Monologues From Plays: How to Find One That Fits You (With Public-Domain Picks)

The audition notice says “one monologue from a published play, under two minutes,” and you have a week. You search, and the internet hands you a thousand speeches with no play attached, no context, and no clue how long they run. Some were written for a website, not a play, and the familiar ones turn up all day.

A monologue from a real play is a different thing. It sits inside a story you can read, spoken by a person who wants something from someone. That’s why panels ask for it, and it’s also why picking one takes more than scrolling.

The short version: find the speech in a play, not a list. Then run four checks before you learn it: read the whole play, make sure the situation and the character’s age and type are ones you can play, find who the character is talking to, and time it out loud against the limit. Then start from a public-domain play if you want the full text free, or buy the acting edition if the play is still under copyright.

Why panels want a monologue from a published play

Some audition notices say it in so many words. The UNCSA School of Drama’s high school audition requirements ask for monologues “from a published play,” and rule out “films or generic monologue books.” Each piece there may not exceed 90 seconds, and the page adds a line worth taping to your mirror: “Applicants are expected to have read the entire play.”

The reasoning is simple once you’ve sat on the other side of the table. A speech from a play has given circumstances: a place, a time, a relationship, a reason to speak now. The panel can ask you about any of them. A speech written to stand alone has none, so there’s nothing for you to play and nothing for them to ask about.

That’s also why film monologues are a separate question. If you’re tempted, read our guide on using a movie monologue for an audition first. And if the speech you love comes from the show you’re auditioning for, here’s why to pick a different play.

Where to find monologues from plays

Start with plays, not with monologues. Craig Mason at Theatrefolk puts it well in his guide to finding monologues for auditions and competitions: “Monologue books are a great starting point,” but they are “just a tool, not a solution.” When a speech in a book grabs you, buy the play, read it, and look at the other speeches that character has, and the ones other characters have too.

He also names the catch with books. Lots of people own the same monologue book you do, so the same speeches turn up all day. His fix is to go into the play itself and cut or combine passages into a piece that’s less familiar.

Here are the places that reward the time:

• Bookshops and libraries. Spotlight’s eight ways to find your audition monologue notes that they “usually have plenty of plays in stock,” and that holding the whole script lets you judge whether a speech is right for you.
• Drama Online, a play database you may be able to use through a school or library login. Ask your librarian; the West Texas A&M library guide lists it as a place to look for monologues.
• Playwrights you already like. When one speech works for you, read that writer’s other plays before anyone else’s.
• Public-domain plays, free and complete. Our play library has the full text of Shakespeare, Wilde, Shaw, Chekhov, Ibsen, Synge, and more, with every role’s line count and its longest speeches.

Four checks before you commit to a speech

A good monologue from a play is one you can actually play in the room. Before you spend a week learning it, run it through these checks. Each one takes minutes, and any one of them can rule out a piece that looked perfect on the page.

1. Read the whole play. Not the scene, the play. You need to know what happened just before the speech, what the character wants from it, and what it costs them. You also need to know the ending, because the panel does.
2. Check the situation. Is the moment in the speech one you could believably be in? A play that makes the character a grandparent, a general, or a teenager tells you something the speech alone won’t. Pick a character close to your own age and type.
3. Find the listener. A speech aimed at someone who’s there, and who could answer back, gives you an action to play. A memory told to no one gives you a story to recite. If the character is alone, look for the decision they reach by the end.
4. Time it out loud. Words on a page often look shorter than they run. Read it at audition pace with a timer, including the pauses you’d really take, and compare that with the limit on the notice.

How to time a monologue

A rough guide: at 150 words a minute, the middle pace on our monologue pages, a 150-word speech runs about a minute. Nerves speed you up and a big emotional turn slows you down. Paste the text into our free monologue timer for an estimate (its paces differ a little from the 150 used here), check it against the limit, then time a real run, not a skim.

If the speech runs long, cut it rather than rushing it. Our guide to cutting a monologue to time shows how to keep the story intact. On a limit as tight as UNCSA’s 90 seconds, check whether the notice counts your slate inside the time.

Public-domain monologues from plays, by type

These speeches are all from plays in the public domain, so the full text is free to read in our plays library. Each one is that role’s longest single speech in the play. The run times are for the speech as printed, at 150 words a minute, stage directions removed. Several run past 90 seconds, so for a short limit you’ll need to cut, not just trim a line. The quoted lines are checked against the Project Gutenberg editions.

Dramatic, for women

• Lady Windermere, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Act 3 (319 words, about 2.1 minutes). She has left her husband a letter and gone to Lord Darlington’s rooms, and she waits there alone for Darlington. It opens, in the Project Gutenberg text: “Why doesn’t he come? This waiting is horrible.” It’s long, so expect to cut it for a tight limit.
• Nina, The Seagull, Act 4 (311 words, about 2.1 minutes; cut it for a two-minute limit). Long after she left to become an actress, she comes back to Treplev, worn out, and tells him what the stage and love have done to her.
• Irina, Three Sisters, Act 1 (185 words, about 1.2 minutes). On her name day, she wakes up sure that she knows how to live: by working. Bright and young, with the rest of the play waiting to break it.
• Nora, A Doll’s House, Act 1 (209 words, about 1.4 minutes). She tells Mrs. Linde how hard it has been to pay off her secret loan in installments. Funny, proud, and nervous at once.

Comedic, for women

• Mabel Chiltern, An Ideal Husband, Act 2 (297 words, about 2 minutes, so right at a two-minute limit; cut it to be safe). She tells Lady Chiltern about Tommy’s proposals. It starts, in the Gutenberg edition: “Well, Tommy has proposed to me again. Tommy really does nothing but propose to me.”
• Lady Bracknell, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 1 (171 words, about 1.1 minutes). She has views on Mr. Bunbury’s health, including the verdict “Health is the primary duty of life.” The Lady Bracknell role page lists all her scenes.

Dramatic, for men

• Lopahin, The Cherry Orchard, Act 3 (281 words, about 1.9 minutes). The son of a serf announces that he has bought the estate at auction. Triumph and shame in the same breath.
• Treplev, The Seagull, Act 1 (240 words, about 1.6 minutes). Before his play begins, he tells his uncle that the theater needs new forms, and admits what it’s like to be the nobody son of a famous actress.

Comedic, for men

• Christy, The Playboy of the Western World, Act 2 (224 words, about 1.5 minutes). Alone in the pub, cleaning a girl’s boots, he counts the riches around him: “Half a hundred beyond. Ten there. A score that’s above. Eighty jugs.” (from the Gutenberg text). Then he admires himself in the mirror.
• Bluntschli, Arms and the Man, Act 1 (175 words, about 1.2 minutes). The tired professional soldier tells Raina how the cavalry charge really looked. In the Gutenberg edition he’s still just “the Man” in this act. The speech begins: “He did it like an operatic tenor—a regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting a war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills.”

Shakespeare

If the notice asks for classical verse, our monologue library has the full text of famous Shakespeare speeches with run times at three speeds and cut points for 60 and 90 seconds. A few to start with: Viola’s “I left no ring with her” (about 1.4 minutes), Ophelia’s “O, what a noble mind” (under a minute), Helena’s “How happy some” (about 1.4 minutes), Macbeth’s “Is this a dagger” (about 1.8 minutes), and Petruchio’s “Thus have I politicly begun my reign” (about 1.4 minutes). You can also browse monologues for women, monologues for men, dramatic, or comedic pieces.

If you need a pair, our guide to choosing two contrasting monologues shows how to match one of these with a piece from another era.

Plays still under copyright: name it, find it, buy it

A contemporary piece usually comes from a play that’s still under copyright. You can still use them in an audition. What you can’t do is find a reliable copy on a random monologue website, where the text is often retyped, cut without saying so, or missing the scene around it.

Instead, note three things: the title, the character, and the publisher. Then get the acting edition from that publisher, a bookshop, or a library. For example, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town is still under copyright, and Concord Theatricals publishes the acting edition. That’s where to read it, whole, before you decide.

The same checks apply. Read the full play, find the listener, and time it out loud. A play you bought and read is also the best answer when the panel asks what happens next.

Learn it inside the scene

Once you’ve chosen, learn the speech the way the play wrote it: as a reply. The lines before it are your cue, and the reaction after it tells you whether it landed. Our guide to memorizing a monologue walks through learning it as a chain of thoughts rather than a string of words.

In Offbook, listen mode can play the whole scene aloud, so you hear what leads into your speech before you speak it.

For a quick start on any speech, our free first-letter memorizer turns the text into first-letter cues, with no account needed.

Questions actors ask

Where can I find monologues from plays?

In the plays themselves. Read plays from a bookshop or library, try Drama Online through a school or library login, and treat monologue books as a starting point that leads you to the play. For free, complete texts, public-domain plays by Shakespeare, Wilde, Shaw, Chekhov, and Ibsen are in our plays library.

What makes a good monologue from a play?

One you can play, not just say. The character wants something from someone, usually a person who’s there and could answer. Something changes between the first line and the last. It suits your age and type, and it fits the time limit out loud with room to breathe. A speech you’ve never seen at an audition is a bonus, but fit matters more.

Do auditions want monologues from published plays?

Many do, and some say so outright. The UNCSA School of Drama, for example, asks for monologues from a published play and rules out films and generic monologue books. Always follow the notice: some ask for a classical piece, some for a contemporary one, and some for a song or a reading from sides instead.

Can I pick a monologue from a play I haven’t read?

You can find it that way, but don’t perform it that way. A speech can mean something different once you know what came before it, and panels ask about the play. If you can’t get the full text in time, choose a speech from a play you can read: a public-domain one is free, and a contemporary play’s acting edition can be ordered from its publisher.