I am looking for a monologue for an audition. It has been years since I have done any type of Shakespeare! I can’t think of a good one. The plays are for A Mid-Summers Night Dream and Much Ado About Nothing – so in order not to be “that person” I should probably avoid those plays for now.
tia
i loved a mid summer night’s dream… i didnt read the book i saw the movie… the only other shakespeare ive seen is romeo and juilet… who doesnt know that?.. macbeth has been done… i would go for othello or something not so played out… you know everyone will do mcbeth and romeo …sorry cant help much…good luck on your audition
How about:
Cleopatra “I will eat no meat, I’ll not drink” from antony and cleopatra (act 2 sc 5)
Titana’s “these are the forgeries of jealousy…” from a midsummer night’s dream (act 2 sc1)
Helena’s “Oh were that all” from all’s well thatends well (act 1 sc 1)
In act 4 of Othello, Desdemona is asking Iago what she should do to win back her lord… but I don’t know what scene it is, or how the monologue starts.
Of course you could always go with Out Damned Spot or Wherefor art thou Romeo, but I think those might be overdone…
Here’s a site with lots of monologues from Shakespeare:
http://www.monologuearchive.com/s/shakespeare_william.html
HAMLET: To be, or not to be–that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep–
No more–and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep–
To sleep–perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th’ oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th’ unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action. – Soft you now,
The fair Ophelia! – Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remembered.
ooo i was going with female monologues… if you want to do male ones I like Antony: Friends, Romans, Countrymen (JC act 3 sc 2) the best. but I think that’s overdone too (and I don’t know any other male ones)
I think I’ll stick with a female one. 
And, maybe you should look into one of his other comedies…did he write any other comedies??? :??
What about Katharina’s monologue at the end of Taming of the Shrew?
Fie fie! Un[color=red]knit[/color] that threatening unkind brow,
frog it?
Nuno, I used to do this one, always! It’s fun, it’s funny.
I used to enjoy it. Check it out:
TWELFTH NIGHT
A monologue from the play by William Shakespeare
VIOLA:
I left no ring with her. What means this lady?
Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed her.
She made good view of me; indeed, so much
That, as methought, her eyes had lost her tongue,
For she did speak in starts distractedly.
She loves me sure; the cunning of her passion
Invites me in this churlish messenger.
None of my lord’s ring? Why, he sent her none.
I am the man. If it be so, as ‘tis,
Poor lady, she were better love a dream.
Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness
Wherein the pregnant enemy does much.
How easy is it for the proper false
In women’s waxen hearts to set their forms!
Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we,
For such as we are made of, such we be.
How will this fadge? My master loves her dearly;
And I (poor monster) fond as much on him;
And she (mistaken) seems to dote on me.
What will become of this? As I am man,
My state is desperate for my master’s love.
As I am woman (now alas the day!),
What thriftless sighs shall poor Olivia breathe?
O Time, thou must untangle this, not I;
It is too hard a knot for me t’ untie.
Aside from that, this is cute from my new Weekend Knitting book:
[color=violet]
‘I mean that my heart unto yours is knit, so that but one heart we can make of it.’[/color]
From A Midsummer Night’s Dream