Monologue help!

[hannahsmum]

Forgive my ignorance and I hope that I am posting in the right place and way! This site has been recommended to me by a friend who tells me there are a lot of very nice people that only to happy to come to the aid of newbies like myself. I have a ten year old daughter who has been asked to prepapre a monolugue as part of an audition the difficulty is that it needs to be a modern piece and so far after hours of trawling site after site all I can find is the traditional style of monologue. CAN ANYBODY HELP!!!!!! I would be so greatful for any advice that any of you could give. On a more mundane subject what is DD and DS? Thank you all.

[pg]

Hello and welcome to NAPM!

DD is dear or darling daughter and DS is (you've guessed it) dear or darling son. Sounds a bit twee doesn't it? But it's just a shorthand really and seems to be used by lots of online forums.

It is hard to find modern monologues for young people. Good places to look can be plays written specifically for schools, or plays based on books for young people (e.g. the Jaqueline Wilson play adaptations). You could even consider adapting a modern children's novel yourself and trying to find some dialogue within the novel you could use. The important thing is for it to be written in a way that makes it easy for her to sound as though they really are her own words.

These monologues on the subject of bullying may also provide some useful material:
http://www.actagainstbullying.org/pdfs/ ... things.pdf

There used to be a link on the site somewhere for all of these, but I can't find it now. Someone else on the site may be able to help

[Flosmom]

There are some interesting monologues published by the charity Act Against Bullying. If you google them, you should find them. if not, just post back and I'll try to post a link. I think I have posted one on this site before but I'm rushing to appreciate my partner's production of a rather yummy Sunday lunch right now so I hope you'll forgive me for not tracking it down for you.

My daughters have both used them as audition pieces. If you want to pop along to their starnow pages http://www.starnow.co.uk/florencebannigan and http://www.starnow.co.uk/pandorabannigan and look at each of their video pages you'll find examples there.

The founder of Act Against Bullying, Louise Burfitt-Dons was happy for me to use the monologues and even gave my girls some comments on their audition pieces. She seems to be a really lovely person, committed to doing what she can to help eliminate bullying in schools, so I'm sure she'd appreciate any help we can give to promote her good work.

Hope this helps - gotta dash....

Deb x

[Flosmom]

Aha! pg - great minds think alike!

I am thrilled to be in your company on this one!

Deb x

[sophiesocks]

My son has used a section from a horrid Henry book for ages as the monologue he dusts off whenever the occasion calls for it! I think a favourite book with a character they can relate to is a good place to start good luck

[Flosmom]

I just came across this

http://www.artsonthemove.co.uk/resource ... twelve.php

And thought I'd post it here in case anyone is looking for monologues in the future and searches on this site.

Hope it's helpful

Deb x

[riverdancefan]

DS has had success with a monologue written by ME

subject was about being told mum
Was having another baby, put a few jokes in as well as the emotional
Bits

[livininabox]

Hi
My daughters recently had success with a modern piece by Eleanor McCleod called The Porridge Trauma Incident
It's really a modern day take on the Goldilocks fable but set on a cruise ship and really quite funny. Got her a good distinction in LAMDA a first in Arts Festival...and I don't think it's been done to death yet! Good Luck

[pg]

Choosing a monologue is often tricky. It does depend what it's for. If you are auditioning for an agency or for a film, I don't think it matter all that much where it comes from (unless they've specified something) - it's different if it's for drama school.

It's useful to remember that the monologue doesn't have to be "entertaining" and it doesn't have to be full of contrasting emotions and it doesn't have to be (indeed, shouldn't be) long.

The most unsuccessful audition pieces I have seen have been those where someone has been doing a comic "turn", like a Victoria Wood sketch or where someone has spent three minutes "showing" how deeply felt the emotions are.

Think about what the person auditioning you is trying to judge. If it's an agent, they are likely to be assessing how you might come across on screen, so think about the sorts of things you think you might get cast in (whether that's Waterloo Road or Holby City or a crime drama) and try to pick something where the style of the writing gives you the chance to be completely natural and conversational. I'd also advise against too much ranting and raving or crying. I don't mean it has to be about something low key or dull, but the most interesting speeches to watch (I think) are those where there is something going on for the character underneath the words, where the person watching understands that what the character is saying is not the whole story.