MONOLOGUES FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS We are looking for preparedness and bold, brave choices! Some of the selections are poems rather than traditional monologues, but give the monologues and poems the same energy, character and fun! Note: Do not worry about the gender of the character-­ feel free to choose whichever monologue you want to perform. Tips for memorizing: -­Start early! (1 week or more before the audition!) -­Practice your monologue out loud and ask a friend or parent to hold the paper while you practice. -­Write out the monologue several times by hand -­Practice acting as you learn the words, this will help you remember what comes next. -­Think about what JUST happened to make your character say this monologue or poem. Think of that very detailed scenario and imagine why your character MUST SAY THIS! The higher the stakes, the better! James and the Giant Peach Character: The Strange Old Man Come right up close to me, and I will show you something wonderful. (Gestures to his bag) You know what this is, my dear? You know what's inside this little bag? [Opens the bag and looks inside] Listen to them. Listen to them move. There's more power and magic in these little green things than in all the rest of the world put together. You'll never guess what they are... Crocodile tongues! One thousand long, slimy crocodile tongues boiled up in the skull of a dead witch for twenty days and nights with the eyeballs of a lizard! Here. You take it. It's yours. And now, all you have to do is this. Take a large jug of water, and pour all the little green things into it. Then, very slowly, one by one, add ten hairs from your own head. That sets them off! In a couple of minutes the water will begin to froth and bubble furiously, and as soon as that happens you must quickly drink it all down, the whole jugful in one gulp. And then, my dear, you will feel it churning and boiling in your stomach, and steam will start coming out of your mouth, and immediately after that, MARVELOUS things will start happening to you, FABULOUS, UNBELIEVABLE things -­‐ and you will never be miserable again in your life. Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou Shadows on the wall Noises down the hall Life doesn't frighten me at all Bad dogs barking loud Big ghosts in a cloud Life doesn't frighten me at all Mean old Mother Goose Lions on the loose They don't frighten me at all Dragons breathing flame On my counterpane That doesn't frighten me at all. I go boo Make them shoo I make fun Way they run I won't cry So they fly I just smile They go wild Life doesn't frighten me at all. Tough guys fight All alone at night Life doesn't frighten me at all. Panthers in the park Strangers in the dark No, they don't frighten me at all. That new classroom where Boys all pull my hair (Kissy little girls With their hair in curls) They don't frighten me at all. Don't show me frogs and snakes And listen for my scream, If I'm afraid at all It's only in my dreams. I've got a magic charm That I keep up my sleeve I can walk the ocean floor And never have to breathe. Life doesn't frighten me at all Not at all Not at all. Life doesn't frighten me at all. Charlotte’s Web Character: Charlotte Salutations! It’s a fancy way of saying hello. My name is Charlotte. (She comes into better view.) Charlotte A. Cavatica. I’m a spider and that’s my home. I know it looks fragile, but it’s really very strong. It protects me. And I trap my food in it. My breakfast is waiting for me on the other side of my web. A fly. I caught it this morning. (Charlotte notices Wilbur’s disgusted reaction) That’s the way I’m made. I can’t help it. Anyway if I didn’t catch insects and eat them, there would soon be so many they’d destroy the earth-­‐-­‐Wipe out everything. And I don’t really eat them…I drink their blood. I love blood! Spiders are really useful creatures. A spiders life is an uncertain thing, but I promise that I’ll stay as long as I can. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to have my breakfast. Diary of Anne Frank Character: Anne Look, Peter, the sky. (she looks up through the skylight) What a lovely, lovely day! Aren't the clouds beautiful? You know what I do when it seems as if I couldn't stand being cooped up for one more minute? I think myself out. I think myself on a walk in the park where I used to go with Pim. Where the jonquils and the crocus and the violets grow down the slopes. You know the most wonderful part about thinking yourself out? You can have it any way you like. You can have roses and violets and chrysanthemums all blooming at the same time? It's funny. I used to take it all for granted. And now I've gone crazy about everything to do with nature. Haven't you? (softly) I wish you had a religion, Peter. Oh, I don't mean you have to be Orthodox, or believe in heaven and hell and purgatory and things. I just mean some religion. It doesn't matter what. Just to believe in something! … I think the world may be going through a phase, the way I was with Mother. It'll pass, maybe not for hundreds of years, but some day I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart. Peter, if you'd only look at it as part of a great pattern? That we're just a little minute in the life? (She breaks off) Listen to us, going at each other like a couple of stupid grownups! Look at the sky now. Isn't it lovely? Free to be You and Me (Any character) Don't dress your cat in an apron Just 'cause he's learning to bake! Don't put your horse in a nightgown Just 'cause he can't stay awake! Don't dress your snake in a muu-­‐muu Just 'cause he's off on a cruise. Don't dress your whale in galoshes If she really prefers overshoes. A person should wear what he wants to. And not just what other folks say A person should do what she likes to A person's a person that way. Double Fudge by Judy Blume Character: Peter Jimmy and I have been best friends since third grade. He lived around the corner then. It was the first place in the city I was allowed to walk by myself. I really liked Jimmy’s mom. We had this special game where every time I left her house she gave me a graham cracker in case I got hungry on the way home. That was a big joke since it took about two minutes to get to my building... I was so mad at her when she took off for Vermont, leaving Jimmy with his dad... Jimmy still doesn’t like to talk about the divorce or his mother. He keeps everything to himself. He visits her at Christmas and for a month in the summer but I hope I never see her again because if I do, I’ll tell her exactly what I think about what she did to Jimmy. And don’t tell me there are two sides to every story like Mom does, because I’ve seen Jimmy’s side up close. Not that I want him to move to Vermont. That would be a lot worse than SoHo. I’d never get to see him then. Now I know how he felt when I left the city last year. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein There is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins, and there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright, and there the moon-­‐bird rests from his flight to cool in the peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black and the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow and watch where the chalk-­‐white arrows go to the place where the sidewalk ends. Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, and we’ll go where the chalk-­‐white arrows go, for the children, they mark, and the children, they know, the place where the sidewalk ends. Alice in Wonderland Character: Alice [Angrily] Why, how impolite of him. I asked him a civil question, and he pretended not to hear me. That’s not at all nice. [Calling after him] I say, Mr. White Rabbit, where are you going? Hmmm. He won’t answer me. And I do so want to know what he is late for. I wonder if I might follow him. Why not? There’s no rule that I mayn’t go where I please. I—I will follow him. Wait for me, Mr. White Rabbit. I’m coming, too! [Falling] How curious. I never realized that rabbit holes were so dark . . . and so long . . . and so empty. I believe I have been falling for five minutes, and I still can’t see the bottom! Hmph! After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs. How brave they’ll all think me at home. Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it even if I fell off the top of the house! I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time. I must be getting somewhere near the center of the earth. I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny that would be. Oh, I think I see the bottom. Yes, I’m sure I see the bottom. I shall hit the bottom, hit it very hard, and oh, how it will hurt! I Love the Look of Words by Maya Angelou Popcorn leaps, popping from the floor of a hot black skillet and into my mouth. Black words leap, snapping from the white page. Rushing into my eyes. Sliding into my brain which gobbles them the way my tongue and teeth chomp the buttered popcorn. When I have stopped reading, ideas from the words stay stuck in my mind, like the sweet smell of butter perfuming my fingers long after the popcorn is finished. I love the book and the look of words the weight of ideas that popped into my mind I love the tracks of new thinking in my mind