Simple, Right? One character speaking. In other words a paragraph. How hard is that to find?
Let me just tell you!
A monologue, we begin, is, as I said, one character speaking for an extended time.
Well, that's just a brief, one line, explanation of what this theatrical phenomena is.
Now to have a good monologue it must be prepared, active, and direct. These three words are simple enough. To explain them I will start from the end.
Direct:
A monologue is said to be direct when a character speaks to another. So the whole passage, or speech, is to be directed at another character. Simple enough, this means we cut out speeches that break the fourth wall, or that are delivered directly to the audience. This can also count out most of the soliloquies. Now there is a whole "the audience is a character" thing, but really? Lets just not go there right now.
Active:
As a character in a play you have an objective, or what you want. Every character wants something, that is what gives them drive, and so giving them purpose in the play. Their goal for the whole play can be called the super-objective. With-in each scene that the character is in there is an objective. This idea of objective can be broken down for each line even. So for a monologue to be active the speaker needs to be trying to get something. Something from the character they are speaking to.
There we go. Find an active monologue, and maybe you have found a direct monologue.
Prepared:
Okay, so a well prepared monologue comes from a place of knowledge. To really understand a character when he or she is speaking one has to know where that character is coming from. So yes there may be plenty of monologue books with published, direct, and active monologues, but with out know the story up to that point it makes the character development terribly hard. So how do you get that, you get the script, and you read it.
Now I am only a student, and one who has not had many "monologuey" parts. SO it is VERY HARD to find these things. I DISLIKE monologues. Not because they are hard to act, no. One can find a character and present it with out the other half of the scene, as much as I like the energy that comes from another actor. No I dislike monologues because they are so stinking hard to find.
Especially when they say no accents and one of the shows you did needed an accent, so that is how you memorized the lines! UGH
