MeyerBros

i don’t like auditions in the first place. scenes are bad enough. no one can really perform with the script in their hand, and how am i supposed to judge who can get beyond their audtion habbits in the rehearsal process and who can’t?

i would love to just do composition work - semi-scripted, self-created unique mini-scenes with as much or more physical as verbal focus. i didn’t have anything planned today, and nothing came to me on the spot, so we read scenes.

monologues are worse. i don’t even see you interact with another person. and some people just suck at preparing their own material. you can never tell - even though you know within the first ten seconds whether the audition is any good, you don’t know til six weeks later wheather the actor is any good.

so i wrote a monologue. an audition monologue. not particularly better than anyone else’s, but i did enjoy writing it. read on for the full text:

JUDY
Sometimes when you audition for a play
or maybe a musical
or opera
and you think
oh
i have to prepare a monologue
and the play is shakespeare
“a midsummer night’s dream”
or david mamet
“american buffalo”
or paula vogel
“learning to drive”
or something
richard foreman
some new creation without a name yet
eve ensler
vaginas
or a musical
by someone and someone
there’s always two of them
or the opera is “the barber of seville”
by whoever wrote that one
or “carmen”
with that song that always makes you cry
with chills down your spine
cry on the shoulder of the person beside you
your boyfriend maybe
lover
significant other
or just a friend that you know
and you’re going to audition for this play or musical or opera
the one by shakespeare and the others
and you think
what if i don’t get cast?
but really you think
what if i do get cast?
because then what?
because then you have to do it
you have to sing that song
and you might miss a note
and everyone will laugh
when they should cry
and it’s your fault.

but i’m not like that.
i want the part.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 4th, 2006 at 1:03 am by eric and is filed under writing, theatre, monologues, audition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.