A young writer, Annabel Swan, reached out to share this powerful, dramatic female monologue for teens:  "The Waiting List."

Annabel is a gifted writer with a keen ear for dialogue that feels real and natural.

So glad she reached out! For others reading this post, if you have monologues you'd like to showcase, don't hesitate to contact me at gabriel@alumni.cmu.edu! I'm always on the lookout for opportunities to draw awareness to and link to great work, like Annabel's!

Synopsis of "The Waiting Room" by Annabel Swan

A girl accompanies her best friend, Lily, to the school counselors office. It takes WEEKS to get these appointments. Shameful, but true.

She can't imagine what Lily needs an appointment for. Lily is the furthest thing from troubled...

And yet, Lily has asked her to join her “for moral support.”

Never in a million years would she have suspected that Lily had been struggling with suicidal thoughts. Not Lily, not perfect, together Lily ... and yet ...

She is floored by the realization, when a counselor asks Lily if she's had "thoughts." And Lily, her dear friend who she knows through and through, looks down .... unable to meet the counselor's gaze .... nods her head .... 

Lily has .... had .... thoughts.

The appointment ends. There probably will be some follow ups, but for now, the moment is over. It's back to class ... biology.

She is reeling emotionally, in shock, as she walks arm in arm with Lily. 

As she walks arm in arm with Lily back to biology class as if .... as if this day were still a normal one, as if this world, her world, hasn’t been irrevocably changed by Lily's truth..

On page 17 of Apatow's screenplay his lead character George, a successful celebrity standup, has a very vulnerable, very human moment. Prior to the scene he's been given a cancer diagnosis and the prognosis does not look good. Now up on stage at a comedy club, he admits he's scared and tells a few jokes about growing up in a family that didn't believe in a higher power or an afterlife. The jokes fall flat. By the end of the monologue, it's gotten so quiet in the comedy club George jokes that he can hear the freeway. No one laughs.

Some of the jokes might play as funny in audition, but really this monologue is one of George's more vulnerable and raw emotional moments in tthe movie. For a standup comic, the stage is a place where he can be honest and express what he's going through. It's a slightly sad moment as we discover he has no one he's really close to and its onstage where he's able to open up. Bearing his soul to strangers, fans, in a club.

You could certainly consider this in the category of dramatic monologue. Great balance of past/present action as his recollections about his Athiest family tie directly to the terminal diagnosis he's trying to come to terms with. And the anger, at the situation, at his father for not giving him a religious faith that could have given him comfort now, is deep and moving. He has a strong desire in the scene to connect, to find comfort for the pain he is in, to release it, to tell someone. He also is struggling wanting to recapture his life before he got the diagnosis. He wants to go onstage and be adored, like normal, and do his act, perform a short set, like he usually would. But he can't just do his standup like always. So there is great internal conflict here as well. Ahh! This monologue is just fricken deep and honest and awesome. If you're into bear your soul kinda stuff, this monologue is your bag.

Great monologue for a man. You are playing Picasso! This monologue is in a comedic play but really is a dramatic moment. You get to demonstrate an artist's passion and excitement for his work. There's a feeling of yearning and awe and power. Picasso talks about wanting to be ready for when his great moments of inspiration strike. When he will create the works of art that will influence and shape the 20th century. The moment when his dream of making great art and the action of making great art converge.

​Hook opener to this monologue:
"I could dream it forever and still not do it, but when the time comes for it to be done, God, I want to be ready for it"

Contemporary dramatic monologue for men under 2 minutes.  Man can be 20's to 40's.  Character's name is Mike from the play "Hero Dad" by Laura Jacqmin from Humana Festival 2012: The Complete Plays

The character, Mike, envisions what it would like to be a father.  He addresses a character "Seated Female" who he has got pregnant.  She sits in a waiting room.  He's on the phone with her.  He pleads with her to give him a chance to be a father.

Start the monologue with "I mean, the vision I have of myself?  As a dad?" on page 209 and close the monologue with "we can figure it out" on page 210.

Per Monologue Writing 101, this monologue is notable for:

• Strong want - he has a strong desire to be a father.  
• High stakes - if he doesn't convince her, he may not get the chance.
• Discovery - he's sharing a vision of himself as a father with "Seated Female" likely for the first time.
• Tactics - for a short piece, he tries two tactics: shared with her a positive vision of how he'll be a good father and that he's open to trying to make the relationship work with her.
• Internal Obstacles - he's definitely pushing past some internal obstacles here that he had about commitment to this woman and to having a family.  But he's blasting past them, actually, because there's the real present danger in this dramatic moment of him losing both.

This seriocomic monologue for men is under a minute. You're playing the father of a toddler, a daughter. You're divorced. You only get her two weeks a year. And your upstairs neighbor, who is trying to study for the bar exam is bothered by "the sound of little footsteps." She has come to your door to discuss, This monologue is what you might say to her.

Realistic monologue that will let you play a father who clearly loves his daughter and who is frustrated at his situation in life and his upstairs neighbor.

Find this monologue on page 205 of Actor's Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival 2012 The Complete Plays. Starts with the line "Ok, yes, I got your note."

Monologues for kids.  This is a monologue for a young boy and the character's name is Jack.   Genre is drama.  Falls into the contemporary monologues from movies and film category.

This is from the movie "Room" based on the novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue.  You can find it at 1:47 (one hour forty seven minutes) into the movie.   When I saw it, I was floored.   So poetic, beautiful and simply written which made it all the more powerful.  Imagine being a child who grew up in a room the size of a garden shed, who never saw the outside world.  Based on events in the news where women and their children were held captive for years but a fictionalized account.  The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award for best writing, adapted screenplay and for a Golden Globe best screenplay - motion picture category.  It's star Brie Larson won best actress at the Oscars and Golden Globes. The movie is straight up moving; if you don't get teary eyed watching it you're clearly an android sent fro the future to destroy us, hehe.  The monologue I'm recommending from this film is an amazing snippet that could be a very moving performance for a young actor auditioning for a drama.  Vulnerable, sweet, innocent, yet wise.  The child actor should be able to play approximately five years old, though I think you could have an older child perform it and it would still be very moving and effective up to about 10 years old.  You watch it and see, the film is available streaming on the various video services or you can get it here.

Start the monologue at 1:47 in the movie (right toward the end of the film) with the line "When I was 4, I didn't even know about the world ... and now me and ma are going to live in it forever and ever until we're dead."  and you can end it just under one minute long with the line "Because it's still just you and me."  Alternately, you can extend it a little longer and end with "Bye Bye Skylight ... Ma, say bye bye to room" at 1:52.

I saw this contemporary dramatic monologue for men while watching Breaking Bad and it blew me away. You'll find the monologue within Breaking Bad Season 4, Episode 10 at 23 minutes into the episode. The monologue is spoken by the character Walt who is in his forties.

The monologue is short under two minutes and exemplifies elements 1-6 and 8 of Monologue Writing 101. The night prior to the monologue Walt's son, Walt Jr., had come to his father's condo to check if everything was alright, because Walt had missed Walt Jr.'s 16th birthday celebration. Walt Jr. finds his father looking beat up, Walt's been in a fight, and drunk. In his drunken weakened state Walt had spoken briefly to his son and then passed out. The monologue takes place the next morning.

In the monologue Walt shares the story of his one real memory of his own father, who died of Huntington's disease when Walt was very young. Walt's memory is of a father who was very sick, barely hanging onto life, who could no longer speak, and who may no longer even have fully recognized him. Walt's only real memory of his father is of a shell of a man. Walt wants his own son, Walt Jr., to remember him at his best. Walt does not want Walt Jr. to remember him the way he was the night before; drunk, beaten, incoherent.

For actors auditioning for a dramatic role, who want to demonstrate they can achieve a layered, nuanced performance - this monologue delivers.

Per Monologue Writing 101, this monologue exemplifies the following elements:

Element 1: Walt has a strong desire for his son to have a positive memory of him. He wants his son to forget what he saw last night.

Element 2: Walt has at stake how his son sees and esteems him. As a father, Walt cares deeply how he will be remembered by his son when he is gone.

Element 3: Walt tries a few tactics to get his son to forget about his lapse in character. He apologizes to his son, he shows his son he feels ashamed, he uses self-deprecation, and finally he opens up about his own father. The memory he shares is something very personal that he has never told his son before.

Element 4: The opening of the monologue serves as an effective hook. It sets up the current state of the relationship dynamic and the want that the speaker has in that relationship. It pulls us in. We want to see if Walt will win over his son. "I wish I could take back last night. It was your birthday, this shouldn’t be on your mind. No it’s not okay, I’m your father and I don’t want last night to be…. I mean you, you really … you can’t think of me like …"

Element 5: The close of the monologue has a solid "button" ending. It effectively connects the past action from Walt's childhood back to the present action between Walt and Walt Jr. and to the strong character want established at the start of the monologue. By the end of the monologue, Walt's want has more weight and has engaged the empathy of Walt Jr. "That is the only real memory that I have of my father. I don’t want you to think of me the way I was last night. I don’t want that to be the memory you have of me when I’m gone."

Element 6: This is an excellent example of a monologue that engages the senses. Walt remembers the smell in hospital where he visited his father, the "stench of Lysol and bleach." He remembers seeing his father lying in bed "all twisted up." And he remembers the sound of his father breathing like "this rattling sound. Like if you were shaking an empty spray paint can. Like there was nothing in him."

Element 8: Past action is used to drive home the present want of the monologist. Walt uses his memory as a tactic to engage his son's empathy, to persuade his son. The author does a good job keeping past action tied to present action.

Here is one example from the monologue where Walt uses a specific detail from the past as a means to connect to his son in the present: "My mother would tell me so many stories about my father. I mean she would talk about him all the time. I knew about his personality, how he treated people, I even knew how he liked his steaks cooked. Medium rare, just like you."