Finding a good audition monologue can often be intimidating, and it’s not always obvious when searching online. So we’ve put together a short collection of monologues (which we’ll continue to update as we come across new ones) to make auditioning easier. These monologues reach a range of ages and styles so be mindful of picking the best one for you.
So, if you are having a hard time finding a good audition monologue for your upcoming Mainstage audition, feel free to use one of these!
So, if you are having a hard time finding a good audition monologue for your upcoming Mainstage audition, feel free to use one of these!
Monologues
Claudia | I, Claudia | Kristen Thomson
CLAUDIA (Finding refuge in the basement of her school)
Some kids are mad when they’re teenagers, right? Like in movies and at school lots of kids hate their dads. For different reasons at different times. […] My dad is my best friend and I get to see him every week! It starts Monday after school at 3:45. I wait for him in the park across the street from school and he is never late like other kids’ parents and we do something totally bohemian together like go bowling or for pizza. And I have to say, it is the best moment of my entire life because there’s so much to talk about and we’re both hi-larious. Like every time I say, “I’m thirsty,” he says, “I’m Friday,” which is just something between us, like father-daughter. And then we go down to his apartment which is a downtown condo where I have my own room with a name plate on the door that says “Albert” for a joke and so I say to him, I say, “al- BERT”—and I have lots of posters, no pets, and I do homework and we just hang out and then I go to sleep. And when I wake up on Tuesday morning it is the worst day of my entire life because it’s the beginning of the whole next week of not seeing him. So I come down here on Tuesday morning before class to get control of myself.
But Tuesday is also sophisticated because my Dad leaves for work before me so I get about twenty minutes in the apartment all by myself, which is very special time for me which I think of as my teen time. Like, I drink juice but I drink it out of a coffee mug. I look out over the vast cityscape and listen to the top music of my time…
Sally | You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown
Sally: A ‘C’? A ‘C’? I got a ‘C’ on my coathanger sculpture? How could anyone get a ‘C’ in coathanger sculpture? May I ask a question? Was I judged on the piece of sculpture itself? If so, is it not true that time alone can judge a work of art? Or was I judged on my talent? If so, is it fair that I be judged on a part of my life over which I have no control? If I was judged on my effort, then I was judged unfairly, for I tried as hard as I could! Was I judged on what I had learned about this project? If so, then were not you, my teacher, also being judged on your ability to transmit your knowledge to me? Are you willing to share my ‘C’? Perhaps I was being judged on the quality of coathanger itself out of which my creation was made…now is this not also unfair? Am I to be judged by the quality of coathangers that are used by the drycleaning establishment that returns our garments? Is that not the responsibility of my parents? Should they not share my ‘C’?
Emily Webb | Our Town | Thornton Wilder
I don’t like the whole change that’s come over you in the last year. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings; but I’ve just gotta—tell the truth and shame the devil. Well, up to a year ago, I used to like you a lot. And I used to watch you while you did everything—-because we’d been friends for so long. And then you began spending all your time at baseball. And you never stopped to speak to anybody any more—not really speak—not even to your own family, you didn’t. And George, it’s a fact—ever since you’ve been elected Captain, you’ve got awful stuck up and conceited, and all the girls say so. And it hurts me to hear them say it; but I got to agree with ’em a little, because it’s true. I always expect a man to be perfect and I think he should be. My father is and as far as I can see, your father is. There’s no reason on earth why you shouldn’t be, too. And don’t tell me it’s the other way around, that men aren’t naturally good and girls are. You might as well know right now that I’m not perfect.—It’s not as easy for a girl to be perfect as a man, because, well, we girls are more—nervous—Now, I’m sorry I said all that about you. I don’t know what made me say it.
George Gibbs | Our Town | Thornton Wilder
Emily, I’m glad you spoke to me about that—that fault in my character. What you said was right; but there was one thing wrong with it. That’s where you said that I wasn’t noticing— people—and you for instance—why, you say, you were watchin’ me when I did everything—Why I was doin’ the same about you all the time. Why sure—I always thought about you as one of the chief people I thought about. I always made sure where you were sitting on the bleachers, and who you were with, and for three days now I’ve tried to walk home with you; but something always got in the way. Yesterday, I was standing over by the wall waiting for you and you walked home with Miss Corocan. Listen, Emily, I’m going to tell you why I’m not going to Agricultural School. I think once you’ve found a person you’re very fond of—I mean a person who’s fond of you, too, and likes you well enough to be interested in your character—Well, I think that is just as important as college is, even more so. That’s what I think.
Hart | Unity 1918 | Kevin Kerr
This reminds me of something that happened some time ago in Halifax. Our neighbour, old Mr. Morris, passed on and after the funeral they had the usual procession up the hill to the cemetery. Now this hill goes straight out of down town and is quite steep. Well, part way up the hill the carriage carrying the late Mr. Morris broke away from the horses an started rolling backwards down the hill. That carriage rolled past his wife and children, past the congregation, and kept on rolling. Now that road is as straights as an arrow and the carriage just keep on going with everybody chasing after it. It rolled right to the bottom of the hill and right into down town and it kept on going. It’s seems like nothing would stop it. Finally it rolled right to the end of the street where the drugstore stood. And it kept on going. It rolled right through the front window of the drugstore, across the room and right into the counter at a tremendous speed. Well the casket popped open, an the body of old Mr Morris suddenly sat up and said, “Hey, Apothecary, can you give me something to stop this coffin?”
Magi | Harlem Duet | Djanet Sears
We’d been seeing each other the better part of… what… two years. I’m just not getting any younger. I mean, I kept dropping hints I was ready for him to pop the question. Seems like he don’t know what question I’m referring to. So I decided to give him some encouragement. See, I’ve been collecting things for my trousseau, and I this negligee… all white, long, beautiful lacy thing. Looks like a see-through wedding gown. So, I’m out on my balcony- you know, cause it’s too hot inside, and I still ain’t got around to putting in air conditioning. Anyway, I see him coming up the street. So I rush in and put on the wedding dress negligee, thinking, he’ll see me in it, all beautiful like- want to pop the question, you know. So I opened the door, me in the negligee, and he… he stands there. Mouth wide open. And he says, he guess he should go get a bottle of wine, seeing how this was gonna be some kind of special occasion an’ all. Now I don’t know whether he got lost… or drunk… but I ain’t seen or heard from him since.
Molly | Peter and the Starcatcher | Rick Elice
You stop that right now. I won’t answer any such question. You’re leaning toward the sentimental and that’s all well and good for a boy, but the fact is we girls can’t afford to be sentimental. We must instead be strong. And when I marry, I shall make it very clear to this person — that sentimentality is not on the calendar. He will have to lump it or leave it. And if he should leave, I’ll stay a spinster and pin my hair back and volunteer weekends at the hospital. And I will love words for their own sake, like “hyacinth” and “Piccadilly” and “onyx”. And I’ll have a good old dog, and this what I like, and be part of a different sort of family, with friends you know? — who understand that things are only worth what you’re willing to give up for them.
Percy | Seven Stories | Morris Panych
Say — where did you get that drink? I’ve been looking everywhere. Nobody’s drinking anything. Is this a new trend or what? First nor body was smoking, so I had to give up smoking. I never really liked smoking, you know, but everybody was smoking, so I started smoking, and then I got hooked. Then everybody was quitting so I had to quit. And now it looks like nobody’s drinking. Everybody’s walking. Everybody used to run. I’m glad that’s over. Now everybody is walking. Nobody’s running anymore. Well, I guess it’s because everybody’s getting older. Well — nobody’s getting younger, that’s for sure! Yeah — everybody’s in the same boat, and nobody’s rocking it anymore. Everybody used to rock the boat. Everybody used to be different from everybody else, so nobody would be the same. But that didn’t work, because everybody was the same, because everyone was different. No everybody is just plain “the same.” Except for you. You’re drinking. I wish I was.
Marlene | Drag Queens on Trial | Sky Gilbert
Yes, my name is Marlene Delorme, but I was born Bobby Fitch. […] How can I make you understand? When a drag queen lies, she tells the truth. That is what defines a drag queen. Yes I was a boring little boy named Bobby Fitch, yes I lived in a horrid little house, not a thatched cottage, yes I had a pet frog, and his name wasn’t Desiree — it was Fred, and my motor scooter wasn’t pink, it was green like the motor scooters of other children. […] Let me tell you something. Yes, I admit I… I was born a brunette. But to quote Norman Mailer: “Any lady who chooses to be a blonde is truly a blonde.” […] Don’t let anyone tell you anything else, blondes do have more fun, and I made a pact with myself as a child that I would live my life as a blonde, no matter how much money I had to spend on conditioner.
CLAUDIA (Finding refuge in the basement of her school)
Some kids are mad when they’re teenagers, right? Like in movies and at school lots of kids hate their dads. For different reasons at different times. […] My dad is my best friend and I get to see him every week! It starts Monday after school at 3:45. I wait for him in the park across the street from school and he is never late like other kids’ parents and we do something totally bohemian together like go bowling or for pizza. And I have to say, it is the best moment of my entire life because there’s so much to talk about and we’re both hi-larious. Like every time I say, “I’m thirsty,” he says, “I’m Friday,” which is just something between us, like father-daughter. And then we go down to his apartment which is a downtown condo where I have my own room with a name plate on the door that says “Albert” for a joke and so I say to him, I say, “al- BERT”—and I have lots of posters, no pets, and I do homework and we just hang out and then I go to sleep. And when I wake up on Tuesday morning it is the worst day of my entire life because it’s the beginning of the whole next week of not seeing him. So I come down here on Tuesday morning before class to get control of myself.
But Tuesday is also sophisticated because my Dad leaves for work before me so I get about twenty minutes in the apartment all by myself, which is very special time for me which I think of as my teen time. Like, I drink juice but I drink it out of a coffee mug. I look out over the vast cityscape and listen to the top music of my time…
Sally | You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown
Sally: A ‘C’? A ‘C’? I got a ‘C’ on my coathanger sculpture? How could anyone get a ‘C’ in coathanger sculpture? May I ask a question? Was I judged on the piece of sculpture itself? If so, is it not true that time alone can judge a work of art? Or was I judged on my talent? If so, is it fair that I be judged on a part of my life over which I have no control? If I was judged on my effort, then I was judged unfairly, for I tried as hard as I could! Was I judged on what I had learned about this project? If so, then were not you, my teacher, also being judged on your ability to transmit your knowledge to me? Are you willing to share my ‘C’? Perhaps I was being judged on the quality of coathanger itself out of which my creation was made…now is this not also unfair? Am I to be judged by the quality of coathangers that are used by the drycleaning establishment that returns our garments? Is that not the responsibility of my parents? Should they not share my ‘C’?
Emily Webb | Our Town | Thornton Wilder
I don’t like the whole change that’s come over you in the last year. I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings; but I’ve just gotta—tell the truth and shame the devil. Well, up to a year ago, I used to like you a lot. And I used to watch you while you did everything—-because we’d been friends for so long. And then you began spending all your time at baseball. And you never stopped to speak to anybody any more—not really speak—not even to your own family, you didn’t. And George, it’s a fact—ever since you’ve been elected Captain, you’ve got awful stuck up and conceited, and all the girls say so. And it hurts me to hear them say it; but I got to agree with ’em a little, because it’s true. I always expect a man to be perfect and I think he should be. My father is and as far as I can see, your father is. There’s no reason on earth why you shouldn’t be, too. And don’t tell me it’s the other way around, that men aren’t naturally good and girls are. You might as well know right now that I’m not perfect.—It’s not as easy for a girl to be perfect as a man, because, well, we girls are more—nervous—Now, I’m sorry I said all that about you. I don’t know what made me say it.
George Gibbs | Our Town | Thornton Wilder
Emily, I’m glad you spoke to me about that—that fault in my character. What you said was right; but there was one thing wrong with it. That’s where you said that I wasn’t noticing— people—and you for instance—why, you say, you were watchin’ me when I did everything—Why I was doin’ the same about you all the time. Why sure—I always thought about you as one of the chief people I thought about. I always made sure where you were sitting on the bleachers, and who you were with, and for three days now I’ve tried to walk home with you; but something always got in the way. Yesterday, I was standing over by the wall waiting for you and you walked home with Miss Corocan. Listen, Emily, I’m going to tell you why I’m not going to Agricultural School. I think once you’ve found a person you’re very fond of—I mean a person who’s fond of you, too, and likes you well enough to be interested in your character—Well, I think that is just as important as college is, even more so. That’s what I think.
Hart | Unity 1918 | Kevin Kerr
This reminds me of something that happened some time ago in Halifax. Our neighbour, old Mr. Morris, passed on and after the funeral they had the usual procession up the hill to the cemetery. Now this hill goes straight out of down town and is quite steep. Well, part way up the hill the carriage carrying the late Mr. Morris broke away from the horses an started rolling backwards down the hill. That carriage rolled past his wife and children, past the congregation, and kept on rolling. Now that road is as straights as an arrow and the carriage just keep on going with everybody chasing after it. It rolled right to the bottom of the hill and right into down town and it kept on going. It’s seems like nothing would stop it. Finally it rolled right to the end of the street where the drugstore stood. And it kept on going. It rolled right through the front window of the drugstore, across the room and right into the counter at a tremendous speed. Well the casket popped open, an the body of old Mr Morris suddenly sat up and said, “Hey, Apothecary, can you give me something to stop this coffin?”
Magi | Harlem Duet | Djanet Sears
We’d been seeing each other the better part of… what… two years. I’m just not getting any younger. I mean, I kept dropping hints I was ready for him to pop the question. Seems like he don’t know what question I’m referring to. So I decided to give him some encouragement. See, I’ve been collecting things for my trousseau, and I this negligee… all white, long, beautiful lacy thing. Looks like a see-through wedding gown. So, I’m out on my balcony- you know, cause it’s too hot inside, and I still ain’t got around to putting in air conditioning. Anyway, I see him coming up the street. So I rush in and put on the wedding dress negligee, thinking, he’ll see me in it, all beautiful like- want to pop the question, you know. So I opened the door, me in the negligee, and he… he stands there. Mouth wide open. And he says, he guess he should go get a bottle of wine, seeing how this was gonna be some kind of special occasion an’ all. Now I don’t know whether he got lost… or drunk… but I ain’t seen or heard from him since.
Molly | Peter and the Starcatcher | Rick Elice
You stop that right now. I won’t answer any such question. You’re leaning toward the sentimental and that’s all well and good for a boy, but the fact is we girls can’t afford to be sentimental. We must instead be strong. And when I marry, I shall make it very clear to this person — that sentimentality is not on the calendar. He will have to lump it or leave it. And if he should leave, I’ll stay a spinster and pin my hair back and volunteer weekends at the hospital. And I will love words for their own sake, like “hyacinth” and “Piccadilly” and “onyx”. And I’ll have a good old dog, and this what I like, and be part of a different sort of family, with friends you know? — who understand that things are only worth what you’re willing to give up for them.
Percy | Seven Stories | Morris Panych
Say — where did you get that drink? I’ve been looking everywhere. Nobody’s drinking anything. Is this a new trend or what? First nor body was smoking, so I had to give up smoking. I never really liked smoking, you know, but everybody was smoking, so I started smoking, and then I got hooked. Then everybody was quitting so I had to quit. And now it looks like nobody’s drinking. Everybody’s walking. Everybody used to run. I’m glad that’s over. Now everybody is walking. Nobody’s running anymore. Well, I guess it’s because everybody’s getting older. Well — nobody’s getting younger, that’s for sure! Yeah — everybody’s in the same boat, and nobody’s rocking it anymore. Everybody used to rock the boat. Everybody used to be different from everybody else, so nobody would be the same. But that didn’t work, because everybody was the same, because everyone was different. No everybody is just plain “the same.” Except for you. You’re drinking. I wish I was.
Marlene | Drag Queens on Trial | Sky Gilbert
Yes, my name is Marlene Delorme, but I was born Bobby Fitch. […] How can I make you understand? When a drag queen lies, she tells the truth. That is what defines a drag queen. Yes I was a boring little boy named Bobby Fitch, yes I lived in a horrid little house, not a thatched cottage, yes I had a pet frog, and his name wasn’t Desiree — it was Fred, and my motor scooter wasn’t pink, it was green like the motor scooters of other children. […] Let me tell you something. Yes, I admit I… I was born a brunette. But to quote Norman Mailer: “Any lady who chooses to be a blonde is truly a blonde.” […] Don’t let anyone tell you anything else, blondes do have more fun, and I made a pact with myself as a child that I would live my life as a blonde, no matter how much money I had to spend on conditioner.
Resources
Toronto Dance helps dancers find dancing opportunities and share their thoughts about dancing in Toronto.
Musical Theatre Audition is a fantastic resources that has information on hundreds of shows, as well as tips, and other info!
Musical Theatre Audition is a fantastic resources that has information on hundreds of shows, as well as tips, and other info!
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