Prepare a monologue for drama school auditions.
Preparing monologues for drama school--whether for an audition or a classroom assignment--can play hell on your nerves. You want to choose a monologue that will impress the judges, but you also want to choose one you can perform comfortably. Knowing what to do and expect in preparing a monologue will help ease your nerves and let you focus more on the task at hand.
Instructions
1. Make a list of monologues you are familiar with and would be comfortable performing. Conduct a miniature brainstorming session to come up with as many selections as you can think of. You won't perform all of them, but it will get you thinking and hopefully uncover some hidden gems you wouldn't have thought of off the top of your head.
2. Study the requirements for the audition or the assignment and weed out the monologues that don't fit. For example, in most auditions, you want to perform an age-appropriate monologue, meaning that if you're 18, you won't perform a monologue of King Lear's. You may also need to perform a monologue from a certain time period, so take that into consideration.
3. Read through the monologues left on your list and visualize yourself performing them one at a time. From this exercise, select your favorite ones based on how well your talent and your personality fit the different monologues. If you need more than one monologue, make sure they contrast each other. For example, don't choose two sad monologues. Instead, choose one sad one and one joyous or happy monologue. This will help showcase the range of your acting skills.
4. Practice the monologue or monologues until you have them perfected. Watch yourself performing them in a mirror or record yourself. Make notes of where you can improve and practice some more. Ask for feedback from acting professionals, your acting peers or your acting coach. Ask them to be completely honest with you so that you can improve as much as possible before you perform the monologue at the audition or in front of your professor.
