Selecting monkologue pieces for auditions

When I chose my auditions for actors piece, I had to make sure it was suitable and that I was happy with it. When an audition takes place, its vital that you can play your part competently. The piece needs to be age appropriate. Although it is not always possible to find a part which is exactly your age, but you need to be able to perform it believably. In my monologue, Charlie, my character, is 23. She is only 4 years older than me so I can play her part effectively. I looked at some monologues, for example from A Street Car Named Desire, where the characters are A lot older. Also, although it is okay to mix gender, so playing the opposite sex, it is only a good idea if you can pull it off correctly. Although I like a challenge, I don't think I'd feel comfortable playing a male character as, brow a visually impaired actor with a lack of observation of the opposite sex, I do not think it would be a good idea to do this. Also, you need to pick a piece you can connect  with. In same old moon, Bella Rafferty was a 17 year old town tart, talking on about recent events and dialogue that she, or others had. For me, it was too repetitive, with a lot of "she said" and "said she" instead of Bella talking from the heart. In. A street car named Desire, Blanche had found her husband was gay. The topic and concept was interesting, but I still didn't feel I could relate or attach myself to the character. Also at first I did not understand what she was meaning, and someone had to explain the context of the piece to me. I didn't want to do a piece I couldn't even understand, let alone connect with.

  5 March.  This week, Cara read us some Shakespeare pieces for us to consider.  We are now moving on to our ney section of the unit, a to work on a Shakespeare piece as opposed to a contempary.  I was very interested in this as I do like Shakespeare and find him interesting.  Cara read me a script fAdrianna from Comedy of Errors, which was about Adrianna's husband's long lost twin showing up with another woman, and the speech was Adrianna, fuming, about her "husband" cheating on her.  I liked the speech, but it is quite a surreal situation so I did not really connect entirely with the character, and did not feel I could play the part well.  Cara also showed me Tamora, from Titus Andromicus.  She was an evil character, who, at the end, was furious with the people around her for her fate of death.  I did not feel I could play this character because she was evil and I would rather play a character with more complex behaviour to consider in a monologue.  In my own time I read monologues by Lady Anne in Richard Iii.  However, she was a slightly seductive character, and I did not always feel like I could understand her characteristics very well.

Finally, I examined Kate from the Taming of the Shrew.  This character was a very interesting one.  She, in fact, was the shrew herself, a very fist-happy girl, who everyone thought was too boisterous and violent to marry.  She had a very narrow perspective, and did not always see things from others' point of view.  At the end, marriage matured Kate, and she began to understand things in other people's views, and she also matured and realised that she could have power and control in a partnership with another person.  She is a very rich, diverse and interesting character, often portrayed by others characters instead of by the audience.  Therefore, I would be very happy to play this part and practice Kate's final monologue. Here is a link to my monologue. It is the third of Kate's monologues, the first line being Fie Fie. http://www.shakespeare-monologues.org/women/plays/7 

Here is some footage of me carrying out an interview and an audition piece. This was to give me an idea of what auditioning for drama school was like.


https://youtu.be/KjJzppB6fDQ

https://youtu.be/T9-GLytI0Tw





There are many types of audition you may be asked to carry out as a prospective performer.

At a TV or film audition you may be asked to recite a monologue, potentially sing, and reenact a scene from the script. At drama school, you may need to recite a classical monologue, particularly a Shakespeare, sing, dance and take part in a modern monologue or script reading. You would also need to carry out some drama improvisations or games.

For musical theatre shows, you may need to sing, study and then sight read a text, dance, and perhaps take part in an improvisation.

Not all theatre audition pieces, however, are suitable for all types of theatre. If you were doing a classic Shakespeare tv programme, it would be unlikely that you would need to sing, dance or learn contemporary monologues.

If you were doing a 1950s musical, you would probably need to sing, dance and recite part of a script, but you would not need Shakespeare or a very modernised monologue.

This year, I have experienced many different auditions and observed what is required for them. I went to UWTSD in Swansea, where I applied for a university degree in Applied Drama. There, I took part in a very informal interview. Due to the fact that the course is entirely Drama based,we took part in a number of team games, drama workshop exercises, and group activities including creating a small physical theatre piece.

This varied hugely to the the University of Chichester, which took on a slightly wider Spectrum of theatre. We had to memorise two audition monologues, take part in a storytelling project, and worked on some interpretations of contemporary scripts. We also  took part in some drama games and had to devise some small scenes based on stimuli.

Finally, I went to Theatre Brycheiniog with my class where we took part in a very different workshop, where we had to recite our monologues, create physical theatre images, take part in drama games, and  most of all work on longer improvised pieces like the therapy circle and the scenes based on short character descriptions. The feedback that was given was very professional as it geared us up towards a drama school type audition.