Chekhov Monologues for Auditions: Ten Speeches in Free Translations

The notice asks for “one classical and one contemporary speech,” and you’d love to bring Chekhov. Then the questions start. Does he count as classical or contemporary? Is Nina’s speech the one every other actor in the hallway is doing? And which version do you learn, when the copy on your shelf words every line differently from the one online?

Many lists of Chekhov monologues name a handful of characters and stop there. They don’t give you the words, and they don’t tell you that the translation you pick decides both what you can read for free and what you’ll be saying in the room.

The short version: check how the notice defines “classical” first, choose one translation and stay with it, and pick a speech with a clear listener and a turn. Below are ten speeches, five for women and five for men, each with the setup, the want, a short excerpt, and an approximate run time. Every excerpt is copied from a public-domain translation on Project Gutenberg, and the translator is named each time.

Check whether the notice counts Chekhov as classical

Schools don’t agree on where Chekhov sits. Juilliard’s 2020-21 monologue FAQs describe contemporary selections as coming from writers working in the 20th and 21st centuries, roughly from Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen to the present day. Its classical pieces come from Shakespeare, the Greeks, and other pre-20th-century writers whose text is poetic or heightened. Under Juilliard’s monologue FAQ, Chekhov counts as a contemporary piece, not a classical one.

Other schools use dates. The University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ acting audition requirements ask for a classical monologue, preferably Shakespeare or one of his contemporaries, and contemporary monologues from the 20th century or beyond. By that rule, the dates matter. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first staged in 1896, according to its Wikipedia entry, while The Cherry Orchard premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre in January 1904.

So read the wording twice. If the notice says “classical, preferably Shakespeare,” Chekhov is the wrong answer. If it says “contemporary, 20th century or later,” The Cherry Orchard fits more cleanly than a play from the 1890s. If it says “a modern classic” or “a speech from a published play,” Chekhov is a strong choice. When in doubt, ask the school; a one-line email is cheaper than a wasted slot.

Use a translation you’re allowed to read for free

Chekhov wrote in Russian, so whatever you perform is a translator’s English. The plays themselves are long out of copyright, but each translation is its own work. The U.S. Copyright Office’s Circular 14 on derivative works lists translations as a common kind of derivative work, and says the copyright in one covers only the new material it adds, never the public-domain work underneath.

In practice, a translation old enough to be in the public domain is free to read and copy, and a recent one usually is not. Three free ones are easy to find:

• Marian Fell’s translations, published in a 1912 volume of four plays. Project Gutenberg’s Second Series notes that the First Series plays are its ebooks 1753 through 1756, which appear as separate titles, some without a translator credit. The Fell texts quoted here are The Sea-Gull, Ivanoff, and Uncle Vanya.
• Julius West’s Plays by Anton Chekhov, Second Series, which includes The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.
• Constance Garnett’s translations, which our play library uses for The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard, and Ivanov (its Three Sisters is West’s).

Modern translations and versions are often more speakable, and many productions use them. They’re also under copyright, so buy or borrow the published script rather than copying it from a website. Whatever you choose, learn one text and stick to it. Names change between versions (Lopakhin and Lopahin, Treplieff and Treplev, Helena and Yelena), and so do whole sentences.

Speeches for women

A note on times: where our monologue library has a page for the speech, the time comes from that page. For the others, we counted the words in the text named and divided by 150 words a minute, a conversational pace. Treat every time as a starting estimate and check it with your own run.

Nina, “Why do you say that you have kissed the ground I walked on?” (The Seagull, Act 4)

Two years after running off to Moscow to act and to be with Trigorin, Nina comes back on a stormy night to Treplev, who still loves her. She’s tired and hungry, and her life has fallen apart. What she wants: to tell him, and herself, who she is now. In Fell’s translation she keeps losing the thread: I am a sea-gull--no--no, I am an actress. By the end she has found her footing: it is the strength to endure.

Our page for “I am a seagull” times the Garnett text at about two minutes at a conversational pace and marks the cut points. It’s demanding and full of broken-off thoughts, so give each fragment its own reason to start and stop.

Sonya, “We shall rest” (Uncle Vanya, Act 4)

Everyone has left the estate. Vanya, who tried to shoot the professor earlier that day, sits at the accounts table in despair, and Sonya, whose own hopes of love have just driven away with Astrov, comforts him. In Fell’s text she begins What can we do? We must live our lives. and comes back again and again to We shall rest.

What she wants: to keep him going, and herself with him. Our “We shall rest” page puts the first part at about a minute, a good length for a one-minute call. Don’t preach it, and don’t let it go sweet; the faith is something she holds onto, not something she simply has.

Yelena, alone (Uncle Vanya, Act 3)

Sonya has just asked Yelena, her young stepmother, to find out whether Astrov loves her. Left alone, Yelena admits to herself that she’s drawn to him too. Fell’s translation opens with There is no greater sorrow than to know another’s secret when you cannot help them. Then she reasons, excuses herself, and dreams: Oh, to be free as a bird.

What she wants: to talk herself out of what she feels, and she doesn’t manage it. In the Garnett text our library uses, the soliloquy is about 260 words, roughly a minute and three quarters. It’s a rare chance to play a woman thinking out loud with no one to perform for, and it pairs well with something outward and comic.

Irina, “A man must work” (The Three Sisters, Act 1)

It’s Irina’s name day, exactly a year after her father died, and she woke up feeling that life is open to her. She tells the old doctor Chebutikin what she has discovered. In West’s translation: A man must work, toil in the sweat of his brow, whoever he may be, and she’d rather be a workman, a shepherd, or even an ox than a young woman who sleeps until noon.

What she wants: to make him take her new life seriously, and to commit herself out loud. In West’s text, as our library has it, the speech is about 187 words, roughly a minute and a quarter. Play the joy straight; it only becomes sad later in the play.

Irina, “I am already twenty-three” (The Three Sisters, Act 3)

The same character, a few years on, at night during a fire in the town. Irina breaks down in the bedroom she shares with Olga: I don’t remember what is the Italian for window or, well, for ceiling. After a short line from Olga she goes on: I am already twenty-three, I have already been at work for a long while, and my brain has dried up.

What she wants: for someone to admit that her life has gone wrong, and to tell her what to do. Joined together, the two speeches come to about 188 words in West’s text, roughly a minute and a quarter. If you can, work on both Irinas; the distance between them is the whole play.

Speeches for men

Lopakhin, “I bought it!” (The Cherry Orchard, Act 3)

Lopakhin, whose father and grandfather were serfs on this estate, comes back from the auction to the family’s party and announces that the cherry orchard is his. Lyubov, who owned it, stands crushed beside him. In West’s text: The cherry orchard is mine now, mine! and then I’ve bought the estate where my grandfather and my father were slaves.

What he wants: to make the moment real, and to have the family see what he has done. Our “I have bought it” page times the Garnett version at about 1.9 minutes at 150 words a minute, with cuts for 60 and 90 seconds. He swings from disbelief to giddy triumph to come and look at the trees falling! and then to tears. Don’t play a villain.

Trofimov, “All Russia is our orchard” (The Cherry Orchard, Act 2)

Trofimov, the eternal student, is alone with Anya, Lyubov’s daughter, out in the fields one evening. He tells her the orchard she loves was built on owned people: All Russia is our orchard. Then he asks whether she doesn’t feel something human looking at her from every cherry and every leaf.

What he wants: to free her from the house, and to win her to his idea of a new life. In West’s text the speech is about 190 words, roughly a minute and a quarter. It’s an argument, not a lecture, aimed at one young woman he cares about. Keep it warm and urgent, and let the idealism be a little comic, as Chekhov does.

Astrov, the forests (Uncle Vanya, Act 1)

Astrov, the overworked country doctor, plants trees in his spare time. Yelena has just called it monotonous, and Vanya mocks it. He answers with a passionate speech about what Russia is losing. In Fell’s translation it includes The woods of Russia are trembling under the blows of the axe.

What he wants: to answer the mockery and, without quite saying so, to impress Yelena. In the Garnett text our library uses, the speech is about 310 words, roughly two minutes, so you may need a cut. It’s useful for actors who want a speech about an idea that is also, underneath, about wanting to be seen.

Treplev, “I love my mother” (The Seagull, Act 1)

Minutes before his play is performed for the guests on the estate, Treplev talks to his uncle Sorin about his mother, the famous actress Arkadina. He despises the theatre she stands for; when Sorin says But we can’t do without a theatre. he answers, in Fell’s text, No, but we must have it under a new form. Then: I love my mother, I love her devotedly, but I think she leads a stupid life.

What he wants: for his uncle, and the world, to take him seriously as an artist and not as somebody’s son. That second speech is about 230 words in Fell’s text, roughly a minute and a half. Play the humiliation under the bravado; he is twenty-five and feels like nobody.

Ivanov, alone in his study (Ivanov, Act 3)

Ivanov, a landowner sunk in debt and gloom, has just been left alone. His wife is dying, he no longer loves her, and he can’t explain what happened to him. Fell’s translation starts I am a worthless, miserable, useless man. and then remembers: Less than a year ago I was healthy and strong, full of pride and energy and enthusiasm.

What he wants: to find the cause of his own collapse. Our page for Ivanov’s soliloquy says the full speech runs about three minutes and gives a cut of a little over two. The memory of who he was has to be full of real energy, or there’s nowhere for him to fall.

For more speeches from these plays, our modern classics page lists Chekhov alongside Shaw, Wilde, and Ibsen, and the dramatic monologues page sorts them by run time. The full plays are free in the library: The Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, and Ivanov. For comic speeches from the same decade, see our guide to Oscar Wilde monologues for auditions.

Choose the famous speech only if you can make it yours

Nina’s last speech is the best known, and that’s both its problem and its strength. Juilliard’s FAQ says it gives no list of monologues to avoid and asks applicants to choose pieces they feel a connection with, whether commonly known or less so. A panel won’t mark you down for Nina. They’ll compare your Nina with the ones they’ve already heard that day.

If you can’t say in one sentence what she wants from Treplev, pick something less familiar. Yelena’s soliloquy, the second Irina, or Trofimov will often be fresher. The same FAQ warns against picking speeches from monologue books without reading the whole play, so you know the character’s circumstances, who they’re talking to, and why. With Chekhov that matters more than usual, because so much of each speech answers something said pages earlier.

Play the comedy Chekhov wrote

A common trap with Chekhov is playing him at one mournful tempo. Chekhov saw The Cherry Orchard as a comedy, and the Wikipedia entry on the play notes he was upset when Stanislavski shaped it into a tragedy. Lopakhin stamping his feet at his own luck is partly funny. So is Trofimov’s grand idealism, and Irina’s certainty that she’d rather be an ox.

Three habits help. Treat every dash and ellipsis as a thought being abandoned, not a pause for feeling. Place your listener clearly, close to you and just off the lens or the panel’s eyeline, because almost every speech here is aimed at one person. And find the turn, the line where the character changes tactic: Nina’s “actress,” Sonya’s first “We shall rest,” Ivanov’s “Less than a year ago.”

Then cut by thought. Start on a full sentence, end on one, and keep the turn and the last line. Our guide on how to cut a monologue walks through it, and our free monologue timer checks the length at different paces.

Learn it inside the scene, not as a solo

A Chekhov speech grows out of conversation. Sonya answers Vanya’s despair, Treplev answers Sorin, and Nina answers Treplev’s declaration. So learn the cue as carefully as the speech. Read the scene aloud a few times with the other parts in, then say your speech in your own words, one sentence per thought, before you go word-perfect.

Offbook makes that part easy. Upload the scene in the translation you’ve chosen, pick your role, and realistic voices read every other character, then wait while you say your lines. When you’re ready, hide your own lines while the others stay on screen, or swap your words for first-letter cues on the way to a blank page, as the video below shows.

Our free first-letter memorizer does the cue step with any speech you paste in, and our guide on how to memorize a monologue has the full method. Run it standing up, three times at full voice, and keep the slowest time.

Questions actors ask

Can I play a Chekhov character of a different gender?

Often, yes. Juilliard’s FAQ answers “May I choose a character of any gender identification?” with a plain yes. Other schools and theaters may differ, so check the notice, and play the character’s want rather than an idea of the character’s gender.

Should I use a Russian accent for Chekhov?

Usually not. You’re speaking an English translation, so your own accent is the natural choice. Juilliard’s FAQ says you’re welcome, but not required, to use an accent if you feel a piece warrants one. Spend the energy on the character’s want instead.

Can I join two speeches together into one monologue?

Often, yes, if you cut the other character’s short lines and the thought still runs on. Irina’s two Act 3 speeches work this way. Tell the panel the play and the character, and check the notice doesn’t forbid edits.

Can I rehearse a Chekhov speech on my phone?

Rehearse on your laptop with the full script on a big screen, and listen to your scenes on your phone anywhere. With Offbook, listening to the scene on the way to the audition keeps the cues in your ear.