Overdone Contemporary Audition Monologues for Women
Whether you’re auditioning for drama school, a role in a theatre production, or any other role; there is a good chance you’ll be asked to perform a monologue at the audition. The exciting process all begins with one key decision: Which monologue should you choose!? If you’re looking for an audition monologue that allows them to stand out, you’ve come to the right place!
Monologues to Avoid at Auditions – Female Contemporary
Below, we’ve put together a list of monologues that remain eternally popular. Before you settle on one of the below pieces, just be aware that another actor may also choose to perform it as part of the audition round! If they do, you’ll inevitably be compared to them and any other past renditions of the piece the panel has seen. This is by no means meant to discourage you from going for it if you love the piece. If you’re able to hit it out of the park, the panel will be blown away!
Use the below list as a reference point to keep you informed. As always, avoid anything that doesn’t excite you and always make sure you understand the complete context of the monologue before you audition.
People, Places, and Things by Duncan Macmillan
Emma’s monologue: Beginning with “I find reality pretty difficult. I find the business of getting out of bed and getting on with the day really hard. I find picking up my phone to be a mammoth fucking struggle.” And ending with “There are substances I can put into my bloodstream that make the world perfect. That is the only absolute truth in the universe. I am being difficult because you want to take it away from me. So Sorry.”
Oleanna by David Mamet
Carol’s monologue: Starting with “How can you deny it. You did it to me. Here. You did… You confess. You love the Power. To deviate. To invent, to transgress … to transgress whatever norms have been established for us.” Finishing with “And if you possess one ounce of that inner honesty you describe in your book, you can look in yourself and see those things that I see. And you can find revulsion equal to my own. Good day”
Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Fleabag’s monologue: Beginning with “I want someone to tell me what to wear in the morning. No, I want someone to tell me what to wear every morning. I want someone to tell me what to eat. What to like. What to hate.” Ending with “I’m still scared. Why am I still scared? So just tell me what to do. Just fucking tell me what to do, Father.”
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
Masha’s Monologue: Beginning with “I am telling you all these things because you write books and they may be useful to you. I tell you honestly, I should not have lived another day if he had wounded himself fatally. Yet I am courageous…” Finishing on “To your good health! You are so easy to get on with that I am sorry to see you go.”
Laughing Wild by Christopher Durang
Woman’s monologue: Starting with “Oh it’s all such a mess. Look at this mess. My hair is a mess. My clothes are a mess. I want to talk to you about life. It’s just too difficult to be alive, isn’t it, and try to function?” Ending with “I ran out of the supermarket, and I thought, I’ll take a taxi to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I need to be surrounded with culture right now, not tuna fish.”
Proof by David Auburn
Catherine’s monologue: That starts with “I lived with him. I spent my life with him. I fed him…” Ending with “I ordered him a case of notebooks and he used every one. I dropped out of school … I’m glad he’s dead.”
Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire
Becca’s monologue: That begins with “Do you really not know me, Howie? Do you really not know how utterly impossible that would be? To erase him?…”
Goodbye, Charles by Gabriel Davis
Jill’s monologue: Starting with “I ate them. That’s right. I ate the divorce papers, Charles.” Finishing on “You see, the truth…the truth is, Charles, I ate the divorce papers, I ate them, because I can’t stomach the thought of losing you.”
Angels in America – Part Two: Perestroika by Tony Kushner
Harper’s monologue: Beginning with “Night flight to San Francisco. Chase the moon across America. God! It’s been years since I was on a plane. When we hit 35,000 feet we’ll have reached the tropopause, the great belt of calm air.” Ending on “Nothing’s lost forever. In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we’ve left behind, and dreaming ahead. At least I think that’s so.”
Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon
Nora’s monologue: Beginning with “How would you feel if your entire life depended on what your Uncle Jack decided?…Oh, God, I wish Daddy were alive. Oh, God, he was so handsome.” Finishing on “That means every penny we get from now on, we save for the house…We can’t buy anything. No lipstick or magazines or nail polish or bubble gum. Nothing…Is it a pact?”
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Blanche’s monologue: Starting with “I, I, I took the blows on my face and my body! All those deaths! The long parade to the graveyard. Father, Mother, Margaret that dreadful way.” And finishing on “Yes, accuse me! Sit there and stare at me, thinking I let the place go. I let the place go! Where were you Stella? In bed with your Polack!”
Final Thoughts
In the end, any monologue can make a great audition piece. Excellent acting will win out every time, and the most important thing is that you connect with the monologue and are excited to work on it and spend a considerable amount of time with the text. If one of the above pieces happens to check those criteria, then by all means be our guest! However, if you’re not fully sold on a piece and only choosing it because you think it’s what you’re ‘supposed’ to do for the audition, take this as a gentle nudge in another direction.
