Monologues from Classic Plays: 468 B.C. to 1960 A.D. (Monologue Audition Series)
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Average Customer Rating: 1.0 out of 5
Description:
This collection of classic works successfully blends ancient and modern material to offer actors the best representative monologues from 2300 years of theater. This volume contains 104 dramatic, comic and serio-comic excerpts for all ages from 74 classics by the world's foremost playwrights including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Christopher Marlow, Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Chekhov, Oscar Wilde, Eugene O'Neill, Stephan Vincent Benet, Tennessee Williams, Samuel Beckett, and Harold Pinter. Complete with an introduction to each monologue, Monologues from Classic Plays is sure to become an indispensable resource for actors.
Publisher: Smith & Kraus
Customer Review: 1 out of 5
Decent variety, a LOT of omissions, and where's the funny? - I bought this book for a couple of main reasons: I wanted to get a copy of both monologues from "The Skin of Our Teeth" that it has, and it had some Shakespeare monologues. I'm a comedic actress, and so I thought monologues from "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" would be a good choice for me. Unfortunately, the editor has picked some non-comedic monologues from each of these plays. The VAST majority of pieces in here are dramatic monologues. It's probably a great book if that's what you enjoy, and certainly I can use it to develop my skills, but there are VERY few pieces for women that show OFF my talents. There are more comedic monologues for men, (the insult speech from Cyrano is here) but there are still WAY more dramatic monologues.
This brings me to the "Skin of Our Teeth" monologues. Or specifically, the opening monologue. The editor has taken out a sizable portion of the speech, wherein the actress breaks character to rant about the play. It's one of the reasons I like this piece so much. It's gone. AND there's no mention that the monologue has been edited. It causes me to wonder what's missing from the monologues I don't know as well. To add insult to injury, the book lists the character's name as "Sabrina." Her name is "Sabina." It's a smallish detail, but it points to a general lack of care. Again, I can't help but wonder what other details are wrong. There's a great variety of speeches, but VERY little explanation of the circumstances surrounding the speech, and NO footnotes to help interpret the older (Elizabethan and earlier) plays. It's a good idea, but the execution is sorely lacking.
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