How to Prepare for a Monologue

A major weakness in the audition process is the actor’s inability to correctly and efficiently prepare a monologue. This process consists of more effort than simply memorizing the monologue (although that is the first step) and then repeating it out loud a few times. Leaving it for a couple nights before the audition day, is a sad, but often excuse for "rehearsal." However, it can take weeks, months even a year of preparation, to study, analyze, develop a character and reach a monologues full potential. There are hundreds of choices to choose from and make within a monologue if you only open your eyes to the possibilities.When preparing for a monologue, take these necessary steps to bring justice not only to the character, but to yourself as an actor:

1. Read the ENTIRE play in order to get the full story. If you only read the monologue, then you're endanger of limiting your knowledge, taking lines out of context and giving a flat interpretation.

2. Practice a half an hour a day, at least, for a week, experimenting with what works and what doesn’t work; this should be AFTER your monologue is memorized. Never be afraid to try new things and take risks during the rehearsal process. Read your monologue straight through with one flat emotion and see if any lines work well with that emotion. Then do it again with another. This is intended to open you up to diversity throughout your monologue.

3. Before you start to practice reciting the monologue, make sure to know the characters background and story since their birth. Write down the highlights of your character's life in first person point of view. Keep a journal in high detail of you as your character and write your feelings, dreams, obstacles, relationships and everything related to your monologue.

4. What’s not on the page is most important and that is your job to show, as an actor. Normally, people try to hide their feelings or mask their thoughts, so the character's words will have many underlined themes. Discover those themes.

5. Make physical movements last priority and work on emotions that occur in the inside, first. Then, add physical movements as you go, not being too overwhelming or pointless. Try to steer away from miming imaginary objects (such as cups or cigarettes)…It is distracting to figure out what you are doing.

6. When placing the person of importance that you are speaking to in your monologue, put them center, stage right, or stage left of you, above the audience’s heads. Never place a "person" in a chair. It is distracting and more obvious that there is no one there. (Your eyes will also be looking down the whole monologue, which is not good)

7. Start your monologue looking away from the "person" you’re talking to and then only look "at them" maybe three times in the monologue. When speaking to a person in real life, notice you do not keep contact with them the whole time. There are many distractions and moments where you can’t look them in the eye.

8. Be sure to respond to what the other "person" says to you. There is no reason to over act. If you know your character inside and out, and have given yourself time to prepare, you should have controlled, truthful, responses as your character.

9. No matter how close the casting directors may be, always project and show off your clarity of voice. Do not speak quickly or you will be hard to understand. If you have a limited time to audition, and you are rushing because your monologue is too long, cut the unnecessary lines to bring necessary attention to moments of importance.
10. Before you state your first line, make sure you are aware of what happened the moment right before so you can have a strong opening, middle and end! If  the day of the audition, you are not memorized, and cannot fully believe yourself as your character, then you are not prepared. Don't let this happen! You can have more confidence on audition day if you just PREPARE! Show off YOUR full potential! You deserve to own that moment!

Go Get Em!!!-Actors Nook Team