Shakespeare Monologue Competition
for Students Grades 6-9

March 12 , 2007
1:00 Arrive at Imagination Stage
1:15 Warm-Up for All Contestants
1:30 Monologue Competition

Imagination Stage, Bethesda, MD
(click here for directions and parking information)

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Suggested Monologues

Judges and teachers familiar with this program suggest the following passages. You may select another monologue from the comedies or the history plays, or a comic monologue from a tragedy. While you may choose to perform a tragic monologue from a tragedy, most students find that comedy works better for this competition. Monologues should not exceed 25 lines of verse in length. Monologues generally require two minutes of performance time.

After you have selected your monologue, prepare your performance. Read the play. Consider your character. Who is this person? Why does this person make this speech at this moment? What does this person want? What do the words in the passage tell you about the character's actions?

As you perform, you should:

  • speak as naturally as possible, not with an affected or artificial voice;
  • use an accent that is your own (that is, American speech for most students, rather than a British accent not native to you);
  • dress not in costume but in clothes that help communicate the status of your role. You may wear a rehearsal skirt or shoes appropriate for your character.
  • use one prop, such as a letter or a ring, if the monologue requires it.

Play

Character

Lines

Start

Finish

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Puck

2.1.42-58

Thou speakest aright

here comes Oberon.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Oberon

2.1.249-67

I know a bank

first cock crow.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Helena

3.2.145-61

O spite! O hell!

all to make you sport.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Theseus

5.1.4-22

Lovers and madmen

suppos'd a bear.

All's Well That Ends Well

Helena

1.1.79-98

O were that all

Who comes here?

All's Well That Ends Well

Helena

3

Then I confess

lives sweetly where she dies.

As You Like It

Duke Senior

2.1.1-17

Now my co-mates

in everything.

As You Like It

Phebe

3.5.8-27

I would not be thy executioner

That can do hurt.

The Comedy of Errors

Adriana

2.1.87-101

His company must do

I am but his stale.

Henry IV, part 1

Lady Percy

2.2

Oh, my good lord, why are you thus alone?

else he loves me not.

Love's Labour's Lost

Berowne

5.2.315-34

This fellow pecks

honey-tongued Boyet.

Love's Labour's Lost

Rosalind

5.2.841-54

Oft have I heard

impotent to smile.

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Falstaff

3.5.3-18

Go fetch me a quart of sack

a mountain of mummy.

Much Ado About Nothing

Benedick

2.3.22-36

May I be

in the arbor.

The Merchant of Venice

Portia

4.1.184-202

The quality of mercy is not strain’d

the deeds of mercy.

Richard II

Duchess of Gloucester

1.2

Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?

venge my Gloucester's death.

The Taming of the Shrew

Petruchio

4.1.190-209

My falcon now

headstrong humor.

The Taming of the Shrew

Katherina

5.2.161-79

I am ashamed

do him ease.

The Tempest

Caliban

1.2.330-44

I must eat my dinner

the rest o' th' island.

The Tempest

Prospero

Epilogue

Now my charms

set me free.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Julia

1.2.102-19

O hateful hands

into the raging sea.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Proteus

2.4.192-210

Even as one heat

my reason's light;

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Jailer's Daughter

2.4

Why should I love this gentleman

 

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Jailer's Daughter

2.6

Let all the dukes and all the devils roar

 

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Jailer's Daughter

3.2

He mistook the break

[requires cuts to make it fit]

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Palamon

3.6

Hold, Thesueus

 

The Winter's Tale

Leontes

2.1.36-52

How blest am I

to play at will.

The Winter's Tale

Hermione

3.2.91-108

Sir, spare your threats

I should fear to die?

Twelfth Night

Viola

2.2.17-36

I left no ring with her

What will become of this?

Twelfth Night

Sebastian

4.3.1-20

This is the air

I perceive she does.

If you decide to choose a tragedy, please visit the English-Speaking Union website for suggested monologues.
NOTE: Contest guidelines on this website diverge from those used at the high school level.

Sponsored by the Center for Renaissance & Baroque Studies, Imagination Stage, the English-Speaking Union, and the Washington Episcopal School.

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Last updated June 13, 2007