Monologues

[Lakeviewp]

Hi everyone,

I've searched previous posts on monologues (which have all been very helpful - thank you!), but have a question I hope you can help me with.

We are looking for a suitable monologue for our DS who is 11 for any potential auditions. We have found a few poems which he is mildly happy with, however when he recites a scene from James and the Giant Peach it sounds so much more entertaining and he enjoys it.

The only problem is, the speech has three characters. He uses slighly different voices for each character.

My head is telling me that this does not qualify as a monologue (mono - one!!), but my heart is hoping it will.

What do you guys think? Your experience is gratefully appreciated!

Many thanks

Px

[pg]

Just posted a reply but am deleting it because I didn't read your post properly

I think that if you he is preparing an audition monologue to have up his sleeve then it is absolutely fine to learn the James and the Giant Peach one as one possible option. However, to be really useful in an audition situation it is best to look for something where he can just "be" a character. If he can find or adapt a bit from James and the Giant Peach which is just James, that would be much better. Most auditioners will not want entertaining, they will want to be able to assess his acting skills (for someone his age - it's a bit different for much younger children). The best audition pieces are those where you are presenting a "slice of life" and can show that you can inhabit the character's world. It's hard to do this if you are being several characters plus narrator.

[Lakeviewp]

Hi PG,

It is for a potential Matilda audition (waiting to hear if he has an auditon, but thought we would get ourselves prepared just in case!)

Many thanks

Px

[pg]

Ah, ok. I think it's a good choice, but you could try to find the play versions of Roald Dahl books (of which there are quite a few) and then see whether you can cut and paste several short speeches together.

If you do a bit from a novel (unless you adapt it yourself as if it's a play and just use the dialogue) then really, all the auditioner can easily assess is how good someone is at presenting a piece from a novel... It it's done well, then they might well be impressed enough to investigate further, but I still think a speech is better for audition purposes.

[Lakeviewp]

That's great! Thank you!

We will search out the play version.

Px

[pg]

To expand on this for anyone else reading this thread:

One of the reasons for recommending a speech from a play rather than a bit from a novel (if you are auditioning for a part in a play or film) is that (in my experience) the auditioner is not just listening to how well someone speaks or how well they understand something or how well they have learned something. They are not even particularly interested in whether someone can do different voices or accents or how lively and entertaining they can be.

What an auditioner hopes to observe is the whole performance. How the auditionee moves, stands, breathes, speaks, reacts - is all of this believable/credible for the part they are playing? They hope to see someone "become" someone rather than present something, if you see what I mean. No-one need get hung up on how they stand/move etc. etc. - all of this is likely to be there quite instinctively - but if you are narrating and being several different characters you are giving yourself a harder task than you need to.

[islandofsodor]

There is a James & Giant Peach monologue in the Jean Marlow audition speeches for kids book. However it might be a bit over used.

[TalyaB]

There's a play script of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Very few monologues, but when my son was auditioning for Matilda he used 7 very short Charlie speeches joined together to make a monologue (pp.24-5, if you're interested). It must have worked as he got the part.