LibGuides: Theatre: Plays & Monologues

Monologues

The ultimate scene and monologue sourcebook by Ed Hooks
Call Number: Z5784.A27 H66 1994
Publication Date: 1994
This sourcebook provides context for actors when reading for auditions. Full scene analyses for over 1000 monologues and dialogues from more than 300 plays are provided.

Finding Plays

If you have a play or playwright in mind, the best place to start is the library Quick Search! Try a keyword search using the title of the play or the name of the playwright. QuickSearch will find both plays UNLV has in print form and plays that are online through the resources listed below.

You can use a subject search like

American Drama- 21st Century

to browse plays available in the book stacks and online if you don't have a specific work in mind.

Play Index This link opens in a new window
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Locate plays published in anthologies, search for plays by subject, and find plays by size and gender of cast.
Play Index is useful for locating plays published in anthologies, searching for plays by subject, and for selecting plays by size and gender of cast, running time, set requirements, musical numbers, and other criteria. An annotated listings for each play summarizes the plot, set and scenery requirements.

Finding Monologues

You can find collections of monologues in the book stacks in two areas: PN 2080 and PN 4305 .M6

This search is already limited to books or ebooks with Monologues in the subject field. You can add a range of dates to find just recently published monologues; you can also add keywords like classical, modern or contemporary or men or women in the second search box to narrow down your results.

Monologue books collect monologues from published plays as well as film scripts, original monologues, poems and other sources; the book should always give you a citation that points you to the original source. Use that information to track down and read the complete play that a monologue originates from.

Drama Online This link opens in a new window
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Search for monologues under Advanced Search - select Monologue in the Type field and it will ask you about gender and length.
Over 1000 full text plays, from Aeschylus to the present day, including modern classics from Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, Alan Bennett, Caryl Churchill, Edward Bond, Harold Pinter, Brian Friel, John Osborne, April De Angelis, and David Hare; contemporary writers include Polly Stenham, Katori Hall, D.C. Moore, James Graham, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Lucy Prebble.
Twentieth Century Drama This link opens in a new window
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1900-2000
Full text scripts of plays.
Authors from Britain and Ireland, North America, India, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean, indexed by subject and keyword-searchable. Strengths of this collection include Irish drama, off-Broadway and alternative theatre, political plays, and global and postcolonial theatre. The "Find Monologue" feature helps actors find good audition pieces. Also searchable from within LION.

Recent monologue books in ebook format

Monologues for Actors of Color: Women by Roberta Uno
ISBN: 9781317514060
Publication Date: 2016
Monologues for Actors of Color: Men by Roberta Uno
ISBN: 9781317514145
Publication Date: 2016
The Oberon Book of Modern Monologues for Men by Dee Cannon (Editor); Tom Hiddleston (Foreword by)
ISBN: 9781783199372
Publication Date: 2017
Monologues in dialect including South African, Scottish and Liverpool. The monologues in this collection contain a diverse range of memorable characters that cross cultural and historical boundaries, with pieces organized into age-specific groups: "Teens," "Twenties," and "Thirties." This volume features a foreword by Tom Hiddleston and an introduction by Dee Cannon.
Oberon Book of Modern Monologues for Women by Dee Cannon
ISBN: 9781783199396
Publication Date: 2017
Includes monologues in dialect in Irish, UK and South African. The collection contains speeches for actors in their teens, twenties or thirties, with 15 monologues included for each age group.
Hear Me Now: Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour
ISBN: 1786824620
Publication Date: 2018
The Kilroys' List by Paula Vogel (Introduction by); Kilroys
ISBN: 1559365358
Publication Date: 2017-07-04
The Kilroys are a gang of playwrights and producers who came together in Los Angeles in 2013 to stop talking about gender parity in theatre and start taking action. In 2014, they released their first annual List: a vetted collection of plays written by female and trans writers, nominated by hundreds of professional artistic directors, literary managers, professors, producers, directors, and dramaturgs. This collection includes a monologue or scene from each play from the 2014 and 2015 editions of The List.
Contemporary Monologues for Teenagers: Female by Trilby James
ISBN: 9781788501415
Publication Date: 2019
National Youth Theatre monologues : 75 speeches for auditions by Michael Bryher
ISBN: 178850075X
Publication Date: 2018

free online collections

Actorama
Search monologues or scenes from movies, plays, television and books according to gender, source material, type (dramatic, comic, serio-comic), main action/emotions explored, period, genre or specific keywords (e.g. title or author).
Monologue Archive
Monologues taken from plays in the public domain (mostly pre-1923).
PlayDatabase.com
Ad supported free service to help theatre lovers find plays to produce and monologues to memorize". Searchable by cast size, length, and keywords in the synopsis.
Non-binary monologues project
Blog highlighting monologues “from non-binary, gender fluid, genderqueer, asexual, trans masculine and trans feminine characters.”

Online Plays

Drama Online This link opens in a new window
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Play scripts and scholarly works from Faber and Faber and Bloomsbury's Methuen Drama and Arden Shakespeare imprints.
Over 1000 full text plays, from Aeschylus to the present day, including modern classics from Tom Stoppard, David Mamet, Alan Bennett, Caryl Churchill, Edward Bond, Harold Pinter, Brian Friel, John Osborne, April De Angelis, and David Hare; contemporary writers include Polly Stenham, Katori Hall, D.C. Moore, James Graham, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Lucy Prebble.
African Writers Series This link opens in a new window
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Novels, plays, poetry, traditional African folk materials and non-fictional accounts of African culture and history.
Asian American Drama This link opens in a new window
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Plays by Asian-American playwrights along with biographical, production and theatrical information.
Black Drama This link opens in a new window
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Over 1200 plays by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
Some 440 of the plays are published here for the first time, including a number by major authors.
Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This link opens in a new window
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1872-
Novels, short stories and poems, and plays written by Americans of Spanish or Latin American heritage.
Latino Literature brings together more than 100,000 pages of poetry, fiction, and drama written in English and Spanish by hundreds of Chicano, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and other Latin authors working in the United States. Among the gems of the collection are nearly 800 items (poems, novels, and plays) that have never been published before. Researchers will also find numerous Chicano folk tales and audio files of selected poems and plays. It currently contains over 106,000 pages of poetry.
ProQuest One Literature This link opens in a new window
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Poetry, drama and prose; also literature criticism journals, ebooks, and key reference resources.
Theatre in Context This link opens in a new window
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Reference texts in American theater, as well as images of posters, playbills, photos, architectural images, floor plans, and other ephemera.
Update frequency: quarterly
North American Women's Drama This link opens in a new window
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1770-present
Plays written by women in the United States and Canada.
Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print. Almost a quarter of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays. Plays are also included in North American Theatre Online.
Twentieth Century Drama This link opens in a new window
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1900-2000
Full text scripts of plays.
Authors from Britain and Ireland, North America, India, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean, indexed by subject and keyword-searchable. Strengths of this collection include Irish drama, off-Broadway and alternative theatre, political plays, and global and postcolonial theatre. The "Find Monologue" feature helps actors find good audition pieces. Also searchable from within LION.
Twentieth Century North American Drama This link opens in a new window
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1900-2000
Plays from the United States and Canada.
Update frequency: quarterly
In addition to providing a comprehensive full-text resource for students in the performing arts, the collection offers a unique window into the economic, historical, social, and political psyche of two countries. Plays are also included in North American Theatre Online.

Documentaries

Casting about
CASTING ABOUT is a lyrical documentary that illuminates the grit, mystery and raw emotion behind the process of casting actors. Shot from the filmmaker's point of view, the viewer encounters many of the 350 diverse actresses who test for a trio of roles in a dramatic film, in auditions held in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and Los Angeles. Deftly weaving together interviews, monologues, private moments, the film creates an impressionistic and moving collage of the casting experience.

Theatre

Monologues

Finding Plays

Finding Monologues

Online Plays

Documentaries

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