ARTS CANTERBURY DRAMA
Drama Monologues - Female
• Each candidate will perform two (2) monologues.
• Both of the monologues are to be studied and completely
memorized prior to the audition.
• During the performance of the monologues, the audition
panel will be looking for the following:
the ability to create a believable character
believing in yourself as this character
use of imagination
physical communication
expressiveness in the face
expressiveness in the voice – using a variety of levels
• As a guide to preparing each monologue, ask yourself:
to whom is your character speaking?
why does your character say these things; what does
she want from the listener?
“The Member of the Wedding” by Carson McCullers
FRANKIE
Frankie: (looking at the house) I wonder when that Papa of mine is coming home. He
always comes home by dark. I don't want to go into that empty, ugly house all by
myself. (Standing with outstretched arms and looking around her) I think something
is wrong. It is too quiet. I have a peculiar warning in my bones. I bet you a hundred
dollars it's going to storm. A terrible, terrible dog-day storm. Or maybe even a
cyclone.
Don't bother me, John Henry. I'm thinking. About the wedding. About my brother
and the bride. Everything's been so sudden today. I never believed before about the
fact that the earth turns at a rate of about a thousand miles a day. I didn't understand
why it was that if you jumped up in the air you wouldn't land in Selma or Fairview or
somewhere else instead of the same backyard. But now it seems to me I feel the
world going around very fast. (Frankie begins turning around in circles with arms
outstretched) I feel it turning and it makes me dizzy. (Suddenly stopping her turning)
I just now thought of something. I know where I'm going. It's like I've known it all
my life. Tomorrow I will tell everybody. (Dreamily) After the wedding, I'm going
with them to Winter Hill. I'm going off with them after the wedding.
The trouble with me is that for a long time I have been just an "I" person. All other
people can say "we". Until this afternoon, I didn't have a "we", but now after seeing
Janice and Jarvis I suddenly realize something. I know that the bride and my brother
are the "we" of me. So I'm going with them, and joining with the wedding. This
coming Sunday, when my brother and the bride leave this town, I'm going with the
two of them to Winter Hill. And after that to whatever place that they will ever go.
(There is a pause) I love the two of them so much and we belong together. I love the
two of them so much because they are the "we" of me.
“The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds” by Paul
Zindel
TILLIE
Tillie: He told me to look at my hand, for a part of it came from a star that
exploded too long ago to imagine. This part of me was formed from a
tongue of fire that screamed through the heavens until there was our sun.
And this part of me - this tiny part of me - was on the sun when it itself
exploded and whirled in a great storm until the planets came to be.
And this small part of me was then a whisper of the earth. When there was a
life, perhaps this part of me got lost in a fern that was crushed and covered
until it was coal. And then it was a diamond millions of years later - it must
have been a diamond as beautiful as the star from which it had first come.
Or perhaps this part of me became lost in a terrible beast, or became part of a
huge bird that flew above the primeval swamps.
And he said this thing was so small - this part of me was so small it couldn't
be seen - but it was there from the beginning of the world.
And he called this bit of me an atom. And when wrote the word, I fell in
love with it.
Atom
Atom
What a beautiful word.
“A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
BENEATHA
Beneatha: (talking to Asagai) (A young Afro-American girl struggles with
her disillusionment) Me? ... Me? ... Me, I'm nothing... Me. When I was very
small...we used to take our sleds out in the wintertime and the only hills we
had were the ice-covered stone steps of some houses down the street. And
we used to fill them in with snow and make them smooth and slide down
them all day... and it was very dangerous you know... far too steep... and
sure enough one day a kid named Rufus came down too fast and hit the
sidewalk... and we saw his face just split open right there in front of us...
And I remember standing there looking at his bloody face thinking that was
the end of Rufus. But the ambulance came and they took him to the hospital
and they fixed the broken bones and they sewed it all up... and the next time
I saw Rufus he just had a little line down the middle of his face... I never got
over that... That was what one person could do for another, fix him up – sew
up the problem, make him all right again. That was the most marvellous
thing in the world... I wanted to do that. I always thought it was the one
concrete thing in the world that human beings could do. Fix up the sick, you
know – and make them whole again. This was truly being God... I wanted to
cure. It used to be so important to me. I wanted to cure. It used to matter. I
used to care. I mean about people and how their bodies hurt... I mean this
thing of sewing up bodies or administering drugs. Don't you understand? It
was a child's reaction to the world. I thought that doctors had the secret to all
the hurts... That's the way a child sees things - or an idealist.
“Inherit the Wind” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
RACHEL
Rachel: Bert, it's my fault the Jury found you guilty. (He starts to protest.)
Partly my fault. I helped. (Rachel hands Bert the orange book) This is your
book, Bert. (Silently he takes it) I've read it. All the way through. I don't
understand. What I do understand, I don't like. I don't want to think that men
come from apes and monkeys. But I think that's beside the point.
(Drummond looks at the girl admiringly)
Mr. Drummond, I hope I haven't said anything to offend you. (He shakes his
head) You see, I haven't really thought very much. I was always afraid of
what I might think - so it seemed safer not to think at all. But now I know. A
thought is like a child inside our body. It has to be born. If it dies inside you,
part of you dies, too! (Pointing to the book) Maybe what Mr. Darwin wrote
is bad. I don't know. Bad or good, it doesn't make any difference. The ideas
have to come out - like children. Some of 'em healthy as a bean plant, some
sickly. I think the sickly ideas die mostly, don't you, Bert?
“The Shape of a Girl” by Joan MacLeod
BRAIDIE
Braidie: The voice of mum and I went out for dinner last night. As usual
Dad - also known as Planet Dad – is away on business, so it's going to be,
and I quote -just us girls.
One would think that dinner would mean ordering food, eating food, paying
for food. Not so. Mum insists, first, that we sit at the same table. Two, that I
don't read. Three, four, and five that I get my hair out of my face, sit up
properly and stop looking as though I'm planning my escape. And six, she
wants us to reconnect, to have ourselves a little chat. I explain, patiently, that
I'd rather be shot from a cannon than hang around and see what she really
has up her stupid sleeve.
And so it comes out: the school has phoned her at work. They are seeking an
explanation for my unexplained absences. I explain, patiently, that I am now
homeschooling.
A1l apparently news to mum. And news to the school.
I am part way through stating just what I think homeschooling should be
when the voice of mum jumps to her feet and starts doing the famous
whisper-shriek. This is the last straw, the end of the road, the end of the
rope, the absolute limit. Then she goes. Leaves me sitting there alone with
Terry the cook. Terry leers from the kitchen. He cleans his teeth with a
business card and winks at me.
“I’Claudia” by Kristen Thompson
CLAUDIA
Preteen female
Claudia: (Claudia is an official pre-teen, still reeling from her parents '
divorce. Finding refuge in the basement of her school, through the play
Claudia discovers the pain at the centre of her brimming child's heart.)
Some kids are mad when they're teenagers, right? Like in movies and at
school lots of kids hate their dads. For different reasons at different times.
Some kids hate their dads ‘cause they want to shoot speed into their arms!
Dads don't let them. Dads try to stop them. They say “I'm shooting speed
into my arm and you can't stop me!'' And that's ‘cause they're into speed.
But I would never do that ‘cause I don't hate my dad. My dad is my best
friend and I get to see him every week! It starts Monday after school at 3:45.
I wait for him in the park across the street from school and he is never late
like other kids' parents and we do something totally bohemian together like
go bowling or for pizza. And I have to say, it is the best moment of my
entire life because there's so much to talk about and we're both hi-larious.
Like every time I say, “I'm thirsty”, he says, “I'm Friday'', which is just
something between us, like father-daughter. And then we go down to his
apartment which is a downtown condo where I have my own room with a
name plate on the door that says “Albert” for a joke and so I say to him, I
say, “al-BERT''- and I have lots of posters, no pets, and I do homework and
we just hang out and then I go to sleep. And when I wake up on Tuesday
morning it is the worst day of my entire life because it's the beginning of the
whole next week of not seeing him. So I come down here on Tuesday
morning before class to get control of myself.
“Talking With” by Jane Martin
From the piece titled “Audition”
ACTRESS
An actress in her late twenties runs up on the stage. She is nervous. She
shields her eyes against the light. She in dressed in a slightly bizarre and
trendy style.
She carries in her arms a cat on a leash.
Actress: Hi. Hey Hi. Wow. Al1 Right. Nice Place. Nice, uh, nice theatre.
Good Vibes. Yowsa me yesirree. Toy boat, toy boat, toy boat, toy boat. Now
. . . Let's see here. For my . . . can you hear me? Can you? No? Yes? You
are out there, right? (SHE puts the cat on the floor, her foot on the leash.)
O.K., so we're all here. Well, I mean, you're there and I'm here but we're all
. . . forget it. Let's see . . Audition, RAH! Get that part! O.K., my name is . . .
shit, l forgot my name. Right. This . . .this would be construed as craziness.
My name is . . . I did, I forgot my name . . . my stage name . . . see I decided
to use my new stage name for this audition . . .for uh, for luck, it was . . . it
was very . . . look what d'you care, right? My human, world name is Mary
Titfer. Titfer. You got it? Goodo! O.K., can you hear me? All the way back?
Loud and clear Captain Marvel? A-O.K.! . . . Now, one more introduction
and we're under way. The uh, the small person on my leash is my cat ‘Tat'’.
My cat, ‘Tat’. Get it? (Points to herself.) Titfer. (Points to cat.) Tat. Right,
you got it. Hey, we're waking up here. We're demonstrating consciousness.
OK., O.K., now you . . . the imperial you . . . have a part. I, Titfer need a
part. We are thus in tune. Synchronicity. Sooooooo, it’s audition city!