# How to Choose Two Contrasting Monologues for an Audition

> What schools and coaches mean by contrasting monologues, how to read the audition notice before you choose, a simple test for whether two pieces really differ, a worked pairing from Shakespeare and Shaw, and how to order, time, and rehearse the pair.

- URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-choose-contrasting-monologues
- Published: 2026-10-13
- Last updated: 2026-10-13

The audition notice says "two contrasting monologues," and you already have one piece you love. Now you need a second, and every speech you find seems either too much like the first or too far from anything you could play.

A common shortcut is one funny piece and one sad piece. That can work. But a panel can watch a comic speech and a serious speech and still feel they've seen the same person do the same thing twice, because underneath the labels both characters want the same kind of thing in the same kind of way.

The short version: read the notice first and treat its rules as fixed. Then choose by what each character wants and how they talk, not by genre. Pick two people who fight for different things, in different language, in different situations. Then rehearse the pair as one audition, including the walk between them.

## What "contrasting" actually means

There is no single definition, which is why the phrase confuses people. Schools spell it out in different ways. The high school drama program at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, for example, [asks for two memorized contrasting monologues](https://uncsa.edu/admissions/drama/high-school/audition-requirements.aspx) of no more than 90 seconds each, and lists the possible contrasts as comic and serious, classical and contemporary, or a difference in theme or tone.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania's theater department says [contrast can come from the type of character and the material](https://www.iup.edu/theater/undergrad/audition/audition-requirements-and-guidelines.html) (serious and comedic, contemporary and classical) rather than from age. That last part matters. A teenager in one piece and a grandmother in the other won't do the job on its own, and it may ask the panel to imagine you in parts you'd never be cast in.

An acting coach at [Acting Coach Scotland](https://www.actingcoachscotland.co.uk/blog/contrasting-monologues-auditions) goes further, with a list of places contrast can live: character, objective, genre, situation, type of language, movement, emotional range, tone, and accent. Their warning is the useful part. A comic piece and a dramatic piece don't automatically contrast if the two characters are similar, with similar concerns and similar objectives.

So read "contrasting" as "show us two different people." Genre is one way to get there. It isn't the only way, and on its own it isn't enough.

## Read the notice before you read a single play

Every program writes its own rules, and they differ more than you'd expect. Before you choose anything, copy the requirements into your notes and check each piece against them later. The details that trip people up:

- **Period.** "Classical" and "contemporary" have no fixed dates. Florida State's music theatre prescreen guidelines count anything from the 20th century on as contemporary, while the University of Washington's [auditioning glossary](https://drama.washington.edu/auditioning-glossary) says classical usually means work written before the 19th century. If the notice gives a date, use it. If it doesn't, ask the program or pick something safely inside both definitions.
- **Language.** Some programs want heightened language for the classical slot, not just an old play. Juilliard's drama FAQ, for example, describes heightened text as language that is poetic or elevated beyond everyday speech.
- **Time.** In the programs cited here, limits run from 60-90 seconds to about two minutes per piece. Some prescreens, such as [Florida State's music theatre guidelines](https://theatre.fsu.edu/?p=54878), count your slate inside the time limit. Time your introduction, not just the speech.
- **Source.** Some programs, UNCSA's among them, require pieces from published plays, and Juilliard's FAQ advises against picking from monologue books. Check whether film or novel speeches are allowed before you fall for one.
- **Count.** "Two" is common, not universal. Some ask for more: Juilliard's FAQ asks for four.

Juilliard is a good example of how specific a notice can get. Its [2022-23 monologue FAQ](https://www.juilliard.edu/sites/default/files/monologue_faqs_2022_3.pdf) asked for four pieces of about two minutes each, two heightened and two contemporary (check the current year's page before you prepare). It says the room doesn't run a timer but asks you to respect the limit, and it tells applicants to read the entire play each monologue comes from, so they understand who the character is talking to and why.

That last instruction is good advice for every audition, not just Juilliard's. If you only know the speech, you can't know what your character wants, and you can't tell whether your two choices really differ.

## Test the heart of each speech, not the label

Here is a quick test for false pairs. For each piece, write one sentence in this shape: *I am [who], talking to [whom], and I need them to [do what], right now, because [what's at stake].*

Now compare the two sentences, not the genres. If both say something like "I need the person I love to understand how much I'm hurting," you have one piece twice, however different the costumes. If one is talking to herself and needs to work out how she got into this mess, and the other is talking to a man and needs him to stop treating her like dirt, you're getting somewhere.

Then run through the other differences, one at a time:

- **Who they're talking to.** A speech to another character and a speech to yourself or the audience use your body and focus in different ways.
- **How they talk.** Verse and prose, formal and slangy, long sentences and short bursts. Different language makes you breathe and think differently.
- **Where the energy goes.** One character can be winning while the other is losing ground; one can be thinking fast, the other fighting for every word.
- **Who they are.** Different status, class, or temperament gives you a different physical life without any added "character work."

You don't need every box ticked. Two or three real differences, with a clear objective in each, usually give a panel enough to see range. A piece that differs only in its genre label won't.

## A worked pairing: Viola and Liza

Here is how two pieces that are both comic in places can still contrast sharply. The first is Viola's soliloquy from Act 2, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's *Twelfth Night*. She's alone. Malvolio has just pressed on her a ring she never gave, and she's working out, in verse, that Olivia has fallen for her (she's disguised as a man):

> **VIOLA:** I left no ring with her: what means this lady?
> Fortune forbid my outside have not charm’d her!
> She made good view of me; indeed, so much,
> That sure methought her eyes had lost her tongue,
> For she did speak in starts distractedly.

The second is Liza Doolittle in Act 5 of Bernard Shaw's *Pygmalion* (1913). She's not alone at all. She's facing Higgins, she's furious, and she's in prose:

> **LIZA:** Oh, you are a cruel tyrant. I can’t talk to you: you turn everything against me: I’m always in the wrong. But you know very well all the time that you’re nothing but a bully.

Run the test. Viola: *I am Viola, talking to myself, and I need to understand what this ring means, right now, because the woman I'm courting for my master may love me instead.* Liza: *I am Liza, talking to Higgins, and I need him to stop bullying me, right now, because I won't be trampled any more.* Different partner, different language, different objective, different status. One thinks; the other fights.

A caution: *Pygmalion* (1913) sits between definitions. It counts as contemporary under Florida State's music theatre rule but not under a stricter one, and it isn't classical by the University of Washington's definition, so check the notice before you use this exact pair. For a contemporary slot, the same test applies to a modern published play. We can't quote those here, but you can read widely and use the sentence test on anything you find.

Viola's speech is in our [monologue library](https://www.offbook.com/monologues/i-left-no-ring-with-her) with notes, and our [Pygmalion](https://www.offbook.com/plays/pygmalion) page shows who speaks in each act and how big each role is. Read the whole play before you commit to Liza's speech.

## Order, timing, and the walk between them

Once you have the pair, you have to perform it as one audition. That means an introduction, two speeches, and the moment in between.

Name both pieces at the start: your name, then each character, play, and playwright, in the order you'll do them. Rehearse this out loud until it sounds like you, not a recitation. If the notice includes the slate in the time limit, it's part of your time.

Order is your call unless the notice specifies one. A common approach is to open with the piece that settles you most, so your nerves have somewhere to go, and end with the one that leaves the strongest last image. Some actors prefer the opposite. Try both orders at home and keep the one where your second piece starts cleanest.

The transition is easy to neglect. A Willamette University article on preparing for college theatre auditions suggests [a small, simple transition](https://news.willamette.edu/library/2019/11/how-prepare-college-theatre-auditions.html) between pieces (move a chair, take off a jacket) and staying in the moment for a few seconds at the end of each before breaking character. Give yourself a breath, turn or reset your position, and find the second character's situation before you speak. Don't apologize, explain, or chat in between.

Time both pieces with a stopwatch at full energy, not at a mumble. Speeches run longer when you're playing them properly, and it's better to cut a few lines at home than to be stopped halfway through your best moment.

## Rehearse them as a pair

It's common to rehearse each monologue on its own and then meet the transition for the first time in the room. Rehearse the whole sequence instead: introduction, first piece, transition, second piece, thank you. Do it standing, at full voice, several times in the days before.

A sample two-week plan:

1. Days 1-2: read both full plays, write your one-sentence objective for each piece, and time and cut each speech to length.
2. Days 3-6: learn the words of each speech until you can say them cold, in order, without the page.
3. Days 7-9: work each piece on its feet with a specific partner in your mind, and check the timing at full energy.
4. Days 10-12: run the whole sequence, including introduction and transition, at least once a day.
5. Days 13-14: run it for a friend or on camera, then rest it the night before.

Get the words solid early, so the later days go to acting rather than remembering. Our guide to [memorizing a monologue](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-memorize-a-monologue) covers that step in detail, and the [first-letter memorizer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/first-letter-memorizer) turns any speech into first-letter cues for a quick check.

Offbook can help with the memorizing stage. Upload each speech as its own scene, and on your laptop you can hide your lines, practice with first-letter cues, and say the speech out loud with teleprompter mode highlighting each word as you say it. On your phone, listen mode plays the speech aloud, so you can listen to each piece on a walk or a commute.

Video: [Hide your lines](https://www.offbook.com/learn/hide-your-lines) (1:07)

Then stop working the words and work the people. Two different people, wanting two different things, is what the panel came to see.

## Questions actors ask

### Can I use two classical monologues?

Only if the notice allows it. Some programs ask for one classical and one contemporary piece, and Juilliard's FAQ asks for two heightened-text and two contemporary pieces. If the notice just says "contrasting," two classical pieces can work, but they need to contrast strongly in character, objective, and language.

### Can both pieces be from the same play or playwright?

Check the notice. Even where it's allowed, it makes contrast harder, because the voice and world stay the same. Choosing two different writers is the easier way to show range.

### Can I use a monologue from a film or TV show?

Some programs require pieces from published plays, which rules out film. Check the notice. If it doesn't say, a published play is the safer choice.

### How long should each monologue be?

Whatever the notice says. In the programs cited above, limits run from 60-90 seconds to about two minutes per piece. If no limit is given, ask the program; the shorter 60-90 second range is a safe target.

### Is comic plus dramatic always enough?

No. A comic and a dramatic piece can still feel alike if both characters want similar things in similar ways. Run the one-sentence objective test on both pieces and look for differences in partner, language, and status as well as genre.