People who want coaching for drama school auditions often have to do a Shakespeare monologue. Choosing the right monologue is not easy as not only do you need a monologue which suits you, but Shakespeare’s monologues are often hard to understand, so it may seem impossible to find one that suits you!
There are many speeches in Hamlet which are perfect for auditions, and if some of them see very simple then they may have the advantage of showing the actors own personality, and of showing the actor being relaxed with Shakespeare’s language. And yet actors often choose the most emotionally difficult monologues. Just reading Hamlet once may be enough to find dozens to choose from.
A modern female actress may want to play Hamlet, but there is a gentle protest in some of Ophelia’s lines which can fit their own way of thinking.
Actors looking for ‘protest’ in a monologue will find dozens in Measure For Measure, and older actors may find the injustice of Shylock and of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet easy to identify with.
Actors looking for stronger passion than even Measure For Measure contains will find lust and greed in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth lurking behind their most gentlest of speeches.
Juliet has countless scenes where she is interrupted by another character, and Shakespeare would not mind if those other lines were waved aside and Juliet’s short speeches made into one. What matters is understanding the love which Juliet is discovering, and not attempting the wildly dramatic monologues which come at the end of the play and demand the energy of the most experienced of actors.
Shakespeare has written so many lines for Queen Margaret in Henry VI part 3.
Henry V and Two Gentlemen of Verona all have wonderful comedy roles, but what is essential is that actors KNOW a play incredibly well before they even attempt one monologue from it, for without understanding the stupid arrogance, or ridiculous envy, or blind love it will be impossible to understand Shakespeare’s wonderful jokes!
So find a play and watch it. Watch different productions of it, and read books about it, and talk to others about it, as if you had been rehearsing the play for a month before an audition for it. If you can afford an acting-coach (and you may find somebody more suited to you than me, just keep looking) then that may be the way to unlock the truth of a monologue, but it must not be a recitation, a repetition of lines, a copy of what somebody else might do: it has to be you making the monologue about you.
