Shakespeare Monologues for Women
By Luke Dixon
()
About this ebook
As an actor at any level you are likely to be called upon to perform a speech from Shakespeare. A great deal will depend on your coming up with something fresh that is suited both to your particular performing skills and to the purposes of the audition. This is where this volume of
The Good Audition Guides comes in.
Drawing on his extensive experience as a theatre director and in drama training, Luke Dixon has chosen fifty monologues for female actors from across the whole of Shakespeare's canon. Featured here are some of the very best-loved works (such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Henry V and Hamlet) alongside many less well-known (and often more intriguing) speeches from plays like Love's Labour's Lost and The Merchant of Venice.
Each monologue is prefaced with a neat summary of the vital information you need to place the piece in context and to perform it to maximum effect and in your own unique way. The volume also features a user-friendly introduction on the whole process of selecting your speech, tackling Shakespeare's language and approaching the audition itself.
'
Sound practical advice for anyone attending an audition'
Teaching Drama Magazine on
The Good Audition Guides.
Related to Shakespeare Monologues for Women
Related ebooks
Shakespeare Monologues for Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoliloquy!: The Shakespeare Monologues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClassical Monologues for Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContemporary Monologues for Women: Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContemporary Monologues for Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonologues from Shakespeare’s First Folio for Women: The Comedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaper Cuts: Comedic and satirical monologues for audition or performance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZoo (and Twelve Comic Monologues for Women) (NHB Modern Plays) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings2 Minutes & Under Volume 3: Over 60 Powerful Original Audition Pieces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5National Youth Theatre Monologues: 75 Speeches for Auditions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMore Monologues That Land Roles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonologues and Duologues from the Plays of Ruth Wolff Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAct Normal: Contemporary Monologues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContemporary Duologues: Two Women Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings2 Minutes & Under Volume 1: 70 Short Character Monologues for Actors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ultimate Audition Book for Teens Volume 4: 111 One-Minute Monologues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsScenes That Sizzle!:Contemporary Dramatic Monologues for Women and Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinter Stars: Three 10-Minute Plays — From Tragedy to Fantasy to Comedy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll the Feelings: Hella Dramatic Monologues for Thespians of a Teen Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Suicide Monologues for Actors and Others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonologues for Teens and Twenties (2nd edition) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMonologues from Shakespeare’s First Folio for Any Gender: The Comedies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Book Of Monologues Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Classical Monologues for Men Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings2 Minutes & Under Volume 2: 59 Short Character Monologues for Actors Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Contemporary Monologues for Teenagers: Male Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreat Monologues: And How to Give Winning Auditions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContemporary Monologues for Men: Volume 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Perfect Monologue Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Teens Speak Boys Ages 16 to 18: Sixty Original Character Monologues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Importance of Being Earnest: A Play Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Macbeth (new classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Town: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman Is No Man: A Read with Jenna Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Shakespeare Monologues for Women
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Shakespeare Monologues for Women - Luke Dixon
Contents
TITLE PAGE
INTRODUCTION
THE COMEDIES
Miranda from The Tempest
Isabella from Measure for Measure
Luciana from The Comedy of Errors
The Princess of France from Love’s Labour’s Lost
Helena from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Hermia from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Jessica from The Merchant of Venice
Portia from The Merchant of Venice
Portia from The Merchant of Venice
Phoebe from As You Like It
Phoebe from As You Like It
Rosalind from As You Like It
Katharina from The Taming of the Shrew
Helena from All’s Well That Ends Well
The Countess of Rossillion from All’s Well That Ends Well
Olivia from Twelfth Night
Viola from Twelfth Night
Hermione from The Winter’s Tale
Hermion from The Winter’s Tale
Paulina from The Winter’s Tale
Marina from Pericles
THE HISTORIES
Lady Constance from King John
Duchess of Gloucester from Richard II
Lady Elizabeth Percy from Henry IV, Part One
Lady Elizabeth Percy from Henry IV, Part Two
The Hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern from Henry V
Joan la Pucelle from Henry VI, Part One
Duchess of Gloucester from Henry VI, Part Two
Queen Margaret from Henry VI, Part Two
Queen Margaret from Henry VI, Part Three
Lady Anne from Richard III
Queen Katharine from Henry VIII
THE TRAGEDIES
Cressida from Troilus and Cressida
Volumnia from Coriolanus
Tamora, Queen of the Goths from Titus Andronicus
Tamora, Queen of the Goths from Titus Andronicus
The Nurse from Romeo and Juliet
Juliet from Romeo and Juliet
Juliet from Romeo and Juliet
Portia from Julius Caesar
Lady Macbeth from Macbeth
Lady Macduff from Macbeth
Ophelia from Hamlet
Goneril from King Lear
Desdemona from Othello
Emilia from Othello
Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra
Cleopatra from Antony and Cleopatra
Imogen from Cymbeline
The Jailer’s Daughter from The Two Noble Kinsmen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Introduction
WHY SHAKESPEARE?
The basic requirements for most auditions, from drama-school entry to a season at the recreated Globe Theatre in London, will include performing a speech by Shakespeare. Faced with the thirty-eight plays that are generally considered to have been written by Shakespeare, it is daunting for even the most experienced actor to know where to begin finding a suitable speech. Thirty-six of those plays were collected after Shakespeare’s death by his colleagues and printed in what is known as the First Folio, a folio being the size of the sheet of paper it was printed on. Around 750 copies were produced and they sold for £1 each. About 230 still exist and now sell for around £3 million each. A couple of other plays only appeared in what are known as quarto editions, on paper folded to half the size of a folio sheet.
The Shakespearean canon, all the plays he wrote which have survived, is the heart of English drama. A speech from one of those plays can provide an actor with opportunities to show off their skills and talent in a whole range of ways: vocally and physically, in terms of characterisation and storytelling, emotionally and intellectually. A speech by Shakespeare is the best tool for an actor to demonstrate their craft, and for an audition panel or director to appreciate and judge it.
CHOOSING YOUR MONOLOGUE
In this volume I have brought together fifty speeches, from some of the best known to the least common. You will never find a ‘new’ Shakespeare speech. Fashion and contemporary performance are factors that can make speeches appear current and popular. It is also best not to second-guess what speech the actor before or after you will perform. Best to find a speech that you like, enjoy performing and can in some way empathise with. Do not worry about what other actors are doing.
Choose more than one speech (maybe one comedy, one history and one tragedy) to have in your repertoire so that you always have something suitable when the call comes. Having chosen a speech, you must read the play and find the backstory so you know where the character and the speech are coming from.
Complexity Some of the speeches in this book are relatively simple and might be more useful for the actor for whom Shakespeare is a new and terrifying experience: Miranda in The Tempest and Joan la Pucelle in Henry VI, Part One, perhaps fall into this category. Others, like Lady Macbeth and Helena in All’s Well That Ends Well, are rich and complex in their language, thought and emotion and might be more suitable for actors seeking a challenge or needing to show the full range of their abilities.
Age It is rare that we know the age of a character in a play by Shakespeare. Juliet we are told is fourteen. Otherwise ages are for the most part relative. The Countess in All’s Well That Ends Well is older than Helena, whom she has just taken into her care. Lady Macbeth tells us that she has once ‘given suck’ to a child, which implies both age and a backstory that Shakespeare does not reveal in his play. In a production the director will make decisions about the age of his characters and their relative ages to each other, and may ask you to approximate a particular age. In an audition you can be much more flexible in deciding whether the speech of a character is suited to you and your playing age. To give you some guidance I have listed below ‘younger’ and ‘older’ characters whose speeches are in this book. I have done the same with status (‘higher’ and ‘lower’) and with lists of mothers and daughters (another indicator of age and status). I have also identified the speeches with the most obvious comic potential.
Gender None of these speeches were written to be acted by a woman. Actresses did not exist in Shakespeare’s theatre, and all the plays were written to be acted by men and boys. Gender and the dissemblance of gender are important themes through many of the plays. There are speeches here, both comic and serious, which give you plenty of opportunity to play with gender, from Joan la Pucelle in Henry VI, Part One, to Viola in Twelfth Night and Imogen in Cymbeline. I have included Rosalind’s epilogue speech from As You Like It in which the gender of the actor is confused not for the other characters in the play but for the audience itself.
Length The speeches vary considerably in the number of words, but not necessarily in the time they take to perform. Hermia’s short speech in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when she wakens lost in the woods, though short of words, contains a great deal of implied action, and the action becomes as important as the words when you are performing it. It is a speech that needs to be given space to breathe and for the spaces and silences within it to be found. Cressida also has comparatively few words, yet her awkwardness and uncertainty means it takes what seems to her an eternity to deliver. In these and many other speeches there are important moments when the character is listening (Imogen in Cymbeline before she enters the cave) or when she is waiting for or expecting a reply (Portia in Julius Caesar and Marina in Pericles).
Where some speeches are too long for audition purposes I have, as judiciously as possible, made cuts.
LANGUAGE
Shakespeare’s audiences went to ‘hear’ plays. It was not