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The Monologue Database |
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| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Kim/The Absence of Gray Matter/Weckesser Contemporary High School |
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?" |
| 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 "loses it," 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." |
| 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." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Ryan/Bargaining/Powell Contemporary |
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 Contemporary |
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." |
| Thomas/Gray Matter/Weckesser Contemporary High School |
Thomas Moore, the recent high school grad, not the dead philosopher and saint, expands on his disillusionment in the opening and closing monologues of Weckesser's one-act. | "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." |
| 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." |
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| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Mrs. Zero/The Adding Machine/Rice 1950's |
A 50's 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." |
| Sue/Calm Down Mother/Terry Contemporary |
Sue is arguing about birth control and religion to her younger sister and mother. | "Who the hell are these priests and all to scream about pills and controls? Tell me that!" |
| Elizabeth/Catholic Schoolgirls/Kurtti Contemporary |
First-grade Elizabeth explains church and the death of Christ. | "Now in hell, it is real hot and you sweat a lot and little devils come and bite you all over." |
| Wanda/Catholic Schoolgirls/Kurtti Contemporary |
Fourth-grade Wanda talks about how she's going to be famous - and does a little dance. | "Even if it is a sin, I don't care, I'm going to be famous." |
| Mother Teresa/The Dianalogues/Haines Contemporary |
Now in heaven, the late Mother Teresa reveals that she never liked Princess Di. | "Why, in newspapers around the world, did the death of Princess Diana get top billing over mine?" |
| Phoebe/Eastern Standard/Greenberg Contemporary |
A Manhattan stockbroker describes breaking up with a sleazebag and falling in love with a good man in two separate pieces. | "He's a wonderful man! I've never known any wonderful men, what do you do with them?" |
| Cynthia/A Girl's Guide to Chaos/Heimel 1980s NYC |
Cynthia shares her dread of re-entering the dating pool. | "Please, God, no, don't make me do it!" |
| Carla/Kennedy's Children/Patrick 1974 |
Carla discusses her 1960's desire to give meaning through the world by being the next Marilyn Monroe. | "I wanted to be a sex goddess." |
| Marvel Ann/Psycho Beach Party/Busch 1962 Malibu |
Marvel Ann, "petulant but still pleasant" chastises surfer Star Cat. | "I think it's a horrid shame that you're throwing away a great future as a great psychiatrist." |
| Wife/Table Settings/Lapine Contemporary |
An archetypical WASP has married into an archetypal Jewish family in this archetypal Jewish family comedy. The ultimate shiksa claims that she is always happy. | "Unlike some people I know, I count my blessings and not my problems." |
| Wanda/The Waiting Room/Loomer Contemporary |
Wanda tells a modern woman's fairytale. | "Once upon a time, there were three sisters. All of them stupid." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Harper/Angels in America/Kushner Contemporary |
In 3 Monologues, Harper muses about the coming millenium, chooses to return to Earth from Heaven, and flies to San Francisco armed with the truth that only devastation causes human progress. | "I hope you come back. Look at this place. Can you imagine spending eternity here?" |
| Rosannah/Brilliant Traces/Johnson Contemporary |
Rosannah describes her desire for an extraterrestrial encounter, as a metaphor for her desire to find a kindred spirit. | "I have often wondered what it would feel like to be greatly relieved." |
| Colleen/Catholic Schoolgirls/Kurtti Contemporary |
Sixth-grade Colleen shares the trauma of her first period and being beaten by her teacher./1 Beat. | "I put my hands over my face, but she kept hitting me." |
| Iris/Down the Road/Blessing Contemporary |
A young woman talks to serial murderer/rapist Bill Reach about the way that interviewing him has changed her life. | "I wanted to prove that I could listen to the worst crimes. That I could hear what killers did from the killers themselves." |
| 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./1 Beat Each. | "I prefer to choose my hell; I prefer to look you in the eyes and fight it out face to face." |
| Kimberly/Patient A/Blessing Contemporary |
Kimberly describes the day she discovered she was HIV+, and the ordeal of breaking the news to her parents./3 Beats. | "He kept saying it had to be a mistake..." |
| Angie/Patter for the Floating Lady/Steve Martin Contemporary |
Angie explains to her former lover that, though she loved him deeply, she has no choice but to leave him. | "And if I'm not going to love someone strong, why love at all?" |
| Maryjo/A Piece of My Heart/Lauro 1960s-1980s |
A USO singer during the Vietnam war reveals that she was raped by servicemen during her journey. | "We got stranded - up the coast near Nha Trang - then the grunts - but they apologized - well, one apologized." |
| Robin/Sophistry/Sherman Contemporary College |
Robin, a Journalism major, breaks up with her boyfriend and gives her commencement address in two polar monologues. | "I've tried to find some truth during my time here, some wisdom, beyond food and sleep and sex and showers. What's worth giving to? I don't know." |
| Nan/Three Days of Rain/Greenberg Contemporary NYC |
Nan is "the sane one," and here she shares her version of her parents' reasons for marrying, and describes what it was like when her brother resurfaced in these two opposing monologues. | "...he probably thought she wasn't crazy, just Southern." |
| Martha/Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?/Albee 1950's |
Martha, in various stages of drunken rage, discusses her ongoing fight-to-the-death with her husband George. | "I'm going to make the biggest damned explosion you ever heard." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Phil/Boy's Life/Korder Contemporary |
Phil, slightly neurotic, discusses his latest obssession with a girl and his feeling that he is "waiting for something to happen." | "I'm saying I love you, is that so wrong? Is that not allowed anymore?" |
| Uncle Ted/Breezeblock Park/Russell Semi-Contemporary |
Sandra's Uncle Ted, a conservative... hick, if you will... talks about his one and only visit to the theatre. | "His name's not there in the programme y'see, this Godot's." |
| The Writer/Good Doctor/Simon Contemporaryish |
Neil Simon's version of Anton Chekhov talks about his life's work and his loneliness. | "And so it will be to my dying day... Charming and clever, charming and clever, nothing more." |
| Vincent/Remedial English/Smith Contemporary |
A Catholic high school senior speculates internally as to his teacher, Sister Beatrice's, motives for pulling him out of study hall. | "Sister, I think it's very rude of you to keep me waiting like this." |
| Igor/Sophistry/Sherman Contemporary College |
Igor, 20, drunk at a party, insists that he is not trying to pick up his friend Robin, and ends up telling her a lot more about himself than she ever wanted to know. | "Sensitive guys sound good in theory, but most of the women I observe are attracted to men who treat them like shit." |
| Willy/Sophistry/Sherman Contemporary College |
Willy, 20, has just admitted his fear of graduating - "I just don't want to ever have to wear shoes!" and now he is left alone with his bong, his nostalgia, and his Cran-blueberry juice. | "Happiness is... a Cran-Blueberry bong hit." |
| Theo/Three Days of Rain/Greenberg 1960 NYC |
Theo, an architect, hovers and babbles while Ned calmly inspects a series of his drawings. | "Tell me the absolute truth. Tell me what I want to hear. The absolute truth that I want to hear. Say nothing. Talk!" |
| Walker/Three Days of Rain/Greenberg Contemporary NYC |
Walker is the eccentric son of a famous architect still trying to understand his dead father in a series of serious and very comic moments. | "My parents married because by 1960 they had reached a certain age and they were the last ones left in the room." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Joe/Angels in America/Kushner Contemporary |
Joe is a sensitive Republican Mormon lawyer, not to mention a married closet homosexual. In five short monologues, we witness him talking to his Valium-addicted wife, his boss, and his new lover, Louis. | "Anything. Whatever you want. I can give up anything." |
| Prior/Angels in America/Kushner Contemporary |
Prior, a gay man in New York City, recently diagnosed with AIDS, talks about his ancestors, his destiny, his ex-boyfriend and his "contribution to all this theology." | "Then I'm crazy! The whole world is, why not me?" |
| Roy/Angels in America/Kushner Contemporary |
Roy, a hardened Conservative lawyer, in four monologues gives advice to his would-be protege, dies, and advises God on an approaching paternity suit. | "You'll find, my friend, that what you love will take you places you never dreamed." |
| Gene/Author's Voice/Greenberg Contemporary |
Gene, a deformed and sickly "gnome," lives with Todd, a vain hack, and writes the prose that will someday make Todd famous. Here, he confesses to an unauthorized trip into the world outside Todd's apartment. | "It's not a place I want to be anymore, the world. I promise." |
| Dan/Down the Road/Blessing Contemporary |
Dan is tormented by the lingering presence of the serial killer who he and his wife are interviewing for a book. | "The scariest thing is that his upbringing wasn't scary." |
| Reach/Down the Road/Blessing Contemporary |
Serial killer Bill Reach discusses "what it feels like" to commit murder and rape. | "If you don't want her to breathe - what do you do? You kill her. That's logic." |
| Dennis Shepard/Laramie Project/Kaufman Contemporary Wyoming. |
Dennis Shepard's statement before the Court, his announcement that his son did not die alone, and the family's decision to not seek the death penalty. | "I would like nothing better than to see you die, Mr. McKinney." |
| Dr. Cantway/Laramie Project/Kaufman Contemporary Wyoming. |
Dr. Cantway talks about the night Matthew Shepard, a victim of a brutal hate crime, was brought into the ER. | "For a brief moment... I wondered if this is how God feels when he looks down at us." |
| 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." |
| Matthew/Patient A/Blessing Contemporary |
Matthew is enraged. He describes the American injustice of classifying AIDS as "the gay disease" in the 1980's. | "Because no matter how many thousands of us die, we will never be visible to you." |
| Ex (Xavier)/Sophistry/Sherman Contemporary College |
Xavier Reynolds, 20, threatens an administrator and proposes to his ex-girlfriend in these opposing monologues. | "Whitey's an aberration. He doesn't fit in with your conservative plan. He's homosexual. He's alcoholic. Too bad he's not Jewish and black and crippled as well. You'd really have a field day, then." |
| Jack/Sophistry/Sherman Contemporary College |
Jack, 20, a drug user, talks about the night he was molested by his philosophy professor. | "I was terrified, the door was locked... He said he'd kill me if I tried to leave." |
| Whitey/Sophistry/Sherman Contemporary College |
Whitey, an aging philosophy professor accused of molesting a student, defends himself while intoxicated and attends an AA meeting in two wandering monologues. | "A college campus is one of the best places to cultivate and sustain a drinking problem." |
| Walker/Three Days of Rain/Greenberg Contemporary NYC |
Walker is the eccentric son of a famous architect still trying to understand his dead father in a series of serious and very comic moments. | "My parents married because by 1960 they had reached a certain age and they were the last ones left in the room." |
| Michael/Two Rooms/Blessing Contemporary |
Michael describes being taken hostage and his eventual death at the hands of his captors. | "God, Lainie, I love you. I wish this was a real letter.." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt | GREEK TRAGEDY |
| Cassandra/Agamemnon/Aeschylus Classic |
Cassandra forsees her own brutal death. | "Brewing a poisoned cup, She will mix my punishment while sharpening, The dagger for her husband." | SHAKESPEARE |
| Shylock/Merchant of Venice/Shakespeare Classic |
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 Classic |
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 Classic |
Orsino laments his lost cause - his love for the fair Olivia. | "If music be the food of love, play on..." | MOLIERE |
| Celimene/Misanthrope/Moliere Classic |
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." |
| Eliante/Misanthrope/Moliere Classic |
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 Classic |
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." | CHEKHOV |
| Masha/Seagull/Chekhov Classic |
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 Classic |
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." |
| Treplev/Seagull/Chekhov Classic |
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." |
| Character/Play/Author Time/Place |
Summary | Excerpt |
| Carol/Don't Look and it Won't Hurt/Peck Semi-Contemporary/Small Town |
Carol, 15, talks about living in a small town called "Claypitts" and about her single mother and two sisters. | "There was a time when I thought the whole world began and ended right here." |
| Ellie/Better Than Running at Night/Frank Contemporary, New England |
A young art student tells the story of the night she danced with The Devil. | "The Devil's face paint was all splotchy... especially around his mouth." |
| Misty/Diary/Palahniuk Contemporary |
Misty remembers her husband Peter, who she met at art school. | "Peter used to say that an artist's job is to make order out of chaos." |
| Nanny/The Nanny Diaries/McLaughlin Contemporary |
Nanny, rants at her former employer an unemployed Park Avenue housewife who has just fired her. | "You have. No idea. What I do. For you." |
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