Monologue Books?
Monologue Books?
Joined: 12/31/69
#1Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/21/06 at 7:00pm
I'm taking this theatre class and our recent project was to memorize a monologue, I absolutley loved the challenge of it and wanted to do it some more. So I was wondering if you guys knew any good monologue books that I could buy, I tried looking but it didn't really work out. Thanks!
#2re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/21/06 at 7:10pmTry Amazon, they have comments under the products.
One time, Patti LuPone punched me in the face...
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#2re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/21/06 at 7:13pmI tried, but the ones that even look interesting have bad comments.
#3re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:30am
*shudders* at the word "monologue books" Not worth it, all of the monologues are "original" or from a play that you can never find, even at all bookstores and websites.... and if they are from a legit play, they are either overdone or just plain bad, I have found only one case of a monologue book helping someone win a part (And thats only because she is one f*ing good actress)
Go to a library or bookstore and look over the monologue books before you buy them, if there are any of interest to you, write them down and find the play, better yet, just spend a day at the library looking through plays, I've done it and It works alot better than monologue books, save yourself the money
Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
~Cymbeline
#4re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:40am
Look through the book and make sure they're from actual plays that you're heard of. NEVER use a book of "original" or "character" monologues; they're stand-alone pieces that were written just for the book, and they all suck.
There are a decent amount of books that are compilations from monologues from plays. If you want to get a monologue book, use one of those. I've found quite a fews good pieces in those.
http://community.livejournal.com/ltd_brands_suck/
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#5re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 10:45am
Okay, thanks for warning me. :]
One more question though is the book 'night, mother worth buying? How about The Glass Menagerie? Because I've found monologues that look really good in those, but I don't know if they are worth buying.
WOSQ
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/18/03
#6re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 11:45am
Once you decide on a monologue from a play, go out and buy the play and read it to get the context of the monologue. You can get the monologue from a scene book, but you have to read the whole play.
This sounds like good common sense and it is, but many, many people do not read the script before doing a monologue.
A few words of advice: on your own read every play you can get your hands on whether it is any good or not ("No one learns anything from a hit."), every play that you've heard of whether there is a role in it for you or not.
[Some "bad plays" that just do not work have terrific scenes and characters. My favorite bad play--and make no mistake, it is over-written and didactic--is The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window by Lorraine Hansberry. It has some of the most fully realized characters that I have ever 'met' in a play along with some wonderful writing and moving, funny scenes full of layered emotions, yet the play ultimately fails.]
Start a play library of your own because real libraries never have enough plays. It is time to hit used book stores and websites to find scripts. But hang onto them. In college, classmates would come to me to look for scenes before going to the library because they knew I had a whole bunch of anthologies with plays that weren't on the shelves.
"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable."
--Carrie Fisher
#7re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 2:59pm
If you're a woman, I would recommend Contemporary American Monologues for Women, edited by Todd London. I recently bought it as a Christmas gift for a friend. I looked through it and it has a lot of good, modern monologues that most people wouldn't think of doing. See the link below.
http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-American-Monologues-Women-London/dp/1559361336/sr=8-1/qid=1166817452/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-2024022-4778451?ie=UTF8&s=books
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
#8re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 3:24pm
I agree with everything above. Read the play and then pick a monologue. Try Shakespeare. They're free.
Try the MIT website. Search for their catalogue of plays by Shakespeare. They're by genre, and once you click the play, you can either read the entire play on one page, or go by scene. It's great.
MIT's website
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#9re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 3:44pm
Thank you so much everyone. I think I will start my own library, my friends will think I'm crazy but oh well. :]
#10re: Monologue Books?
Posted: 12/22/06 at 10:24pm
Night monther and Glass Menagerie are classics in theater, definatly worth the investment, plus they offer great duo scenes,
anything by Tenesse Williams is worth buying
Fear no more the heat o' the sun,
Nor the furious winter's rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone and ta'en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
~Cymbeline
Videos