can anyone suggest a male monologue speech for a drama school audition?
hi peeps, i need some help selecting a male monologue speech for my drama school audition. I need a speech after 1970, preferably contrasting to my Shakespeare speech (Edgar from King Lear). Any suggestions?
Apocalypse Now
written Francis Ford Coppola & John Milius
Kurtz: I’ve seen the horror. Horrors that you’ve seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me . It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and mortal terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies.
I remember when I was with Special Forces–it seems a thousand centuries ago–we went into a camp to inoculate it. The children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us, and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile–a pile of little arms. And I remember…I…I…I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it, I never want to forget. And then I realized–like I was shot…like I was shot with a diamond…a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, "My God, the genius of that, the genius, the will to do that." Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they could stand that–these were not monsters, these were men, trained cadres, these men who fought with their hearts, who have families, who have children, who are filled with love–that they had this strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time were able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment–without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us.
I worry that my son might not understand what I’ve tried to be, and if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything. Everything I did, everything you saw, because there’s nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. And if you understand me, Willard, you…you will do this for me.
The Joker from Batman in 1989 when he takes over the airwaves offering free money to the residents of Gotham city – he isnt wearing make up for that monologue.
References :
Apocalypse Now
written Francis Ford Coppola & John Milius
Kurtz: I’ve seen the horror. Horrors that you’ve seen. But you have no right to call me a murderer. You have no right to call me a murderer. You have a right to kill me. You have a right to do that, but you have no right to judge me . It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face, and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and mortal terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies.
I remember when I was with Special Forces–it seems a thousand centuries ago–we went into a camp to inoculate it. The children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us, and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile–a pile of little arms. And I remember…I…I…I cried, I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it, I never want to forget. And then I realized–like I was shot…like I was shot with a diamond…a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, "My God, the genius of that, the genius, the will to do that." Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they could stand that–these were not monsters, these were men, trained cadres, these men who fought with their hearts, who have families, who have children, who are filled with love–that they had this strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time were able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgment–without judgment. Because it’s judgment that defeats us.
I worry that my son might not understand what I’ve tried to be, and if I were to be killed, Willard, I would want someone to go to my home and tell my son everything. Everything I did, everything you saw, because there’s nothing that I detest more than the stench of lies. And if you understand me, Willard, you…you will do this for me.
References :
Absolute Class.
I wrote this play. It has a two good monologues for males in it.
How to Honor the Dead
Cast
Trevor: A young man about 15
Dan: Trevor’s brother, 19
Mark: Dan’s friend, 19
Mom: Mother to Trevor and Daniel. 45
Robert: A soldier in the war.
Yousseff: A student brought from the war zone country. 15
Teacher: An English teacher from Trevor’s school.
Officer: An army person.
Note: An aside means the character is talking directly to the audience.
Set: This play can be produced on a bare stage. Lights may be used to suggest the change in locations. You may want to use desks for the classroom scene on stage right and then dim the lights when the scene changes to the other side to the stage. The other scenes can be done with no set or just a few chairs.
At home:
Dan: What am I going to do? I can’t go to college with my marks. I don’t wanna work at the hardware store forever. I’d need to upgrade for a year to even get into school.
Mark: I’m going to sign up for the army. When you get back, they make sure you can get into college.
Dan: Really? But you have to kill people. You are really going to do that?
Mark: Not everyone that goes in the army has to kill people. There are lots of jobs in the army. A lot of guys don’t even end up leaving this country.
Dan: So what do you do?
Mark: It’s like free training. They need mechanics and stuff like that. You can fix planes or whatever and they will pay you to learn it.
Dan: And you don’t have to go to war?
Mark: You are helping the war. It takes working planes to drop bombs. But you’re not the one dropping the bombs.
Dan: But I would be helping.
Mark: You are helping anyways. You pay your taxes. That pays the salary of the guy who fixes the plane for the guy who drops the bombs. What’s the difference?
Dan: I guess so.
Mark: And everything is paid for. You can save every cent you make. You would have to work way more to get that much money.
Dan. Yeah.
Intro: (Dan is packing up his stuff from his room and saying goodbye to his parents and brother while Trevor speaks)
Trevor: (aside)
The first casualty of war is always the truth. I read that in a book once. Not in school. My brother died in the war. Which one? Does it matter? He was nineteen years old. The war was already going, so they really needed soldiers. They offered him a signing bonus and he didn’t even have to go through the basic training. The bonus alone was enough to buy a car and the guy at the recruiting office said he would only be gone for a month or two at the most because the war was almost over anyways. My brother was going to be a PE teacher. But it takes years to be qualified for that job. You can sign up to be a soldier and be off shooting people in a matter of weeks.
Dan: I’ll be back soon. Then we’ll go flying. I’ll have my pilot’s license.
Trevor: ‘kay
At War:
Dan: Did you ever hear about that day when the soldiers all stopped fighting and celebrated Christmas together?
Robert: Yeah, but that was a different time. These guys don’t even celebrate Christmas. They have some stupid other thing. If you wished one of those guys a Merry Chistmas, he would probably blow your fucking arm off.
Dan: Would you know if he was saying the same to you?
Robert: What do you mean?
Dan: Like wishing you a happy whatever.
Robert: You don’t even know what they celebrate. They’re animals, Dan. Don’t try to humanize them, okay? They’re sick fucks. They wanna kill you, your family, everything. We’re here so that they don’t. They don’t have Christmas, they don’t like freedom. They wanna just tell everyone how to act and how to think. Look how they live. Do you want to live like that? We’re talking about your freedom, Dan, your bother’s freedom.
Dan: Yeah. You wanna hear a joke? What’s the difference between a soldier and a hitman?
Robert: I don’t know.
Dan: The person who pays him.
Robert: That’s a good one.
In a classroom
Trevor: (aside) My brother had been gone for six months. He wrote every couple days, sent some pictures. He didn’t give many specifics about what he was doing and we didn’t ask. It would all be over soon he would say. That same year, we got a new student in our school from the same country my brother was stationed in. It made me feel kind of proud. He was here because of the work my brother was doing.
Trevor: Hey, my name is Trevor.
Youseff: I am Youseff.
Trevor: You wanna hang out after school?
Youseff: Okay.
Trevor: My brother is in the same country you are from, you know.
Youseff: I know.
Trevor: You’re lucky he is there.
Youseff: What are you talking about?
Trevor: I mean, your country is.
Youseff: My country is at war now. Thousands of people are dead. How is that lucky?
Trevor: It’s not a war…is it? I thought it was just like a mission.
References :
freedomainradio.com
Choose a playwright that your drama school will like, one that allows you to show strong emotions.
Does it have to be after 1970 or can it just be 20th century?
References :