<p>It looks like the schools my daughter is applying to fall into 3 categories with respect to monologues -- two contrasting with one classical, two contrasting with no requirement for one to be classical, two contrasting with an express statement that both are expected to be contemporary. </p>
<p>Obviously, following instructions trumps everything else so my question is really directed at the schools that require two contrasting monologues but don't say anything about a classical requirement. For whatever reason, my daughter has struggled to find contemporary monologues that she really connects with. (She picked up 10 plays with the help of someone at the Drama Book Store in NYC last weekend and still nothing she really loved.) She does two Shakespeare monologues and another monologue that is technically not classical but is written in blank verse so CMU (who gave the monologue to her) would consider it classical although I understand other schools may not. She loves all 3 of these pieces and has been well reviewed with these at either Stella Adler (where she worked on one of these last summer) or CMU (where she did the other two). </p>
<p>Assuming for the sake of argument that our assumption is correct that my daughter does do these pieces well (I'd like to avoid a repeat of the discussion about whether a student should do Shakespeare pieces), is there any reason for my daughter not to do a classical piece for one of her two monologues? I'm guessing that one of the reasons schools may be going to not requiring a classical piece is that dealing with heightened language takes a bit of training and work and, if not done well, may leave the school wondering whether a poorly executed piece is a function of lack of ability or just lack of understanding/training/comfort with heightened language. </p>
<p>Anyone have experience doing a classical piece for a school that did not require one at auditions?</p>
<p>I’m guessing my D will be in the same position next year. She loves Shakespeare and has taken three summer sessions in it. As long as a school does not prohibit you, I would say it is fine for your D to choose something she really likes. I would just be extra careful that she has a deep and thorough understanding of the whole play, and that she can clearly articulate why the character and piece spoke to her. She’s going to have another contemporary monologue ready anyway, for the schools that require 2 contemporary, so if they ask she could always do a third.
I think some schools have made the decision not to use older works not because of students like our daughters, but because of the students who just don’t have the background in the older works. There is a great article in a theatre magazine written by a professor who sits on audition panels and she tells the story of a student who performed a monologue as Juliet yet she thought Romeo was Juliet’s brother. Yeah… unbelievable.
If I sat on these panels I would want to avoid these types of situations too! The older works are more complex. The schools who prohibit Shakespeare in auditions always train in Shakespeare though; they see the value they just want to wait and make sure the students are trained in Shakespeare before performing it.</p>
<p>Your D could look at “Lemon Sky” by Wilson. It is a great play and has some great monologues for girls (a bit edgy, which I know all the kids like!). I know you aren’t looking for a specific like that, but I agree that she should go with the Shakespeare if she is good at it, but have one or two other contemporary pieces in her repertoire. Especially since she is applying to a lot of schools - she might get stale doing the same ones over and over. Shake it up!</p>
<p>Every guideline can be, and has been, succesfully broken by the right person.</p>
<p>You are claiming that your daughter is the “right person” to do a classical monologue, that she is different from the typical auditioner, and that she really does know how to do a classical monologue well. Maybe that’s true, but I can’t know for sure without seeing her audition myself.</p>
<p>As dramamom says, you are going to need two contemporaries anyways. Because some of the schools you are applying to require two contemporaries. If I understand correctly, at the moment she has two Shakespeares and another in blank verse. I’d be curious to know who the author is of this “other” blank verse piece, the only modern play in blank verse I can think of is “J.B.” by Archibald MacLeish.</p>
<p>Yes, Shakespeare is still to this day the most performed playwright in the world. But these programs will also want to see that your daughter also can do contemporary work. At the moment, she is coming across as someone who can ONLY do Shakespeare.</p>
<p>I would be curious what were her objections to the ten plays she rejected. What exactly is she looking for? Remember that her two monologues should be contrasting in more ways than just “one is classical, one is contemporary”. As your daughter is going to college she should be looking at characters who are that same college age, in their early 20s.</p>
<p>10 plays is not a lot. My daughter goes to Drama Bookstore every visit back to the city. Have her look at 100 plays, if she hasn’t found something, another hundred… She will learn just by doing that. My daughter had a contemp piece that her auditioners had not heard before and she had a good conversation about during the interview…She got in.
Exposure to more is good. Best of luck, and yes, following directions trumps all</p>
<p>^Agree with Mother of GG…ten plays is not a lot. </p>
<p>Some people live in areas where they are fortunate enough to be able to find a professional monologue coach who has experience helping kids with college auditions. These people can be a little bit expensive, but even a very few sessions with one them could be a wonderful investment.</p>
<p>My son’s coach loaned him stacks of plays to read – mostly contemporary and mostly unknown to him, from which he chose several monologues that he worked on extensively with her. </p>
<p>Choosing monologues is the hardest part of the whole audition process. Many, many students receive help with this.</p>
<p>I believe there are also coaching services offered on the internet where the people work via skype, but I don’t know much about them. </p>
<p>An aside to Marbleheader: An appropriately selected monologue pretty much never gets stale. The excellent book “How to Stop Acting” by Guskin addresses ways to make sure your material stays fresh, if that is a concern.</p>
<p>I should have added that she’d already been through about 25 or so that I ordered for her by going through plays of the last 5 years and picking out anything that seemed to have an age appropriate part. As an aside, its a bit distressing how few plays have age appropriate parts.</p>
<p>This doesn’t even factor in the 50 or so or more plays she’s been through prior to this college audition in order to have a monologue ready in case a casting director suddently wanted to hear one. This has never happened yet – its always been sides – but you still need to be ready. She has contemporary monologues she does now. She’s just not particularly thrilled with them.</p>
<p>Actually, by stale I meant that the girl just might get sick of doing them if she didn’t love them - not that she would come across as stale in her acting. But thanks for the heads up on the book!</p>
<p>ActingDad, it’s not so important that the part for the monologue be very strictly age-appropriate. The main thing is that the monologue should resonate strongly with the student.</p>
<p>Probably a character in her 20s would be fine, depending on what she’s like.</p>
<p>Laura in Glass Menagerie is an older character that some girls might find they could identify with, as an example. However, she is basically a no-no because of overdoneness.</p>
<p>One of my daughter’s pieces was discovered by her speech and debate coach in High School, for dramatic interp. I guess if someone investigated what pieces the finalists in dramatic interp over the years had used , some gems might emerge…Might take some digging, but a gold mine of info is there…</p>
<p>My daughter coached with the same person as NJTheatremom’s son (thanks again for that contact, almost 3 years ago, NJTM!) and she, too, had access to a huge library of plays. It would be no exaggeration to say she read more than a hundred plays. Every time I looked in her room, she was deep into a new stack of them-- and she also ordered many of her favorites, paid for with babysitting money, for her own library. She probably read more than she needed to because she’s fascinated with the genre and also writes plays. </p>
<p>Maybe everyone already knows this, but monologues can be put together from sections of dialogue, by dropping out the other voices. One of my daughter’s contemporary monologues was an example of this. (From a dark comedy by Canadian playwright George Walker.) This technique increases the number of possible monologues and helps avoid the problem of over-done-ness mentioned above by NJTM. Seemed to work for my daughter-- the auditors recognized the play, but this is not one of its over-used monologues.</p>
<p>I want to say again how grateful I was that my daughter could work specifically with a coach who had access to a large library of play scripts, many of which would have been difficult to find through my daughter’s own resources. Of course, the coaching itself was invaluable, but the access to literature, as in “take this pile home to read this week” was a transformative opportunity.</p>
<p>Edit: after reading through this thread I thought I’d mention that for college auditions my daughter had 2 contrasting contemporary, 2 contrasting Shakespeare, and 1 non-Shakespeare classical.</p>
<p>glassharmonica, George is a longtime family friend! What fun to see that someone here on CC has used one of his plays for auditions. He has had such an interesting and unconventional life, and is a prolific writer.</p>
<p>Great point about putting together monologues from sections of dialogue, glassharmonica.</p>
<p>My son was not aware that this could be done until he started working with the aforementioned coach. Apparently it’s a pretty standard practice.</p>