Hi, I have just started researching plays to find myself a monologue because I want to audition for a local agency in my city. I have just ordered a few plays that sound really good from Amazon and am going to go to the library and check out some plays there. But I was worried that I still may not find a monolgue that really moves me. I was thinking that if I didn't I could write something that fits me perfectly. I wanted to know what agents thought about orignal pieces. Is it okay for a person to write and perform their own monlogue. Or is it not encouraged by them?

It's generally not encouraged, period. You put yourself in the position of effectively being judged for both your writing and your acting.

If you're thinking of doing it at all, I'd say practice in front of audiences (most cities these days have open mikes where you can get up and do these kinds of things) and be sure it KILLS.

But the standard wisdom is that it's just not such a great idea.

I have to agree with Jim. Even if you're a really gifted writer, it's very hard to create material for youself.

Here are two other options.

1) Do you have any friends who are talented writers? Maybe you can ask one of them to create a piece for you. That could be fun and you could have some input.

2) Find a piece that you like but is a near miss and do a little rewrite on it so it becomes a better fit. Since you're not performing for a paying audience, you're not really crossing any ethical line.

As for the official agent opinion, no - I don't really care who wrote your material. And quite frankly, I won't know who wrote it unless you tell me. The bottom line is I just want to see good work. Period.

I used to use a piece I wrote but I always pretended it was from a play--I just made up the name of a play--it never came into question.
In retrospect, though, I think I would have done better to use something, um, better!

hey Diva where in alabama are you from? My mom lives in Huntsville and i have other family in birmingham. I love that state.

I had to do it for one of my auditions a couple of years age. i had to write one about 1-2 min. long based on the character that I wanted to audition for.

quote:

Originally posted by Matthew Schuck:
hey Diva where in alabama are you from? My mom lives in Huntsville and i have other family in birmingham. I love that state.

Hi, I live in Huntsville too and I went to school in Birmingham.

Thanks for the help and suggestions everyone. I think I am just going to stick with finding a monologue in a play amd performing that.

I'm pretty obsessive about knowing where a monologue is from and who wrote it, and always ask if it's not offered. Earlier this week, we heard another "I can get angry and cry" monologue and when I asked where it was from, we were told "Oh, I made it up". Before I could respond, my esteemed compatriot behind the table replied, "Oh, so it wasn't a monologue. It was a rant."

I still have the bruise where I fell back and hit my head laughing.

OK, that may not have been helpful, so I'll actually contribute something. Find a monologue from a play that resonates with you and is well structured out of the context of the show; something that you can apply your own circumstances to if you wish, and we don't need a three minute set-up to hear a two minute monologue. Don't pick it because it was a full page in the script and looked like it was about two minutes long; it needs to have a well defined beginning, middle, climax, and end so that you can go somewhere with it. Then get thee to one of the web sites that list overdone monologues and make sure it's not on there. There are several, they're easy to Google, one of the best is at www.monologueaudition.com.
Hope that helps?