<p>Hi! I'm working on some Shakespeare monologues and I just wanted to know if they were overdone or not.</p>
<p>Cordelia from King Lear - "Had you not been their father..."
The Jailer's Daughter from Two Noble Kinsmen - "Why should I love this gentleman?"
Hermia from Midsummer Night's Dream - "Hate? Can you do me any greater harm than hate me?"</p>
<p>I laughed out loud when I ready your post title . . . 'cause, you know, Shakespeare material is about 400 years old so it might be a ‘little’ overdone. haha! I don’t recall my D’s acting coach mentioning the fact that that was a concern, but I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that my D had a monologue from Midsummer too (Helena). I’m sure experts will weigh in here. :0)</p>
<p>some are more overdone than others. always steer clear of the ones that constantly get analyzed in high school/university settings…like the “to be or not to be” etc speeches. but honestly. a lot of auditors are gonna be very familiar with the shakespeare canon, esp if it’s an acting focused school that spends a lot of time training its students to do shakespeare. so you just gotta find a piece that you really like and can justify why you want to do it. sure most girls will steer clear of juliet, but there’s a speech here or there that’s acceptable for auditions and if a girl does it well AND fits juliet to the T, people will be fine with it.</p>