In White America: Jourdon Anderson

In White America by Marin B. Duberman

This monologue isn’t one that I’d normally use for auditions, but I’m putting it up here in case someone else finds a use for it. This monologue is a letter, written by a former black slave to his former master.

Jourdon Anderson:
To My Old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee.
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I am glad you are still living.
I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy, - the folks call her Mrs. Anderson, - and the children - Milly, Jane and Grundy - go to school and are learning well.  The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated.
Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served your. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy for twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adam’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq. Dayton, Ohio.
Say howdy to George Carder, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.
From your old servant,
Jourdan Anderson

Titus Andronicus: Titus

Titus Andronicus (Act 3 Scene 1) by Shakespeare

Titus:
If there were reason for these miseries,
Then into limits could I bind my woes:
When heaven doth weep, doth not the earth o'erflow?
If the winds rage, doth not the sea wax mad, 
Threatening the welkin with his big-swoln face?
And wilt thou have a reason for this coil?
I am the sea; hark, how her sighs do blow!
She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:
Then must my sea be moved with her sighs; 
Then must my earth with her continual tears
Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd;
For why my bowels cannot hide her woes,
But like a drunkard must I vomit them.
Then give me leave, for losers will have leave 
To ease their stomachs with their bitter tongues.

Antigone: Antigone

Antigone by Sophocles

In this scene, King Creon has just learned that Antigone has defied his laws by providing a proper burial for her disgraced brother. Antigone defies King Creon because she believes in a higher morality, that of the gods. She contends that the laws of Heaven overrule the laws of man.

ANTIGONE:
Yea, for these laws were not ordained of Zeus,
And she who sits enthroned with gods below,
Justice, enacted not these human laws.
Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man,
Could’st by a breath annul and override
The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.
They were not born today nor yesterday;
They die not; and none knoweth whence they sprang.
I was not like, who feared no mortal’s frown,
To disobey these laws and so provoke
The wrath of Heaven. I knew that I must die,
E’en hadst thou not proclaimed it; and if death
Is thereby hastened, I shall count it gain.
For death is gain to him whose life, like mine,
Is full of misery. Thus my lot appears
Not sad, but blissful; for had I endured

To leave my mother’s son unburied there,
I should have grieved with reason, but not now.
And if in this thou judgest me a fool,
Methinks the judge of folly’s not acquit.

Antigone: Antigone

Antigone by Sophocles

In this monologue, Antigone is about to be entombed in a cavern. Although she believes she goes to her death, she contends that she was justified in offering her brother his funeral rites. Yet, because of her punishment, she is uncertain about the ultimate goal of the gods above. Still, she trusts that in the afterlife, if she is at fault, she will learn of her sins. However, if Creon is at fault, the fates will surely inflict revenge upon him.

ANTIGONE: Tomb, bridal chamber, eternal prison in the caverned rock, whither I go to find mine own, those many who have perished, and whom Persephone hath received among the dead! Last of all shall I pass thither, and far most miserably of all, before the term of my life is spent. But I cherish good hope that my coming will be welcome to my father, and pleasant to thee, my mother, and welcome, brother, to thee; for, when you died, with mine own hands I washed and dressed you, and poured drink-offerings at your graves; and now, Polyneices, ’tis for tending thy corpse that I win such recompense as this. And yet I honored thee, as the wise will deem, rightly. Never had I been a mother of children, or if a husband had been moldering in death, would I have taken this task upon me in the city’s despite.

What law, ye ask, is my warrant for that word? The husband lost, another might have been found, and child from another, to replace the first-born; but, father and mother hidden with Hades, no brother’s life could ever bloom for me again. Such was the law whereby I held thee first in honor; but Creon deemed me guilty of error therein, and of outrage, ah brother mine! And now he leads me thus, a captive in his hands; no bridal bed, no bridal song hath been mine, no joy of marriage, no portion in the nurture of children; but thus, forlorn of friends, unhappy one, I go living to the vaults of death. And what law of Heaven have I transgressed?

Why, hapless one, should I look to the gods any more–what ally should I invoke–when by piety I have earned the name of impious? Nay, then, if these things are pleasing to the gods, when I have suffered my doom, I shall come to know my sin; but if the sin is with my judges, I could wish them no fuller measure of evil than they, on their part, mete wrongfully to me.

Hamlet: Hamlet

Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 2) by William Shakespeare

Hamlet: 

Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on ’t, ah fie! 'Tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this.
But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two.
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr. So loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly.—Heaven and earth,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on, and yet, within a month—
Let me not think on ’t. Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she—
O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer!—married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month,
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes,
She married. O most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good,
But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

No Fear Shakespeare version of Hamlet: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/hamlet/page_26.html

The Miser: Frosine

The Miser - Act ii Scene v- Moliere
Frosine:

Young men are not worthy of a woman's love.
They're nothing but pretentious bumpkins
who strut about with woefully exaggeration notions of their irresistibility.
How could such young fops be classified as men?
How any woman could derive pleasure from such company,
I am at a loss to explain.
They are either mad or devoid of common sense.
How could a woman seek any form of attachment with such base creatures?

Two Gentlemen of Verona: Launce

Two Gentlemen of Verona by Shakespeare

Launce:
Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping.
All the kind of the Launces have this very fault.
I have received my proportion, like the prodigious son,
and am going with Sir Proteus to the Imperial's court.
I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured dog that lives.
My mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying,
our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands,
and all our house in a great perplexity,
yet did not this cruel-hearted cur shed one tear.
He is a stone, a very pebble stone, and has no more pity in him than a dog.
A Jew would have wept to have seen our parting.
Why, my grandam, having no eyes, look you, wept herself blind at my parting.
Nay, I'll show you the manner of it.
This shoe is my father. No, this left shoe is my father.
No, no, this left shoe is my mother. Nay, that cannot be so neither.
Yes, it is so, it is so -- it hath the worser sole.
This shoe with the hole in it is my mother, and this my father.
A vengeance on't! There 'tis.
Now, sir, this staff is my sister, for, look you,
she is as white as a lily and as small as a wand.
This hat is Nan, our maid. I am the dog.
No, the dog is himself, and I am the dog --
O, the dog is me, and I am myself. Ay, so, so.
Now come I to my father: 'Father, your blessing.'
Now should not the shoe speak a word for weeping.
Now should I kiss my father -- well, he weeps on.
Now come I to my mother.
O, that she could speak now like a wood woman!
Well, I kiss her -- why, there 'tis: here's my mother's breath up and down.
Now come I to my sister; mark the moan she makes.
Now the dog all this while sheds not a tear nor speaks a word!

This monologue has a lot of potential for physical humor. Don't be afraid to give it a try! I've seen a performance where the actor actually took off his shoes and acted the whole last part of the monologue using them as props. Hilarious!

King Lear: Lear

King Lear (Act 2 Scene 4) by Shakespeare

Lear:
O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars 
Are in the poorest thing superfluous.
Allow not nature more than nature needs,
Man's life is cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady:
If only to go warm were gorgeous,
Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st 
Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need-
You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need!
You see me here, you gods, a poor old man,
As full of grief as age; wretched in both.
If it be you that stirs these daughters' hearts 
Against their father, fool me not so much
To bear it tamely; touch me with noble anger,
And let not women's weapons, water drops,
Stain my man's cheeks! No, you unnatural hags!
I will have such revenges on you both 
That all the world shall- I will do such things-
What they are yet, I know not; but they shall be
The terrors of the earth! You think I'll weep.
No, I'll not weep.
I have full cause of weeping, but this heart 
Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws
Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad!

If Shakespeare's not your forte (It's definitely not mine!) here's a link to the No Fear Shakespeare version of King Lear: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/lear/page_136.html
That should get you to the right page for this monologue.

The Miser: Harpagon

The Miser - Act iv Scene vii- by Moliere
Harpagon:

I am lost; I am assassinated!
They've cut my throat; they've stolen my money.
Where is he? Where is he hiding? How can I find him?
Where shall I run? Where shall I not run?
Isn't he here? Isn't he here? Who is it?
Alas, my poor money,
my dear friend, they have deprived me of you,
and since they've taken you from me,
I've lost my support, my consolation, my joy.
All is finished for me, and there's nothing left for me in this world.
Without you, life is impossible.
It's done; I can't go on; I'm dying. I'm dead. I'm buried.
Is there no one to resuscitate me by returning my dear money,
or at least tell me who took it?

Romeo and Juliet: Juliet

Romeo and Juliet (Act 4 Scene 3) by Shakespeare

Juliet:

Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again.

I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins,

That almost freezes up the heat of life:

I'll call them back again to comfort me:

Nurse! What should she do here?

My dismal scene I needs must act alone.

Come, vial.

What if this mixture do not work at all?

Shall I be married then to-morrow morning?

No, no: this shall forbid it: lie thou there.

[puts down her dagger]

What if it be a poison, which the friar

Subtly hath minister'd to have me dead,

Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour'd,

Because he married me before to Romeo?

I fear it is: and yet, methinks, it should not,

For he hath still been tried a holy man.

How if, when I am laid into the tomb,

I wake before the time that Romeo

Come to redeem me? there's a fearful point!

Shall I not, then, be stifled in the vault,

To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in,

And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?

Or, if I live, is it not very like,

The horrible conceit of death and night,

Together with the terror of the place,.

As in a vault, an ancient receptacle,

Where, for these many hundred years, the bones

Of all my buried ancestors are packed:

Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth,

Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say,

At some hours in the night spirits resort;.

Alack, alack, is it not like that I,

So early waking, what with loathsome smells,

And shrieks like mandrakes' torn out of the earth,

That living mortals, hearing them, run mad:.

O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught,

Environed with all these hideous fears?

And madly play with my forefather's joints?

And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud?

And, in this rage, with some great kinsman's bone,

As with a club, dash out my desperate brains?

O, look! methinks I see my cousin's ghost

Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body

Upon a rapier's point: stay, Tybalt, stay!

Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee.

If Shakespeare's not your forte (It's definitely not mine!) here's a link to this monologue on Sparknote's No Fear Shakespeare version of Romeo and Juliet: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/romeojuliet/page_224.html

Iphagenia in Aulis: Iphagenia

Iphagenia in Aulis by Euripides

Iphagenia:

Listen, mother, listen. 

You know nothing can change what is going to happen.

 I must die. And I want it. 

My father was right: on me depends the sailing of the ships and the defeat of Troy. 

What is so precious about this life of mine? 

I give my mortal self to Greece for sacrifice t destroy our enemies. 

This will be my monument in times to come. 

This will be my children. This will be my marriage. 

This, this will be my fame. 

Remember what they say: men, and women too, must endure. 

I say an old, worn, ancient thing and yet it is a true thing. 

Nothing's new or changes, but each of us must learn to discover anew. 

You must not weep. I am happy, dying.

Life is brief and brutish. 

By how we live we make it have a little meaning and have a little brightness, as light braves the darkness... 

O I love you very much.

 Take from me a lock of hair and let's have no more weeping.

 Fetch me my wedding veil and give me wreaths to wind around my head. 

Bring them. You are not my women. 

You shall come with me and dance around Artemis' alter. 

Let us praise and honour her and dance the wedding dance. 

I give myself to her. 

If Achilles had married me I should have been given to hot Aphrodite as other women are.

But I will worship Artemis and so I will be free, clean and bright and strong. 

I am the bride not of Greece. 

I love you. Take me. Take me. 

I am conqueror of Troy, of Ilion. 

Come women, sing, since to Artemis, protector of travellers and of the army waiting. 

Now sing of my country's earth and of my home, Mycenae.

The Fantasticks: Luisa

The Fantasticks by Tom Jones and Harvey Shmidt

Luisa:

This morning a bird woke me up. 

It was a lark, or a peacock; or something like that. 

Some strange sort of bird I'd never heard. 

So I said hello. 

And it vanished, flew away, the very moment I said hello! 

It was mysterious. 

So do you know what I did? 

I went to my mirror, put on my mother's necklace 

and the minute the jewels touched my skin, my eyes turned mauve. 

No, honestly! Mauve! Then blue. 

Then sort of a deep magenta when the sun hit it.... 

I'm sixteen years old, and every day something happens to me. 

I don't know quite what to make of it. 

When I get up in the morning and get dressed, I can tell... something's different. 

I like to touch my eyelids, because they're never quite the same. 

Oh, oh, oh! I hug myself till my arms turn blue, 

then I close my eyes and cry and cry 'til the tears come down and I can taste them. 

I love to taste my tears. 

I am special. I am special! 

Please God, please, don't let me be normal!

Masses Man: Woman

Masses Man by Ernst Toller 

Woman: 

I see your eyes... spare me the pity in your eyes! 

I am not neurotic, not even sentimental. 

And because I'm not, I belong to them. 

Tomorrow I shall speak to them. 

Tomorrow, from off the State you swore allegiance to, 

I shall tear the mask which hides the murderer's grimace. 

Your State makes war, your State betrays the people! 

Your State exploits, oppresses, robs the people of their rights. 

How much you hurt with every single word... 

Have you seen the naked body of the State? 

Have you seen the worms that gnaw upon its flesh? 

Have you seen the Stock Exchanges getting fat on human corpses? 

You have not seen... 

I know you swore allegiance to the State, do your duty and your conscience is clear. 

This is my decision, this is my last word.

Cinema Limbo: Vicky

 Cinema Limbo by Wade Bradford.

VICKY:

I’m the kind of girl who takes pity on poor pathetic geeks who have never kissed a girl. 

Let’s just say that I like someone who is easily trainable – 

someone who will truly appreciate me. 

It’s sad, I know. But hey, I’ll take an ego boost wherever I can get it. 

Unfortunately, these adorably nerdy boyfriends get boring after a while. 

I mean, I can only listen to their computer games and mathematic equations for so long. 

Of course, Stuart’s different in a lot ways. 

He’s terrible at math, for one. 

And he’s pretty clueless about technology. 

But he’s a comic book sort of geek. 

And a hopeless romantic. 

He’s pre-occupied with holding my hand. 

Everywhere we go, he wants to hold hands. 

Even when we’re driving. 

And he’s got this new pastime. 

He keeps saying “I love you.” 

It was so sweet and wonderful the first time he said it. 

I almost cried, and I’m not the kind of girl who cries easily. 

But by the end of the week, he must have said “I love you” about five hundred times. 

And then he starts adding pet names. 

“I love you, honey bunch.” “I love you sweet-heart.”

 “I love you my little smoochy-woochy-coochi-koo.” 

I don’t even know what that last one means. 

It’s like he’s speaking in some brand-new, love-infected language. 

Who would have thought romance could be so boring?

Tomorrow's Wish: Juniper

Tomorrow’s Wish by Wade Bradford

CONTEXT: Juniper is a shy young woman with learning disabilities. She lives in a small town with her grandmother, sheltered away from most of the world. In this scene, she is talking to her cousin, Megan, about her first and only kiss.

JUNIPER:

I kissed a boy once. At least I tried.

I don’t know if it counts if they don’t

kiss back. But I tried to kiss a boy and

it almost worked. Most of the time Grandma

and I don’t get to see folks much, but we

go into town. Sometimes. And Grandma says

I just have to be careful to mind my manners,

and Grandma says I’m real good at being careful,

but sometimes I get so bored in that little

town. Only one video store. Only two churches.

And the park only has two swings and a pool

that never gets filled up anymore. But in our

little town there is a boy named Samuel.

He's a bag-boy at the grocery store. He does

it just right and never squishes the eggs.

And he has red hair and green eyes. And…

(Laughs at the memory.)

Freckles all over his face! And Samuel is so

nice. So nice to me and Gram. He would always

smile and always say “thank you” and “your welcome.”

If he says, “Have a nice day,” then you do. That’s

how good he is at his job. And I always wanted…

I always wanted to be close to him, or to talk

to him, without Gram around. And one day when

Grandma had a really bad cold I got to go to the

store all by myself. And I bought some oyster

crackers and some medicine. Then I got to watch

Samuel all by myself. Watch him do his bag boy job.

I just stared and stared, trying to count all of

those handsome freckles. Then, he asked if there

was anything else I wanted. I just whispered “Yes.”

(Pauses, closes eyes in remembrance.)

And then I grabbed him by the ears and MmmmmmmMM!

(Pretends she’s grabbing and kissing him.)

That was my first kiss. It was the most romantic

moment of my life. Until the manager pulled me off of him.