<p>One of the monologues that I've been working on, and am pretty happy with, has some profanity in it. It's an angry, emotional scene so the profanity used makes sense. I'm not sure what exactly is appropriate for college auditions, though. I could just take out the profanity or substitute something else for it, but I feel like it's not really my place to edit it since the playwright put it there for a reason. Is it acceptable to leave it in for the emotional effect, or should I take it out?</p>
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<p>doctorjohn posted this on the MT forum, but I think it is worth sharing here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/otterbein-college-mt/1035287-audition-advice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/otterbein-college-mt/1035287-audition-advice.html</a></p>
<p>In the context of the scene, it’s not there just for the purpose of shocking anyone. There are two “f words”, mainly because that’s just how the character talks, but it’s also an emotional scene so it makes sense.</p>
<p>I liked the advice posted by doctorjohn and referred to by austinmtmom, did you bother to read it? It appears to me that your monologue violates several of the suggestions for college auditions. — including “choose a piece that expresses your voice”.</p>
<p>Yes, I read the whole thing. My monologue actually meets most of the criteria…it’s a situation I understand and can relate to, and the character is demanding what she needs from the other characters. I’m confused as to how profanity makes it so that the monologue doesn’t express my voice? I connect to it emotionally and that seems to be the most important part of choosing a monologue.</p>
<p>Also, the play in which the monologue is from was on one school’s suggested list.</p>
<p>It sounds to me as if this monologue should be fine. A bit of swearing in character is hardly likely to be “designed by the playwright to be shocking”. And the fact that the school suggests the play is important. That audition advice thread is great and if you feel as if your monologue really works in that context-- 2 swear words are fine, in my view. (Not at Brigham Young!)</p>
<p>tainted - I wasn’t trying to tell you yes or no on doing the monologue. I just thought that doctorjohn’s post had relevance to your question so I shared the link so you and others reading this could take a look at it. Sounds like you did just that and feel it works for you.</p>
<p>Break a leg!</p>
<p>^^and thankyou for doing that, austinmtmom! I immediately bookmarked it!</p>
<p>The monologue I did for my EA Emerson Audition had two “f’s” in it, and my auditor didn’t react badly at all, he even said he really liked my choice of monologue. As long as it’s not just random cussing only used for the shock value, colleges are probably fine with it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t do it.</p>
<p>Monologues are generally pieces that often had to be “cut” to change it into a monologue from a dialog, or cut for time, or cut for various reasons anyway, so if it can still maintain the integrity of the playwrights’ intent, I think it can work to change an outright naughty word to the more acceptable version, depending on the play.</p>
<p>My daughter’s comedic piece has the character saying the f word at the end (because the character is an overly dramatic, very clueless, and unintentionally ridiculous kind of person anyway - and it is so funny) but D says “freakin” instead and it works just fine. The character is more about carrying on to get attention than any kind of profound, deep, dark anger, so it works fine.</p>
<p>I think if a piece simply has to have a lot of cuss words to be believable (would anyone really believe a gangster movie if they say “freakin” or “dang”? lol) you might be safer to find something that reaches emotional depth without using profanity. Profanity can be a legitimate artistic tool, but while not all schools might mind, some might, and why risk it? ~if you really love it you should be able to do it at schools who list it, I would think, but you might want an alternative for schools that you get the idea it would be pushing the envelope.</p>
<p>I don’t know if two is “a lot” of words. I think it just depends on the school.</p>
<p>I really don’t think it matters. I’ve heard a lot of the monologues people used to audition for my school and some of them have quite a bit of profanity. If your school finds it rude that you decided to use a legitimate work of dramatic art that happens to have curse words in it or if your monologue is about a risque or controversial subject, that might reveal more about maybe if you want to go to that school rather than how much you hope they accept you. I personally don’t really believe in censorship when it comes to the realm of theater, and if you curse twice it really shouldn’t matter. </p>
<p>I’m also not sure if I would recommend changing the words of a monologue. I mean if that makes you more comfortable I guess that’s alright, but there is a good chance that that your auditioner will have already have heard or read the monologue you are performing at some point and will know the actual language. </p>
<p>Drama schools are generally pretty liberal and have a very open attitudes towards language and basically everything in general. Cursing is really generally not looked down upon.</p>
<p>The school generally won’t be sensitive to the language. What we don’t want is to be yelled out. Far too often students choose an emotional moment in a production, then substitute yelling for acting. One need not yell or cry to show ability. Please listen to what DoctorJohn had to say. (see above). Intelligent man.</p>