Contemporary Monologues for Men: Volume 2 E-Book

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: The Good Audition Guides
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 250

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Whether you're applying for drama school, taking an exam, or auditioning for a professional role, it's likely you'll be required to perform one or more monologues, including a piece from a contemporary play. It's vital to come up with something fresh that's suited both to you – in order to allow you to express who you are as a performer – and to the specific purposes of the audition. In this book, you'll find forty fantastic speeches featuring male roles, all written and premiered since the year 2014, by some of today's most exciting dramatic voices from the UK and USA. Playwrights include Annie Baker, Andrew Bovell, Jez Butterworth, Caryl Churchill, Mark Gatiss, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Anna Jordan, Arinzé Kene, Rona Munro and Evan Placey. The plays featured were premiered at leading venues including the National, the Royal Court, the Bush and Hampstead in London, prestigious theatres in Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester, and by renowned companies including Frantic Assembly and Paines Plough. Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James introduces each speech with a user-friendly, bullet-point list of essential things you need to know about the character, and then five inspiring ideas to help you perform the monologue. This book also features a step-by-step guide to the process of selecting and preparing your speech, and approaching the audition itself. 'Easy-to-use… The guidance is perhaps the most thorough I have seen in a monologue book' Teaching Drama on Trilby James's first volume of Contemporary Monologues Please note that some of the speeches in this volume contain strong language and themes which some readers may find inappropriate.

Leseprobe

The Good Audition Guides

CONTEMPORARY MONOLOGUES FOR MEN

VOLUME 2

edited and introduced by

TRILBY JAMES

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Marko from 3 Winters by Tena Štivičić

Daniel from Alligators by Andrew Keatley

Carl from Britannia Waves the Rules by Gareth Farr

Alex from BU21 by Stuart Slade

Graham from BU21 by Stuart Slade

Freddie from Consensual by Evan Placey

Dara from Dara by Tanya Ronder, adapted from Shahid Nadeem’s play

Oli from Dark Sublime by Michael Dennis

Ben from Deposit by Matt Hartley

Tom Kettle from The Ferryman by Jez Butterworth

Jamal from Flesh and Bone by Elliot Warren

Reiss from Flesh and Bone by Elliot Warren

Terrence from Flesh and Bone by Elliot Warren

Avery from The Flick by Annie Baker

Sam from The Flick by Annie Baker

Rafe from Four Play by Jake Brunger

Shawn from Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Niall from The Here and This and Now by Glenn Waldron

Ian from Holes by Tom Basden

Manny from I Think We Are Alone by Sally Abbott

Haseeb from I Wanna Be Yours by Zia Ahmed

James from James I: The Key Will Keep the Lock by Rona Munro

Gods from Kill by Caryl Churchill

Tom from Lawrence After Arabia by Howard Brenton

Josh from Lose Yourself by Katherine Chandler

Nate from Lose Yourself by Katherine Chandler

Perce from The Man on the Platform by Mark Gatiss

Harry from Mayfly by Joe White

Adam from Mr Incredible by Camilla Whitehill

Blood Cell from Misty by Arinzé Kene

Johnfrom One for Sorrow by Cordelia Lynn

Billy from Regeneration by Nicholas Wright, adapted from Pat Barker’s novel

Fredrick from The Safest Spot in Town by Keith Jarrett

Marc from Sugar Baby by Alan Harris

Mark from Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell

Frankie from The Unreturning by Anna Jordan

George from The Unreturning by Anna Jordan

Casper from What I (Don’t) Know About Autism by Jody O’Neill

Joe from Wilderness by Kellie Smith

John from Wink by Phoebe Eclair-Powell

Introduction

WHAT THIS BOOK OFFERS

Whether you are taking theatre studies at school level, about to leave school and want to go to drama school, at drama school looking for showcase material, or a young professional actor preparing for a specific audition, a well-chosen contemporary monologue will be a key component in your audition repertoire. It should reflect something of your own taste and, depending on the style of the writing, may provide an opportunity to show something more intimate, more televisual or filmic than a classical speech might allow. The forty monologues in this volume are from plays that have been written post-2014. With a few exceptions the characters range in age from nineteen to thirty-five. There is a wide variety of character types and styles of writing from which to choose. They are all drawn from the extensive list of new plays published by Nick Hern Books.

CHOOSING YOUR MONOLOGUE

I have often likened finding the perfect monologue to finding the perfect pair of jeans. It is rarely a case of ‘one size fits all’. You might have to try on several pairs, in different stores, before you find the cut that works for you – but once you have, you will feel confident in the knowledge that you are looking and feeling your best. So it is with audition speeches. You need to find pieces that suit you, that you cannot wait to get into and that will feel even better with wear.

Not surprisingly, several of these monologues deal with issues surrounding masculinity, consent, gender and sexuality. Some of the monologues are ethnically or geographically specific, but the majority can be played in any accent and by any ethnicity. Similarly, out of context, some of the monologues can be played either younger or older than specified. Use your judgement and change place names and other references to suit your own purposes. Some contain strong language and deal with adult themes. Some (where I have given warning) are from plays that contain particularly upsetting scenes. All provide a singular challenge and reflect the pressing interests of some of our leading playwrights.

If you are auditioning for a youth theatre:

• You will be judged on your potential and your willingness to be open, honest and free. Nobody is looking for a polished or over-rehearsed performance.

• Choosing a character that is close to you in age and type will allow you to express yourself, and allow the panel to see something of who you really are – so choose a piece to which you can relate, and one that inspires you from a play that speaks to you.

If you are auditioning for drama school:

• And have also been asked to prepare a classical speech, choose a contemporary monologue that will provide contrast. For example, you may have a Shakespearean monologue that is pensive or tragic, so for your modern piece opt for something comic. Similarly, if your classical speech is light in tone, choose a companion piece that shows off a more serious side.

If you are already at drama school:

• And you are looking to extend your range, you will want to choose a monologue that stretches you. Perhaps you are studying a particular accent or type of character quite different from yourself.

• If you are looking for showcase material, think about how you wish to present yourself. Consider whether you are right for the part you have chosen and whether, if you had a chance to be in a production of the play, you could be easily cast in the role.

If you are auditioning for a specific role in a professional production (and have been asked to prepare an additional piece that is not from that play):

• Choose something close to the part for which you are auditioning.

• Consider the language of the piece and whether you are after something heightened and obviously theatrical, or whether you require something more intimate, and realistic.

If you are looking to extend your showreel:

• It may sound obvious, but think about what sort of speeches would be best suited to the different demands of radio, film or television.

PREPARING YOUR MONOLOGUE

• Learn your speeches well in advance of the actual audition. Should you forget your lines, the panel will be able to tell whether it is out of nervousness or insufficient preparation.

• Read the whole play. You may be asked questions about it or be required to improvise around it.

• Undertake all necessary research. Make a study of the historical, social and political world of the play. Make sure you understand the meaning of unfamiliar words and references.

• Accents: By and large it is best to avoid accents unless you are really good at them or want an opportunity to practise using them. If a character’s accent is not native to you, you may like to try playing it in your own accent or transposing it into an accent that you are confident in. However, watch out for speeches that have been written with a strong dialect or idiom and where the essential rhythm of the piece needs to be maintained.

• Remain flexible in the way you perform/stage your monologue. Be prepared to be redirected in an audition.

• Direct audience address: If your character is talking to the audience, make a decision about who the audience is to you. Are they your friend and your confidant? Are they more like an analyst with whom you feel safe to reveal your innermost thoughts? Are they a sort of sounding board? Are they judging you? Do you need to explain yourself or to convince them in some way? It is still advisable not to look at the actual panel in this case, but imagine an audience just above their heads and direct your speech there.

• Using props: There are no hard-and-fast rules about the use of stage properties at an audition. However, common sense suggests that, if you can easily carry an object in your pocket (e.g. a letter, a ring, a handkerchief, etc.), by all means bring this to an audition. If the object to which you refer is large, imagine it is there, or, if necessary, mime using it. Some might even argue that miming props is simpler, and in certain cases much more practical. In any event, you need not worry about being ‘marked down’ by your decision either to use real objects or to mime using them. What is important is that they do not become burdensome and get in the way of your acting.

• What to wear: Again, there are no hard-and-fast rules about this, but I would suggest that, to help you make a connection to your character, you try to dress like them. If the character is formal or from another time in history, a suit/jacket and tie as opposed to jeans and a T-shirt will make a huge difference. Similarly, there is a very different feel when you wear hard shoes as opposed to trainers. When I was at drama school, our acting teacher used to refer to costume as ‘garments’, and we would be encouraged to rehearse in appropriate clothing. In this way we thought of costume not as a thing that got added at the end, but as something that was as personal to us as our own everyday wardrobe.

• Try not to get stuck in a mode of delivery. It is useful to consider that, unless a character is making a political or after-dinner speech, chances are they have no idea they are going to speak for such a long time. They may make a statement, perhaps as a response to a specific question; then having made that statement they might need to qualify it. They might then be reminded of something else they wish to add, and so on. In this way, a monologue can be regarded as a series of interrelated thoughts. Communicating a character’s thought processes is fundamental to any acting technique. In the case of an audition, it takes the pressure off having to deliver a load of text. It allows you to stay fresh, to be in the moment and to make spontaneous choices. Before you start, all you need worry about is the trigger – the reason for saying what you do. Then have the courage to take it thought by thought and allow yourself to be surprised. In this way the monologue should feel slightly different every time.

• It is vital that you use your imagination to envisage all that the character sees and describes. If you are still seeing the page on which the speech is written, you know you are doing something wrong. Provide images for yourself so that in your mind’s eye you quite literally lift the speech from the page.

• Timing/editing: Most speeches at audition should last no longer than two minutes. Some of the monologues in this volume are slightly longer, some shorter. Some I have cut, and some I have edited from a duologue with another character, and some have been augmented by joining two or more passages that appear separately in the original text. I have inserted this empty bracket symbol […] to show where a cut has been made. Once you have read the whole play, you may have ideas of your own about what and what not to include.

THE AUDITION

You will find there are many useful books on the market that make a complete study of this subject, from what to wear to how to enter and exit a room. These are some of the basics:

• Manage your nerves. Try to put the increased adrenaline you are experiencing to good use. Approach the audition with a positive sense of excitement, something to which you have been looking forward as opposed to something you have been dreading. Nervous energy, if correctly channelled, can help at an audition. Conversely you should avoid being under-energised. If you are someone who reacts lethargically to increased stress, you may need to do a good warm-up before you arrive.

• Take ownership of the situation. Before you begin, take a moment to imagine the space you are in as the location of the monologue. The best auditions are those in which the actor successfully transports the panel from ‘Studio Two’ (or whatever the room you are auditioning in is called) to an urban street, a clearing in the woods, a grand room in a stately home, etc. Consider whether the location is a public or a private one, familiar or unfamiliar and whether you are talking to just one other character or a group of people. Take time to think about where you will place the other character/s in the scene and, before you speak, allow yourself a moment to hear what has been said to you or to imagine what has just happened that prompts you to speak. Do not rush the speech. Take your time. In the case of a drama-school audition, remember that you will be paying for this privilege!

• Empower yourself. There is no good reason why the panel should want you to fail. If you are auditioning for a youth group or a drama school, consider that the panel are willing you to do well, even if they are not necessarily giving that impression. If you have been asked to be seen for a specific role, it is because the director is serious about you for the job. It is possible that the panel are equally anxious about the impression they may give you. Remember, you only have control over your part of the audition process. There is no point speculating, worrying about whether they will want you in their group, grant you a place in their school or offer you the part. Just take care of your side of things, and be safe in the knowledge that, whatever happens, you tried your best.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

For each of the monologues I have provided a bullet-point list of the things you need to know about the character. These will include their age and where they come from, a bit about their background and what sort of personality they have. In some instances, these facts are already contained within the monologue.

Then I have suggested some ideas to help you perform the monologue. These will include objectives to play and thoughts about how to connect to your character. They will also touch on the subjects already covered in this introduction, such as using props, talking to the audience, accents and what to wear, etc.

You will also need to read the whole play so that you can build a bigger picture. As you become increasingly familiar with your monologue, you will soon develop opinions of your own and may even find yourself in disagreement with my notes. Acting is a very personal thing, and no two actors, like no two people, will think exactly alike.

So use this book as a starting point from which you will form your own ideas. It is by no means a substitute for reading the play, but I hope that it will be a source of inspiration, and ultimately get you thinking and making choices for yourself

The Monologues

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3 Winters

Tena Štivičić

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT LUCIJA:

• The year is 2011, and Marko is thirty-nine. Out of context he could be played younger.

• He is from Zagreb, in Croatia, where the play is set.

• For years Marko has been living in his family home, along with his mother.

• Up until recently the house was shared between three other families. It was partitioned by the state – the former Yugoslavia – and Marko used to date Alisa Kos, whose family lived in the central part of the house.

• The house has now been aquisitioned by a local entrepreneur who is engaged to Alisa’s sister. Marko and the other neighbours have been threatened with violence and have been forced to sell up.

• Marko is still traumatised from his time spent in the army during the Bosnian War.

• When he returned home he was unable to adapt to civilian life, and still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

• After the war he tried to rekindle his relationship with Alisa, but he became violent and put a knife to her throat.

• Marko has a new girlfriend.

• Marko’s mother is going to Dalmatia to live with his sister, and Marko is preparing to move into a new high-rise block.

FIVE THINGS TO HELP YOU PERFORM THE MONOLOGUE:

• 3 Winters tells the story of four generations of the Kos family. The play travels forwards and backwards in time, charting war and political upheaval during the years 1945, 1990 and 2011 in what is now Croatia, a part of the former Yugoslavia. Central to the story is the house in which they and their neighbours live. In the monologue that follows, the year is 2011. You will need to read the whole play, which has a rich historical and political background. Take time to research the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. It will be vital to understand what Marko is going through.

• Marko is talking to Alisa. It is 2 a.m. It is November. Alisa’s sister is getting married later that day, and Marko and his mother are moving out. Marko has started shifting boxes, and Alisa has been outside smoking. Imagine the area outside the grand mansion in which he has spent most of his life. The house is old and in need of renovation, but full of character and history. What must it feel like to be moving out and to have been forced to do so? Marko is disgusted at his own weakness, but there is also the sense that the move might provide a new start for him. Allow the anticipation to provide the backdrop to the monologue. It could be that it gives Marko the necessary courage to say what he does.

• Alisa has been living and working in London, and hasn’t seen Marko in years. She is trying to reconnect with him, and wants him to join her at the wedding. We learn in the monologue that there is just too much history and bad feeling for Marko to move on. Imagine what Alisa looks like. They were once very much in love. Perhaps you can relate to the sensation of being unable to have a friendship with a former lover.

• Observe the stage directions. They give a good indication of just how hard Marko is finding all of this. He doesn’t want to hurt Alisa, but it is impossible for him to support her.

• ‘Ally’ is the word Alisa uses before the start of the speech. She says: ‘I was hoping to have an ally there.’ Given their history, the word carries a certain weight and meaning. Consider how Marko throws it back at her. It is not his choice of word, and, out of context, it will help to remember that. The word for him becomes a kind of weapon. It frames the speech and draws it to an unequivocal ending. By rejecting the word, Marko is able to regain some kind of dignity.

Marko

Alisa, for fuck’s sake, I’m not your ally in this.

[…]

I wish you’d lose this deer-in-the-headlights look – it really isn’t your thing.

He stops. She stares at him. A long pause, his face screwed in reluctance – he does not want to enter into this speech. But then… here it goes:

What I’m saying is that… I can’t… There is a line to which you can be stretched. There is a line.

[…]

Stuff has happened between us in the past. We have been very grown-up and cordial about it all because, ultimately, what transpired was not out of ill-feeling or… the bullshit that goes on between people when a relationship starts breaking down. But… if we were to unpick the layers of let’s call it social conditioning and all this jovial ‘it’s all in the past’ approach to things, I think we would find that what happened years ago, what I put you through in those months after I came back from the front line was pretty fucking grim. And there are probably consequences of that somewhere in your life. I carry my guilt around with me for messing it all up. And for putting my mother and sister through years of worry. Three years of was I going to come home at all. And then was I going to live a normal life, or take my own, or someone else’s, or theirs, or whatever the fuck… you know. But here’s the kicker. Whilst I was sitting around trying to grasp how anyone can just get on with life after that monumental bloodbath, I missed out on acquiring the necessary skills to live in the new world. The years spent scratching my head about the, now largely forgotten attempt to protect my country, which wasn’t even my choice, have rendered me unable to protect my own doorstep and my own mother from being evicted at the age of seventy-two.

You know what he said, your brother-in-law? ‘Let’s talk man to man.’ Huh. Well. Our flat is seriously run-down and I’d never get the money to fix it. So I rolled over really quite promptly after he explained to me that refusing the offer would not be an option. The hateful Horaks, they at least put up a little of a fight. I have more respect for them than I have for myself right now. So. You know. I screwed up many, many things. And this inclination that you still seem to have towards me I find pathetically moving. But a line has been crossed. I can’t sit in the back of the restaurant with you, drink their champagne and scoff quietly. Contempt is a very poor weapon. I am not your ally. Any more.

Alligators

Andrew Keatley

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DANIEL:

• Daniel is in his late thirties. Out of context, he could be played younger.

• He is a history teacher at an inner-city comprehensive school.

• His exact location and accent are unspecified.

• Daniel is married to Sally, who is a stay-at-home mum.

• They live in a modern city apartment.

• Daniel and Sally have two children: a girl called Genevieve, who is seven, and a baby boy called Barney.

• Daniel has been accused of historic sexual abuse. A former pupil, Kimberley Hughes, now twenty, claims that he assaulted her six years ago, when she was just fourteen. Daniel denies the claims and has employed a solicitor called Rachel.

• In the past, Daniel has had an alcohol problem.

• When he was at university, Daniel was sexually promiscuous.

• Although happily married, Daniel watches porn online.

FIVE THINGS TO HELP YOU PERFORM THE MONOLOGUE:

• I have taken the liberty of cutting and pasting the first paragraph of the speech from a slightly earlier point in the play in order to give context. In both instances, Daniel is talking to his wife Sally, who has demanded to know what’s going on. Imagine you have heard her line:‘Please. I need to know what’s going on, Daniel’, before starting the speech.

• They are in their living room. It is the evening. Imagine what Sally looks like. Consider also his relationship to where they are. What was once a comfortable sitting room, and a place to unwind and relax, has turned into a kind of prison and goldfish bowl. Outside there is a baying vigilante crowd, and Daniel has had to shut the curtains.

• Although Daniel has yet to be charged, he has been suspended from work and questioned by the police. It is unlikely that you have experienced something as extreme, but see how you can connect to that feeling of having your life turned upside down. Perhaps you too have been accused of something you didn’t do, or can’t remember having done. How did it make you feel? Crazy? Like living a nightmare? Normally very confident, none of this is easy for Daniel, and he would give anything to have his old life back.

• You will need to read the whole play in order to understand what exactly did occur between Daniel and Kimberley, but although we only have Daniel’s version of events, we can assume that the allegations made against him are overblown. However, mud sticks, and Daniel’s whole point in the monologue is that, as soon as someone is accused, their whole character comes into question. Furthermore, there will be plenty of other people from his/her past ready to join in the condemnation. An ex-girlfriend from Daniel’s university days has accused him of sexual deviancy, and the police are in possession of his computer, revealing his taste for porn. All this he wants to protect from Sally.

• What things do you ‘keep in a box and hide from the world’? The more you can connect to a feeling of shame, the more depth you will bring to the monologue.

NB. This play offers a number of other monologues from which to choose.

Daniel

A girl… this girl from – well, woman – she’s twenty now. She was a student at – she was one of my students. She’s… she says that I… she’s made allegations that I assaulted her. That I… that I sexually assaulted her. […] Rachel says that as things stand she doesn’t think they have enough to charge me, but… (With a burst.) There are things that I don’t want you to hear, Sal! Please! I’m trying to protect you from… I’m not perfect. I put my hands up. I’m not perfect. But neither is anyone else. I’m just… I’m just the same as everybody else.

Everyone has done things that they’re not proud of. You… you scratch the surface of anyone’s life and you’ll find things – things that they don’t want anyone else to know – things that make them feel like a lesser person – things that they want to keep in a box and hide from the world. And so that’s what they do; they hide their box away, hoping nobody ever gets to see inside. And they don’t, until… Because you can do a thousand good things. You can have a thousand people stand up and say ‘I know that man. That’s a good man. He’s a good father – he’s a good husband – he’s a good member of the community.’ But as soon as someone points at him and says that maybe he’s not – maybe he’s bad – maybe he’s evil – then it undoes everything. And I mean everybody – everybody – is just one allegation away from this happening to them. But because I’m the one who was pointed at the world suddenly has the right to circle on me – to corner me and empty my box so that everybody can root around and judge me – and I can’t do anything to stop it. That’s… It’s… it’s terrifying. But to have the people that know you – that you love and that love you – see those things too that… hear about those things too… well, that just… The thought of it… So I don’t want you to look inside. I want to save you from that. Because it’s… I don’t think my heart can take it. And I’m scared that yours can’t either.

Britannia Waves the Rules

Gareth Farr

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CARL:

• Carl’s exact age is not specified, but we can assume that he is in his late teens/early twenties.

• Carl comes from Blackpool in Lancashire. He hates his home town, and says ‘it’s shit’.

• When he was twelve his mother died. Carl became angry and would shout and punch the walls. His father had a kind of nervous breakdown, grew a beard and started playing with toy trains. Carl felt lonely.

• To release his anger, Carl would run for miles. He also wrote poetry, largely about Blackpool and the frustration and sense of claustrophobia he felt.

• To avoid staying in Blackpool on benefits or in a dead-end job, Carl joined the Army with the promise of a career and a decent future.

• When he first signed up he took to the training like a duck to water. He loved the discipline and the routine, and he loved being away from Blackpool.

• When he was deployed to Afghanistan it both excited and terrified him. It meant proper active service, but the locals were hostile, and wanted the soldiers out or even dead.

• Carl’s first killing was a member of the Taliban in cold blood. At first he was haunted by what he had done, but over time it got easier for him, and he went on to kill another fourteen people.

• Carl sleeps poorly and suffers mentally under the strain. When one of his company died, he broke down. He was given time to recuperate, but when that time was up, Carl couldn’t face going back into combat.

• Even though he was awarded a medal, and promoted to Lance Corporal, Carl came to realise that he had been brutalised by the British Army; that he had been intentionally made numb so that he would follow orders without complaint.