The Monologue Database |
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| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Amy/And Turning, Stay/Powell Contemporary (High School) |
Amy attains closure by attacking for the last time the guy who led her on and let her down. | "You're running from what I've searched for all my life." |
| Hannah/Bargaining/Powell Contemporary |
Hannah, an immortal being, offers her boyfriend a chance to live forever. | "Most people, when they say forever, they mean... well, they don't really mean forever. But I do." |
| Kim/Collaboration/Powell Contemporary |
Kim confesses to her friend (and sometimes-lover), that she has been in love with him for several years. | "I wanted whatever time and affection you could give me. No matter what it cost me." |
| Dogface/Dogface/Powell Contemporary |
Dogface confronts her friend, Ethan, demanding to know why he has been ignoring and avoiding her ever since they had sex. | "How am I supposed to act casual about something this intense, this rare? You're the first person to see me - how can that not be a big deal?" |
| Seath/Glass Houses/Powell Contemporary |
Seath reassures her best friend, Ken, that recent events have left her wiser and stronger, not in a well of despair. | "I've never been so completely on my own before, and right now, I wouldn't trade nights like last night for any amount of security." |
| Angela/Just Looking/Powell Contemporary (High School) |
Angela has, against her will, become the one who all her friends run to for advice. Angela freaks out, confesses her pain to Ryan, and ultimately reveals the true reason for her emotional tumult. | "I need to stop feeling people's pain for them! I'm trying to step between my friends and their scars." |
| Jamie/Just Looking/Powell Contemporary |
The character explains her cynical view that monogamy is pointless. | "We'd stop being people to each other and start being obligations. And, I love you too much to let that happen." |
| Leah/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell Contemporary |
Leah talks about her daughter's history with depression and her eventual suicide. | "Why didn't she come to me? I would have done anything for her. Didn't she know that?" |
| Natalie/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell Contemporary |
Natalie talks about the night her friend Nell committed suicide. | "She seemed normal. She seemed happy. Well, not happy, exactly. But like usual herself." |
| Nell/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell Contemporary |
Nell tries to explain what being suicidal feels like. | "I can make everyone think I'm normal, that I'm coping, that I'm okay. But I've never been okay. I'll never be okay." |
| Eve/Rage Is Loud/Powell Contemporary |
Eve finds herself faced with the all-but-impossible task of convincing another young woman that her boyfriend is a serial killer. | "To Fell, the question isn't, "Why?" It's, "Why not?" Motive is incidental." |
| Drew/Richard Fisher's Funeral/Powell Contemporary |
Drew explains why she can never forgive her dead father. | "You don't get it. I've been afraid of my father all my life." |
| Joan/Spilled Milk/Powell Contemporary |
Joan confronts her friend Helen almost a year after Helen failed to protect Joan from a possible threat of sexual assault. | "He could have raped you! And you... you sent him back to me! How generous. How benevolent. Why didn't you fucking warn me?" |
| Rachel/That Was Then/Powell Contemporary (High School) |
Rachel remembers high school - a time in her life when her friends meant the world to her. | "I'm very lucky, because not everyone still has a friend who knew them when they were seventeen." |
| Lindsay/What Are the Chances?/Powell Contemporary |
Lindsay is at her ex-husband's art exhibition, when she is forced, by one of his pieces, to confront her past. | "I think... I think he was happier when he was pining for me... than when I was actually his." |
| Carla/Your Money's Worth/Powell Contemporary |
A therapist provides a scalding critique of her depressed patience, and completely unsympathetic advice for how to deal with her mental problems. | "You think you're in pain, but that's all in your head. Just SNAP OUT OF IT." |
| Jessie/Your Money's Worth/Powell Contemporary |
A depressed young woman confronts her criminally insensitive and condescending therapist. | "One of us is being insane, and for once, it's not me." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Ryan/Bargaining/Powell | Ryan explains why he had to leave the woman who gave him eternal life. | "Being with you... was the most meaningful thing I've ever done. It was magic, and it was every day." |
| Shane/Collaboration/Powell | Shane must convince his friend and collaborator, to sign off on a production of his re-write of a script she wrote. | "I've got the chance of a lifetime here - Christ, you too. You may never get another opportunity like this one." |
| Yale/Like Dreaming, Backwards/Powell Contemporary |
A college student reacts to the suicide of a casual acquaintance. | "I couldn't have known what she was feeling. But then, I didn't ask, did I?" |
| Seth/That Was Then/Powell Contemporary (High School) |
Seth describes having to lie to his parents and hide the fact that he is gay. | "I have to keep lying so they don't throw me out of the house." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Kim/The Absence of Gray Matter/Weckesser Contemporary |
Weckesser's Kim, a minor character lacking much in the way of common sense, speaks about her aspirations and hallucinations. | "Would Keanu Reeves please stand up?" |
| Cara/Because of Beth/Gartner Contemporary |
Cara's mother has recently died and given Cara custody of her sister, Penny. Cara visits her mother's grave - but says she refuses to say goodbye. | "It's worse than when Dad left because at least then I had you. Now I don't have anyone." |
| Penny/Because of Beth/Gartner Contemporary |
Penny's mother has recently died and given custody to Penny's sister. Penny visits her mother's grave to tell her she is running away. | "You know, we used to tell each other everything, Mom! Everything! Or at least I told you everything..." |
| Darlene/The Piaggi Suite/Grant Contemporary |
Darlene, a seventeen year old composer, meets her hero, rock star Ziggy Martiin, and performs an original rap. | "Is it you? Is it really? I saw you with Dave Matthews. In Syracuse. It was the most beautiful night of my entire life. Did you really sit in with Sting?" |
| Gloria/The Prism/Friedman Contemporary |
Gloria, a waitress in her 40s, complains about taking care of her aging mother, and her brothers who don't contribute. | "Ya know what it would take to get one of my brothers to do something for my mother? She'd have to be held hostage by terrorists." |
| Cathy/Everybody Else (is fucking perfect)/Jeynes Contemporary |
Cathy's husband has just told her that he is gay. She explains that she has known all along. | "But that doesn't worry me, I mean, I know he'll be safe, and I don't really care if he goes out and has boyfriends, and... I'm happy this way." |
| Mpumi/I'll Have What She's Having/Jeynes Contemporary |
A sophisticated lawyer loses her temper with two tourists over one's poor cell phone etiquette. | "I don't know if you're familiar with the device, but you don't actually have to shout all the way to Pofadder, the technology transmits your voice signal through the air like magic!" |
| Laying Blame/Jeynes Contemporary |
The unnamed protagonist of this short play provides excuses and rationalizations for an unknown crime. | "You want to know what made me do it? You want to know why I'm here today? I wish I had a good story for you." |
| Misha (the Psychic)/Erosion/Linnehan Contemporary |
A medium shares her experiences with addiction at a 12-Step program meeting. | "If you're like me, you know that one is too many and a thousand is never enough." |
| Jane/Like We Wasn't People/Peluso Contemporary |
A 15-year-old girl, confined to a residential center for troubled youth, rants at a therapist and relates a nightmare to her mother in these two monologues. | "I'm wasting hours of my life that I'll never get back talking about bullshit!" |
| Shantrel/Like We Wasn't People/Peluso Contemporary |
A 14-year-old black girl explains the circumstances that led to her confinement in a residential center for troubled youth. | "I started givin' that cop the business, bout' how he can't take this man, this my man, and they's threw a blanket on me and I's here now and ain't neva seen Moms or my man again." |
| Celandine/Hanging Women/Spector Contemporary |
A 30-year-old intellectual tells her mother and younger sister that she has given up on men. | "Men always disappoint you, and I choose to be disappointed with no one but myself." |
| Peony/Hanging Women/Spector Contemporary |
An impulsive 25-year-old tells her mother and older sister about running away from home to have casual sex with strangers. | "I love that moment when you take off, just getting out of here." |
| Laura/Connecting Flight/Yajko Contemporary |
Laura is a college student, about to marry her girlfriend, Toni. She is waiting for her parents to arrive for the wedding. | "My folks didn't speak to me for a year... said they 'needed time to accept us'." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Paul/Gray Matter/Weckesser Contemporary (High School) |
Paul Deters, recently deceased, appears to his best friend in a dream, and describes the events that led to his death. | "I refused to be afraid anymore, so I turned down this lonely road and stepped on the gas. I never knew anything could move so fast." |
| Seth/Gray Matter/Weckesser Contemporary (High School) |
Seth Lyons reacts to the death of his best friend. | "Fuck you, Thomas! I'll curse as much as I goddamned want to. And right now I fucking want to. I don't give a damn what you think, Thomas. Paul's dead." |
| Thomas/Gray Matter/Weckesser Contemporary (High School) |
Thomas Moore explores the high school experience, love, ignorance, and disillusionment in a series of monologues. | "Whatever you do in your life, do it with love." |
| Tim/It Came From Texas/Weckesser Contemporary (High School) |
Tim, frustrated by the ignorance of those around him, blows up at Beth, attacking her pathetic attempts to recapture her ex-boyfriend. | "Do you enjoy the heartache? He'll be there only when he is bored with himself. Run, Beth, run while you can." |
| Josh/Untitled Autobiography/Weckesser Contemporary |
Josh narrates and reflects on events from his past, including beating up a would-be aggressor with his friends, and developing his first crush. | "I even wrote poetry. Original poetry. But I'm not going to subject you to that." |
| Todd/Untitled Autobiography/Weckesser Contemporary |
Todd tries to explain the significance of "Magic Night" and waxes metaphysical on the confusion of being. | "What is necessary about the Magic Night memory, Josh, is that there was some true brotherhood there, something special. Peace on earth and goodwill towards man bullshit." |
| Jesse/Life/Michael Bloxham Contemporary |
A teenager contemplates ending his life after his friends and girlfriend are killed in a car accident. | "They would all still be alive if it wasn't for me." |
| Jared/Everybody Else (is fucking perfect)/Jeynes Contemporary |
Jared, a bartender in his twenties, confronts Gavin, a 40-year-old married gay man who is about to become a father. | "How can you just fucking sit there and deny everything you are?" |
| Devon/I'll Have What She's Having/Jeynes Contemporary |
Devon tries to make up with his girlfriend, who is angry that he hasn't proposed. | "I'm admitting it, you are right, we don't know each other as well as we should, but do you know something else? That's not all my fault." |
| Louis/I'll Have What She's Having/Jeynes Contemporary |
A vacationing salesman romances his wife of twenty years in their hotel room. | "I'm going to have the most gorgeous woman in the place tonight, I'll have to fight off all the other guys who want to get close to you!" |
| The Narwaiter/I'll Have What She's Having/Jeynes Contemporary |
The narrator/waiter describes what he observes in Cape Town, South Africa. | "I don't judge, you know, it's not my place, I just smile and nod, yes sir, no sir, anything you say sir. Or madam." |
| Mike/Identity/Linnehan Contemporary |
Mike, a gay disabled Catholic, struggles to resolve the different parts of his identity and come to terms with who he is. | "You see, I'm different. I'm different than you. And deep down inside, I guess I'm praying I'm really not." |
| Josh/Bang Bang You're Dead/Mastrisomone Contemporary |
Josh re-lives the morning he murdered his parents, and talks to them as though they can only now truly hear him. | "I guess I'm just sick of you being disappointed in me all the time." |
| Dom/Leather Bound Concrete/Yajko Contemporary |
Aggressive Dom attempts to convince his friend and murder accomplice that they can get away with their crime. | "It sounded like a good idea at the time, but then again, we were pretty shit-faced." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Alice/Arden of Aversham/Anonymous Elizabethan |
A married woman tries to break up with her lover, then changes her mind and begs for his forgiveness. | "Look on me Mosby, or I'll kill myself: Nothing shall hide me from thy stormy look. If thou cry war, there is no peace for me." |
| Cassandra/Agamemnon/Aeschylus Classical |
Cassandra forsees her own brutal death. | "Brewing a poisoned cup, She will mix my punishment while sharpening, The dagger for her husband." |
| Tamyra/Bussy D'Ambois/Chapman Elizabethan |
The Countess of Montsurry is planning to run away with her secret lover. | "Our loves like sparkles are that brightest shine, When they go out; most vice shows most divine." |
| Anna Petrovna/Ivanov/Chekhov Classical |
A sick and depressed woman defends her husband, who she loves despite his poor treatment of her. | "I am beginning to think that fate has cheated me, Doctor." |
| Natasha/Proposal/Chekhov Classical |
Natasha wants nothing more than to get married, and fears Lomov might be her last chance. Lomov comes to propose, and Natasha babbles like a schoolgirl. | "You know, you're looking kind of cute these days." |
| Masha/Seagull/Chekhov Classical |
Masha has resolved to kill her unrequited love for Treplev by marrying someone else. She tells her plan to Trigorin, a writer who she has just met. | "My schoolmaster is none too clever, but he's kind, and a poor soul, and he loves me very much." |
| Nina/Seagull/Chekhov Classical |
Nina, a young Russian actress, left her boyfriend Kostya long ago to have an affair with a world famous playwright. Several years later, she returns, and shares the truths she has learned the hard way. | "I've been walking around, walking around and thinking, thinking and even believing that my soul grows stronger every day." |
| Bellafront/The Honest Whore/Dekker Elizabethan |
A former prostitute resists the advances of a would-be client after undergoing a moral conversion. | "She's common as spotted leopards, whom for sport, Men hunt, to get the flesh, but care not for't." |
| Celimene/Misanthrope/Moliere Classical |
Celimene is a gossip, and she insults a boring elderly woman behind her back for the entertainment of others. | "You may consult the clock, or yawn twenty times, but she stirs no more than a log of wood." |
| Mrs. Morehead/The Women/Boothe 1937 |
Mrs. Morehead gives her daughter advice about her husband's affair. | "There's nothing like a good dose of another woman to make a man appreciate his wife. Mother knows!" |
| Mrs. Zero/The Adding Machine/Rice 1950's |
A housewife archetype rants at her husband, an archetypical white-collar slave. | "There's no five-thirty for me. I don't wait for no whistle." |
| Estelle/No Exit/Sartre Supernatural |
Estelle, now dead, watches the world slip away from her - and she reveals herself to be manipulative, selfish, and vindictive. | "What's that she's said? "Poor Estelle wasn't exactly- " No, I wasn't exactly - True enough." |
| Inez/No Exit/Sartre Supernatural |
In two monologues, sardonic and sadistic lesbian Inez fights with and antagonizes Garcin. | "I prefer to choose my hell; I prefer to look you in the eyes and fight it out face to face." |
| Adriana/The Comedy of Errors/Shakespeare Contemporary |
A jealous wife tries to confront her husband about his philandering ways - but mistakenly attacks his identical twin instead. | "Ay, ay, Antipholus, look strange and frown: Some other mistress hath thy sweet aspects; I am not Adriana nor thy wife." |
| Countess of Salisbury/Edward III/Shakespeare Elizabethan |
The Countess of Salisbury must resist the overtures of King Edward III, as delicately as possible. | "That love you offer me you cannot give, For Caesar owes that tribute to his queen; That love you beg of me I cannot give, For Sarah owes that duty to her lord." |
| Queen Margaret/Henry VI/Shakespeare Elizabethan |
Queen Margaret of Anjou demoralizes the Duke of York before executing him. | "Alas, poor York! but that I hate thee deadly, I should lament thy miserable state." |
| Mistress Page/The Merry Wives of Windsor/Shakespeare Elizabethan |
A happily married woman reacts to un unwanted love letter from the bumbling Sir John Falstaff. | "One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show himself a young gallant!" |
| Lady Anne/Richard III/Shakespeare Contemporary |
Lady Anne curses the man responsible for the death of Henry VI - in front of the man responsible. | "Cursed be the hand that made these fatal holes! Cursed be the heart that had the heart to do it! Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!" |
| Julia/The Two Gentlemen of Verona/Shakespeare Elizabethan |
Julia asks her servant, Lucetta, to help her disguise herself as a man so that she can follow her beloved Proteus to Milan. | "A true-devoted pilgrim is not weary to measure kingdoms with his feeble steps; Much less shall she that hath Love's wings to fly." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Ivanov/Ivanov/Chekhov Classical |
Ivanov talks about the combination of guilt and emptiness he feels about the impending death of his wife, whom he has inexplicably lost interest in. | "I am in no way remarkable, and I have sacrificed nothing." |
| Treplev/Seagull/Chekhov Classical |
Treplev, an aspiring playwright, laments his poor relationship with his famous-actress mother and his disgust for traditional theatre values. | "When I'm not there, my mother is only thirty-two, but when I am, she's forty-three - and for that, she hates me." |
| Alceste/Misanthrope/Moliere Classical |
A jealous boyfriend's subtle accusations. | "No, madam, there is no need for a stick, but only a heart less yielding and less melting at their love-tales." |
| Eliante/Misanthrope/Moliere Classical |
Eliante mocks love, and those who it captures. | "Thus a passionate swain loves even the very faults of those of whom he is enamoured." |
| Enrique/School for Wives/Moliere Classical |
Enrique speaks to the sister of his dead wife. | "As soon as I saw you, before anyone could tell me, I should have known you." |
| Charles/The Adding Machine/Rice Supernatural |
Lt. Charles explains reincarnation to Mr. Zero, an archetypical white-collar slave. | "You're a failure, Zero, a failure. A waste product. A slave." |
| Garcin/No Exit/Sartre Supernatural |
Garcin brags about abusing his wife, puts on a brave face for the valet, attempts to find salvation, and failing, laments the cunning cruelty of his torturers. | "So this is Hell. I'd never have believed it." |
| Shylock/Merchant of Venice/Shakespeare Classical |
In this world-famous monologue, Shylock attacks Anthony, of whom he demands a pound of flesh, and defends his brutality and his race. | "Hath not a Jew eyes?" |
| Ariel/Tempest/Shakespeare Classical |
Ariel, a powerful androgynous spirit, returns with good news to his master, Prospero, and takes the opportunity to brag. | "I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flam'd amazement." |
| Orsino/Twelfth Night/Shakespeare Classical |
Orsino laments his lost cause - his love for the fair Olivia. | "If music be the food of love, play on..." |