When auditioning for a play, film or television role, actors and actresses are often asked to prepare monologues to show off their acting skills. Most directors and producers expect age and gender-appropriate monologues. The monologue must also prove appropriate to the genre of the piece for which the actor is auditioning; a comedy role requires a comedy monologue while a dramatic role requires a
. dramatic one.One of the most tragic dramatic monologues for women comes from William Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet." When Romeo finds Juliet and believes she has died, he takes his life. After Romeo dies, Juliet wakes up and finds her beloved Romeo dead from poisoning himself, she is so heartbroken that she decides to join him in death by stabbing herself. The monologue reads," Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy nameWhen I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?That villain cousin would have killed my husband.Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring!Your tributary drops belong to woe,Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy.My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain;And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband.All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,That murd'red me. I would forget it fain;But O, it presses to my memoryLike damnAd guilty deeds to sinners' minds!'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo--banishAd!'That 'banishAd,' that one word 'banishAd,'Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's deathWas woe enough, if it had ended there;Or, if sour woe delights in fellowshipAnd needly will be ranked with other griefs,Why followAd not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,Which modern lamentation might have moved?But with a rearward following Tybalt's death,'Romeo is banishAd'--to speak that wordIs father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banishAd'--There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,In that word's death; no words can that woe sound."In a more humorous vein, the Greek satirist Aristophanes crafted the tale of Lysistrata, a woman who refused to make love to her husband, a general, until he ended a war. A famous monologue from the female chorus goes," Nay, never play the brave man, else when you go back home, your own mother won't know you. But, dear friends and allies, first let us lay our burdens down; then, citizens all, hear what I have to say. I have useful counsel to give our city, which deserves it well at my hands for the brilliant distinctions it has lavished on my girlhood. At seven years of age, I was bearer of the sacred vessels; at ten, I pounded barley for the altar of Athene; next, clad in a robe of yellow silk, I was little bear to Artemis at the Brauronia; presently, grown a tall, handsome maiden, they put a necklace of dried figs about my neck, and I was Basket-Bearer. So surely I am bound to give my best advice to Athens. What matters that I was born a woman, if I can cure your misfortunes? I pay my share of tolls and taxes, by giving men to the State. But you, you miserable greybeards, you contribute nothing to the public charges; on the contrary, you have wasted the treasure of our forefathers, as it was called, the treasure amassed in the days of the PersianWars. You pay nothing at all in return; and into the bargain you endanger our lives and liberties by your mistakes. Have you one word to say for yourselves? . . . Ah! don't irritate me, you there, or I'll lay my slipper across your jaws; and it's pretty heavy. By the blessed goddesses, if you anger me, I will let loose the beast of my evil passions, and a very hailstorm of blows will set you yelling for help. Come, dames, off tunics, and quick's the word; women must scent the savour of women in the throes of passion. . . . Now just you dare to measure strength with me, old greybeard, and I warrant you you'll never eat garlic or black beans more. No, not a word! My anger is at a boiling point, and I'll do with you what the beetle did with the eagle's eggs. I laugh at your threats, so long as I have on my side Lampita here, and the noble Theban, my dear Ismenia. . . . Pass decree on decree, you can do us no hurt, you wretch abhorred of all your fellows. Why, only yesterday, on occasion of the feast of Hecate, I asked my neighbors of B"otia for one of their daughters for whom my girls have a lively liking--a fine, fat eel to wit; and if they did not refuse, all along of your silly decrees! We shall never cease to suffer the like, till someone gives you a neat trip-up and breaks your neck for you!"Many auditions require more modern monologues, but these are among the best-known that actresses have used to audition for serious dramatic and comedic roles. More reference links: http://www.angelfire.com/realm/theatre/femalemono.html http://www.whysanity.net/monos/female.html
