BY BECKY BRETT
When asked, "What monologues do you hope you never see or hear again in auditions?" area casting directors were reluctant to name specific titles.
"In general," says Cree Rankin of Court Theatre, "if it was a well-received play in New York containing a lot of monologues, you should probably stay away from it."
However, Erica Daniels of Steppenwolf says, "I don’t have a monologue blacklist. I like when people pick monologues based on what they can hook into. We’re casting for Fahrenheit 451 right now, so I can’t really start censoring people’s choice of monologues."
One interesting option that Hanna Dworkin of Famous Door is exploring for their general auditions is the use of sides from plays they will do in the coming season. "I actually hate monologues," she said. "They tell me nothing about how you might be in my show."
However, in most cases, the two contrasting monologue general auditions are here to stay. Below are some titles you might want to avoid–at least for this year.
- A…My Name Is Alice
- A…My Name Is Still Alice
- Boy’s Life
- Goodnight, Gracie
- I Hate Hamlet
- Talking With
- The "tuna monologue" from Laughing Wild
- The "death monologue" from Six Degrees of Separation
- And finally, anything from a book entitled something like "Best Audition Monologues"
Fine Tuning Your Audition Strategies