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"

This monologue for a a man in his twenties is about a guy (named Grrl) who has a roommate who eats her feelings. When she gets upset and eats her feelings it keeps him from relaxing in his apartment. He's sort of stuck taking care of and managing her toxic emotions. In this monologue he tells us how she progresses through different junk foods based on her level of distress.

This is a very inventive funny monologue. It has to be assembled by removing the various interjections and interactions between the characters. What you're left with is just the character Grrl's lines which are delivered in direct address to the audience. The monologue starts with "I can gauge her mood by what she's eating" and ends with "he's actually been texting me all *** day"

Get this monologue from pages 469 to 471 from the book "Humana Festival 2012: The Complete Plays"

Monologue for a middle aged woman, comedy.  Character, Wanda, is described as "Older professional woman. Warm but not inclined to suffer fools."

Monologue has hook opening "We are living in an insane world" and goes on to explore how Wanda used to have a dream about her "crazy" grandmother, who believed money should not be trusted with banks but kept in false bottom shoes.  In Wanda's dream she'd introduce her grandma to financial journalist Kai Ryssdal of NPRs Marketplace to talk some sense into her about putting her money into banks.  However, post financial crisis with her own home in danger of being taken back by the banks, Wanda still has a dream of her grandma meeting Kai, but now its so she could watch her grandma slap him across his face.   

​You can find the monologue on page 308 of ​Humana Festival 2012: The Complete Plays. 

Monologue for a woman, character Jenni, described as "Smart, hip, young aspiring professional working in the not-for-profit earnest helping professions."  So let's say 20's to early 30's.  Genre is comedy.

This monologue, which opens the play, Jenni sets the stage for how "one day a little billing problem with Ferizon rips your life to shreds and everything you thought you knew about yourself and your world."

Several comic beats includes Jenni losing her train of thought within the first few lines of the monologue, slipping into reverie about the good old days when phone service was as simple as slipping a dime into a pay phone, wondering how something that "comes with a PLAN" can go so horribly wrong and "I thought it was a plan to make my life easier and better - but I was wrong.  Oh my god, I was so wrong."

There's nice variety of tone and rhythm in this piece as well, with Jenni having a mock phone call at one point, catching up with a friend, Jenni waxing philosophical about the big picture of how the world has evolved, and Jenni expressing the emotion of having been through an ordeal.

The monologue does a great job of peaking an audience's interest in the story that is about to unfold.  And it just might peak your auditors' curiosity in you!    Preview the monologue on Lisa Kron's website.  Get this monologue as part of the Humana Festival 2012: The Complete Plays. You'll find it on page 283.

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.

Comedic contemporary monologue for a woman, age range 40's from the play "Cuthbert's Last Stand" by Andrew Biss.

A mother is saddened that her son has turned out straight.  Mrs. Pennington-South, tells her son how she had hoped he would turn out gay like "your cousin Vivian, with his penchant for strolling in the park after dark, and his overall lack of interest in the feminine gender."  She goes over moments from his childhood that shaped the man he grew up to be and blames his father for buying him "some sort of action combat doll" which she believes contributed to his unfortunate straightness.  She just feels life would have been easier for him gay.

Find the monologue on page 31 of 222 Comedy Monologues 2 Minutes and Under Volume 4.   Get the one act play "Cuthbert's Last Stand" by Andrew Biss here.  ​

Comedic monologue for a woman in her 40's from the one-act play "Cuthbert's Last Stand" by Andrew Biss, which won the 5th Annual National One-Act Play Competition in Los Angeles.   Character is a woman in her 40's named Mrs. Pennington-South.

You can find this funny female monologue, highest scoring this week on the laugh-o-meter, on page 33 of 222 Comedy Monologues 2 Minutes and Under Volume 4.

Few reasons I luuuurrrve this one per my Monologue Writing 101:

• Hook opener immediately made me like Andrew Biss' style:  "Thirty years of my life I've squandered on that anonymous hotel guest legally defined as my husband and your father."   Best hook this week (so far).
• The monologue effectively connects past action recalled to the present action.  As Mrs. Pennington-South bemoans in great, vivid rib tickling detail the exasperating soul sucking experience that has been her marriage, she connects these past recollections to her life's current mission, which is to ensure that her son - to whom she's currently speaking - escapes a similar fate.
• Finally, insult comedy is funny.  This monologue is chock full

However, as the great LeVar Burton said "You don't have to take my word for it, read it for yourself."  Get the one act play "Cuthbert's Last Stand" by Andrew Biss here.  

Comedic monologue under 2 minutes for woman in her 20's.  Character's name is Jill.  The monologue is contemporary and can be cut to a one minute monologue if needed and still work well.

The monologue opens "I can't talk about him.  No, I will talk about him."   Decent hook in that immediately we're wondering who "him" is.   Clearly he's not easy for her to talk about.

The monologue gives a young actress a great build of intensity as she rhapsodizes about how wonderful the relationship was with "him" at first describing it as "the kind of passion that made every day seem like the Fourth of July."   Great vehicle to show you can exude passion and excitement. 

However, as the character you'll get so carried away with passion that before you knows it you find yourself at a Justice of the Peace hearing the words "Do you Jack, take Jill, to be your lawfully wedded wife."  Name reveal that the "him" referenced throughout is "Jack."  Not good; you can't imagine going through life as "Jack and Jill."   These moments will allow you to play fear and that OMG, what have I got myself into type feeling.  Put another way in the second major beat of the piece you get carried away by euphoric blissful love and in the third major beat you suddenly put the breaks on and try to screech to a halt before you go too far with the feeling ...

As you apply the brakes hard you see the edge of the cliff drawing closer.  Will you stop in time?  You "wanted to scream, to go running out into the night" however "It was 10 o'clock in the morning and well, you can't go running out into 10 o'clock in the morning."

And then quite a great button closing which also serves as a punchline to the setup above "So instead I passed out.  If only I'd fainted, before I said, I do."   So yeah, you go right over that cliff, too late!  You're married!   

It's quite a fun ride with varied levels of energy and emotion, taking you from reluctance to elation to panic to dismay.

Get this 1 to 2 minute comedic contemporary monologue for a young woman from the play Butterflies are Free here.

You'll find this two minute audition monologue for a woman in her 30's to 40's on page 21 of "Bad Dates" the comic play by Theresa Rebeck.  The monologue starts with the semi-hook "So I'm like, OK, this is just a date that's not going to work out."  Instantly we the audience are a close friend hearing about the character's dating misadventures.  The monologist goes on to tell us how as the guy on this hopeless date talks to her she realizes they're sort of kindred spirits and she feels sort of bad for him.  They've both just recently been through breakups from long term relationships and are getting back out there.  

But just as she's starting to have real sympathy for his situation he begins explaining that it was actually HE who did the breaking up even though he's all sad it had to end.  Our monologist tries to figure out why he ended the relationship and all he can say is he couldn't see "the end of the movie" with the person. After "going around in circles" trying to understand what he means, she concludes that he ended a good relationship because he got an insane metaphor stuck in his head.

​In terms of the ten elements of great audition monologues, this one gets solid marks for elements 1, 4 and 5.  The monologist has a strong desire to make a connection, the piece has a decent hook opening that grabs our attention partly because of how relatable and natural the dialogue sounds, and it has a very good button closing because the monologue's frustration level sort of blows comically on the last line "is it possible you broke up with the woman you loved because of some insane metaphor?"

The monologue gives you varied emotions to play, a journey to go on from feeling defeated (date is going nowhere) to sympathetic (poor guy he's also recovering from a long term relationship like me) to frustrated (this idiot ended a good relationship for NO reason!). 

Preview the monologue on google books here.    Get the play here.

Suzanne recounts her romantic encounter with Picasso. Comedic monologue for a young woman, 19 to 20's (script says 19 but yeah ... )

Susanne is young, attractive, confident in herself. She knows the power she possess, that she is attractive to men. Picasso's appetite for consuming and devouring experience, life, her ... and transforming it into art ... sweeps her off her feet (right onto her back). She can tell he is significant, important. It is a brief encounter, a tryst, a flash in the pan, a powerful inexplicable moment of passion. And then he is gone. And she is left disappointed and yearning. She has come to the cafe Lapin Agile looking to see him again.

The monologue begins on page 18 of Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays with the line "I ... it was about two weeks ago." and ends on page 20 with "He told me about this place, that he might see me here one day, and that was two weeks ago." You'll have to cut interjections and decide on other internal cut within the piece to get it to audition time. For an example of how it can be cut see page 73 of 222 Comedy Monologues 2 Minutes and Under.

Great monologue if you are auditioning for a comedy, if the role will be one with some sex appeal and romance, if there is some erudition and sophistication to the characters in the play.

Favorite line:

​"Well at that point the word no became like a Polish village: unpronounceable."