Customer Reviews

One on One: The Best Womens Monologues for the 21st Century (The Applause Acting Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

To take nothing away from the value of what they do, but these authors, by their description do not seem like the best collection of individuals to assemble a comprehensive monologue collection for actors. Between the three of them, one is a Theatre/Communications PhD with a specialty in shakespeare, one is an assistant English professor, and one is an editor and playwright. The problem here is that none of these people have likely ever been in the professional actor's position of searching for effective monologues. As such, the monologues in this book come from compelling stories, but severely lack much of the criteria for an effective live monologue:
-a clear need
-active, present voice (not a re-told story)
-an arc or change

The majority of the monologues in this book fall into the undesirable categories of stories, phone conversations (?? ive never seen a compilation with so many completely un-actable phone conversations. YOU CANNOT BRING THIS INTO AN AUDITION!), and one-directional rants. I've read many books under the Applause Books heading, but this is honestly one of the weakest. A poor, poor collection of mostly unusable monologues.

As a director of a professional theater, I can tell you that the right monologue is vital for a great audition. Finding the perfect monologue is a hard task for any actor and it's even harder for female actors. This wonderful resource provides a wealth of women's monologues for both the professional and educational theater. After providing solid advice for choosing the right monologue, Henry, Jaroff, and Shuman offer a robust choice of monologues from a wide range of playwrights and styles. Thoughtful, complex, and beautifully theatrical, these monologues provide plenty of choices for the perfect monologue. A must have for any actor's library!

Really funny monologues (Holly Hughes's, Christopher Durang's, Peter Petralia's, and Laurel Haines's); serious (William Gibson's, Neil LaBute's, and August Wilson's); and some just plain dangerous (Anna Deavere Smith's and Lydia Lunch's). The work is from 2000 and after--the playwrights are diverse, including Theresa Rebeck, Murray Schisgal, and Nilo Cruz. About seventy good parts to choose from--nice pieces by Maria Irene Fornes, Crystal Field, Young Jean Lee, David Simpatico, and Anne Elliott--way too many to count. Meryl Streep, eat your heart out!

As an actor myself, I have leafed through tons of monologues, plays, and monologue/scene collections. I'm always trying to find works that have strong performance potential (i.e. I can easily put the piece into action or a clear, high-stakes objective), don't make the female a victim, and pieces that aren't overused. So, I bought this book greatly looking forward for some fresh new material.

And well, the material
*is* new... fresh? Eh? This is what disappointed me:

- Many of the monologues are simply not riveting or do not lend themselves to a great amount of clear, focused action: there are mostly memory-monologues (characters talking about something past) or story-monologues (again, characters stuck in the past)

- Too many pieces are characters talking on the phone to another character... and these are the 'best' monologues you could come up with? I understand technology is prevalent, but in an audition situation, I don't think it gives the actor (or the auditor for that matter) much to go on.

On the PRO side however, I think there is a good variety of monologues of women in varying ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities.

The monologues in this book could work well perhaps in a character study for a class, or perhaps for film, but if you're looking for a piece that is going to help you act ACTIONS rather than act EMOTIONS, keep on looking.

Although some of the monologues are interesting, the plays they were chosen from are so new or obscure that it is impossible to find them. Doing a monologue without reading the whole play is a big no-no, but even after searching amazon, ebay and local bookstores, I could not find any of the plays I was interested in.

The book has some interesting and creatively written monologues but, as an actor and auditor, I didn't find one piece that I would want to perform or see at an audition. It is full of past tense stories or memory pieces and I'm not a fan of passive, past-tense monologues for the audition situation. Sorry, I don't recommend the book if you are looking for auditioning monologues.