ames)--I mean, I ain’t got your talent, Ames, I ain't got your vision–the only thing I got–in this whole world–is you.
Delia: I don’t have to go though, right? I could stay here with you. No now it could happen. Let's calculate the odds, what are the possible outcomes? One–Mama and I leave together, that’s a high probability. Two; we leave with him. No, nothing’s certain. Three: we stay here together. Four: we stay with him, or Five: they leave me here with you–it could happen. Or Gram! We could flip the odds! If we convince Mama that some guy’s not the answer. If we convince her that the three of us? We’re ENOUGH. You know what, Gram? If I have a daughter, I’m gonna get a big old map and roll it out on the floor and I’ll say to her–where do you wanna live, go on, pick anywhere at all. And she’ll choose a spot, and we’ll go there, just me and her, and then–I’ll put down a whole orchard and grow up in its shade.
Rev. Brown Well now, that’s awful dark talk for such a young man and we’ve got to drive that darkness away. It’s why I was so proud of you coming back to church last Sunday. …..You know, pretty soon now Elijah will stand at our pulpit and deliver his first sermon. We call it his Recognition Day–the day Elijah becomes a shepherd, and you, Ames, could become the first member of his first flock….I don’t mind telling you, it’s been hard days for our church lately. After your father was murdered–after that tragedy, doubt settled over our congregation. People started leaving the church…when they should’ve been running towards! So it would go a long way with our congregation to hear that Ames Johnson was seeking salvation.
Gram (OLS): People got their own kind of math, Delia. Some people are capable of addition. Some people are fixed….Don’t hate her, darlin’. She grew up in a swamp with a freakshow for a mother. I got her what she needed, but needs and wants ‘re two separate things. It’s my fault she’s restless, not your’s. Lately, [though] ‘round this house? There’s a current of fresh air mixed in with the usual. The cicadas’re singin’ louder than they do this time of year. And I been hearing footsteps, treadin’ careful and light–every time I close my eyes. Means there might be an outcome you haven’t yet considered. Means another life might come knocking soon. (hear knock) You see what I mean?
