10th Grade Monologue Packet
M - The Glass Menagerie: Tennessee Williams Tom 2 F - The Crucible: Arthur Miller A bigail (A) 2 F - The Crucible: Arthur Miller A bigail (B) 2 F - A View from the Bridge: A rthur Miller C atherine (A) 2 F - A View from the Bridge: A rthur Miller C atherine (B) 3 M - The Dark at the Top of the Stairs: W illiam Inge S ammy 3 F - N ight, Mother: Marsha Norman Jessie 3 F - A scension Day: Timothy Mason Faith 4 M/F - A unt Dan & Lemon: Wallace Shawn Lemon 4 F - Like Dreaming, Backwards: Kellie Powell N atalie 4 M - M ermaid in Miami: Wade Bradford E mperor Tropico 5 F - M y Fair Lady: Alan Jay Lerner E liza Doolittle 5 M - In Arabia We’d All Be Kings: S tephen Adly Guirgis C harlie 5 M - “Master Harold”…And the Boys: A thol Fugard H ally 6 M - S ammy Carducci’s Guide to Women: R onald Kidd S ammy 6 F - O ur Town: Thornton Wilder E mily 6 F - The Clean House: Sarah Ruhl Virginia 7 F - The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon-Marigolds: Paul Zindel Tillie 7 M/F - Till We Meet Again: Colin and Mary Crowther U nknown 7 F - C harlene: Unknown C harlene 8 M/F - Irreconcilable Differences: Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer C asey 8 F - Juno: Diablo Cody Juno 8 F - D irty Dancing: Eleanor Bergstein Frances 9 F - Felicity: J.J. Abrams Felicity 9 F - C an't Hardly Wait: D eborah Kaplan, H arry Elfont Denise 9 F - A Chorus Line: James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante M aggie 9 M - A Chorus Line: James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante M ike 10 F - A Chorus Line: James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante D iana 10
1 The Glass Menagerie: Tennessee Williams
Tom What do you think I’m at? Aren’t I supposed to have any patience to reach the end of, Mother? I know, I know. It seems unimportant to you, what I’m doing- what I want to do- having a little difference between them! You don’t think that- You think I’m crazy about the warehouse? You think I’m in love with the Continental Shoemakers? You think I want to spend fifty-five years down there in that celotex interior! With fluorescent tubes! Look! I’d rather somebody picked up a crowbar and battered out my brains than go back mornings. I go! Every time you come in yelling that damn “Rise and Shine!” “Rise and Shine!” I say to myself, “How lucky dead people are!” But I get up. I go! For sixty-five dollars a month I give up all that I dream of doing and being ever! And you say self- self’s all I ever think of. Why, listen, if self is what I thought of, Mother, I’d be where he is- GONE!
The Crucible: Arthur Miller
Abigail (A) But John, you taught me goodness, therefore you are good. It were a fire you walked me through and all my ignorance was burned away. It were a fire, John, we lay in fire. And from that night no woman called me wicked any more but I knew my answer. I used to weep for my sins when the wind lifted up my skirts; and blushed for shame because some old Rebecca called me loose. And then you burned my ignorance away. As bare as some December tree I saw them all— walking like saints to church, running to feed the sick, and hypocrites in their hearts! And God gave me strength to call them liars, and God made men listen to me, and by God I will scrub the world clean for the love of Him! Oh, John, I will make you such a wife when the world is white again! You will be amazed to see me every day, a light of heaven in your house…
The Crucible: Arthur Miller
Abigail (B) Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw the Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down.
A View from the Bridge: A rthur Miller
Catherine (A) You don’t know; nobody knows! I’m not a baby, I know a lot more than people think I know. Beatrice says to be a woman but… Then why don’t she be a woman?! If I was a wife I would make a man happy instead of goin’ at him all the time. I can tell a block away when he’s blue in his mind and just wants to talk to somebody quiet and nice… I can tell when he’s hungry 2 or wants a beer before he even says anything. I know when his feet hurt him, I mean I know him and now I’m supposed to turn around and make a stranger out of him? I don’t know why I have to do that…
A View from the Bridge: A rthur Miller
Catherine (B) It’s only that I… He was good to me, Rodolpho. You don’t know him; he was always the sweetest guy to me. Good. He razzes me all the time but he don’t mean it. I know. I would… just feel ashamed if I made him sad. ‘Cause I always dreamt that when I got married he would be happy at the wedding, and laughin’… and now he’s mad all the time and nasty…Tell him you’d live in Italy— just tell him, and maybe he would start to trust you a little, see? Because I want him to be happy; I mean.. I like him, Rodolpho… and I can’t stand it!
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs: W illiam Inge
Sammy I always worry that maybe people aren’t going to like me when I go to a party. Isn’t that crazy? Do you ever get a kind of sick feeling in the pit of your stomach when you dread things? Gee, I wouldn’t want to miss a party for anything. But every time I go to one, I have to reason with myself to keep from feeling that the whole world’s against me. See, I’ve spent almost my whole life in military academies. My mother doesn’t have a place for me, where she lives. She… she just doesn’t know what else to do with me. But you mustn’t misunderstand about my mother. She really is a very lovely person. I guess every boy thinks his mother is beautiful, but my mother really is. She tells me in every letter she writes how sorry she is that we can’t be together more, but she has to think of her work. One time we were together, though. She met me in San Francisco once, and we were together for two whole days. Just like we were sweethearts. It was the most wonderful time I ever had. And then I had to go back to the old military academy…
Night, Mother: Marsha Norman
Jessie I am what became of your child. I found an old baby picture of me. And it was somebody else, not me. It was somebody pink and fat who never heard of sick or lonely, somebody who cried and got fed,, and reached up and got held and kicked but didn't hurt anybody, and slept whenever she wanted to, just by closing her eyes. Somebody who mainly just laid there and laughed at the colors waving around over her head and chewed on a polka-dot whale and woke up knowing some new trick nearly every day and rolled over and drooled on the sheet and felt your hand pulling my quilt back up over me. That's who I started out and this is who is left. That's what this is about. It's somebody I lost, all right, it's my own self. Who I never was. Or who I tried to be and never got there. Somebody I waited for who never came. And never will. So, see, it doesn't much matter what else happens in the world or in 3 this house, even. I'm what was worth waiting for and I didn't make it. Me...who might have made a difference to me...I'm not going to show up, so there's no reason to stay, except to keep you company, and that's...not reason enough because I'm not...very good company. (A pause) Am I? Just let me go, Mama, let me go easy.
Ascension Day: Timothy Mason
Faith I’m sorry did I startle you? I just couldn’t wait another minute, I should have knocked. By now you’ll have heard about the scandal. It just came to me, how tired I am of all of this, you were right, this isn’t for me, I don’t belong here, I belong with you and both of us belong somewhere else, a long long way from here. It’s just death. It’s not the religion, it’s how they understand it, which is not at all, they don’t get it, there’s no room in their puny little hearts to get it and their minds are tiny and I’m just sick of it. You’re going to think I’m terrible, but I just realized... It’s hard to say it, even, but I just realized that I don’t even like my Dad, he’s so hard, it’s like he’s made of stone, and he’s on his way here now with that stone look of his and I know that I could turn out that way, I could turn into stone if I don’t get out now. (Beat) What’s that? That’s a suitcase. Is that your suitcase? (Pause. Faith begins to be frightened.) Great. You’re all packed up. I’m not packed up but I could be. In about one split second. (Beat) Were you coming by? (Beat) Wesley, did I wait too long?
Aunt Dan & Lemon: Wallace Shawn
Lemon Our human nature is derived from the nature of different animals. And of course there’s a part of animal nature that likes to kill. If killing is totally repugnant to animals they couldn’t survive. So an enjoyment of killing is somewhere inside us. Somewhere in our nature. In polite society people don’t discuss it but the fact is that it’s enjoyable - it’s enjoyable - to make plans for killing and it’s enjoyable to learn about killing that has been done by other people and it’s enjoyable to think about killing and it’s enjoyable to read about killing and it’s even enjoyable to actually kill all though when we ourselves are actually killing, an element of unpleasantness always comes in. That unpleasant feeling starts to come in. But even there one has to say, even though there’s an unpleasant side at first to watching people die, we have to admit that after watching for awhile - maybe after watching for a day, or maybe for a week or a year - it’s still in a way unpleasant to watch but on the other hand, we have to admit that after we’ve watched it for all that time - well, we don’t really actually care anymore. We have to admit that we don’t really care.
Like Dreaming, Backwards: Kellie Powell
Natalie I dropped her off, that night, about a quarter to two. I should have asked her to come over. Or at least asked her if anything was wrong. But she seemed normal. She seemed happy. Well, not happy, exactly. But like herself. I met her freshman year, in Introduction to British Literature. We made each other laugh. She was... bitter, and cynical, but still, really nice... I knew she had depression... but... it was 4 weird. We had so much fun together. I never really made sense of that. That night, we saw a play. And then we went to a midnight movie. I was nodding off through the last half of it, I'd gotten up early that morning to go running. And, I keep wondering... if there was something... in the play, or in the movie, some trigger, or... some reason. Something that could... set her off, you know? Something I missed. I just keep trying to look for clues. For answers. She had survived so much. Why that night?
Mermaid in Miami: Wade Bradford
Emperor Tropico CONTEXT: Tropico is the angry, power hungry father of a beautiful, free-spirited mermaid who has dared to escape from his tyrannical rule. (Think Fidel Castro with Mermaid flippers!) You there! Yes you. Little human in your stupid little boat and your funny little yellow hat and raincoat that makes you look like a rubber ducky. Why are you standing up? You should be kneeling down. Do you know who I am, you little oxygen-inhaling freak? Anytime you stick your head in the water, you are in my kingdom. I am Emperor Tropico, ruler of all the seas. The dreaded sharks cower in my presence. the monstrous squid looks at me and cries like a little girl. I am seeking two mermaids who have tried to escape. Can you imagine that? The most glorious empire under the sea. A watery utopia where everyone is without worry, everyone at peace, everyone hard at work doing exactly what they are supposed to do. Everyone is happy. And why? Because everyone does exactly what I say.
My Fair Lady: Alan Jay Lerner
Eliza Doolittle My aunt died of influenza, so they said. But it’s my belief that they done the old woman in. Yes, Lord love you! Why should she die of influenza when she come through diphtheria right enough the year before? Fairly blue with it she was. They all thought she was dead. But my father, he kept ladling gin down her throat. Then she come to so sudden that she bit the bowl off the spoon. Now, what would you call a woman with that strength in her have to die of influenza, and what become of her new straw hat that should have come to me? Somebody pinched it, and what I say is, them that pinched it, done her in. Them she lived with would have killed her for a hatpin, let alone a hat. And as for father ladling the gin down her throat, it wouldn’t have killed her. Not her. Gin was as mother’s milk to her. Besides, he’s poured so much down his own throat that he knew the good of it.
In Arabia We’d All Be Kings: S tephen Adly Guirgis
Charlie Okay. I’m gonna tell you something, Chickie… Me, I’m a Jedi fighter. I’m serious, I got a Jedi name and everything. And I got powers. A lot of powers, but I can’t use them for bad, or else, I gotta wear a mask like Darth Vader, and I don’t think that would fly too good in the city. I got special powers, but why am I gonna waste them on guys like Jimmy and Jose and RaRa and those guys? I can’t take the risk to lose my powers by accidentally doing bad against them. But lemme tell you this: If me and you was to go out “just as friends,” and somebody tried to mess wit’ you or do you harm, you better believe I would use all my Jedi 5 powers against them, even if I had to cross the line against them and do bad to them, even if I had to wear a mask for the rest uh my life because uh it. I wouldn’t care, ‘cuz you would be protected and safe, and even if they took me to jail, I would give you money first so you could go eat shrimps, okay?
“Master Harold”…And the Boys: A thol Fugard
Hally You went a little distance from me down the hill, and you held it up ready to let it go… “This is it,” I thought. “like everything else in my life, here comes another fiasco.” Then you shouted, “Go, Hally!” and I started to run. I don’t know how to describe it, Sam. Ha! The miracle happened! I was running, waiting for it to crash to the ground, but instead suddenly there was something alive behind me at the end of the string, tugging at it as if it wanted to be free. I looked back… I still can’t believe my eyes. It was flying! Looping around and trying to climb even higher into the sky. You shouted at me to let it have more string. I did, until there was none left and I was just holding a piece of wood we had tied to it. You came up and joined me. You were laughing.
Sammy Carducci’s Guide to Women: R onald Kidd
Sammy …So I’m standing there in the cafeteria, doing my survey with Gus, when all of a sudden, I’m staring at the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. She looks fourteen or fifteen at least, but I know she couldn’t be, because my school only goes up to sixth grade. At first I think maybe she flunked a grade or two. Then I look at her eyes, which shine like a couple of spotlights, and I know she’s too smart for that. While I’m watching, she pushes her hair back behind one ear and smiles. I get this incredible feeling, like… how can I explain it? It’s like somebody ran one of those rubber squeegees across the windshield of my life. Kinda poetic, huh? I get like that sometimes. Suddenly everything’s bright and clear. I know without a doubt she is the woman of my dreams. That afternoon I check around and find out some key facts about her. Turns out her name is Becky Davidson, and she’s in Mr. Lawrence’s sixth-grade class. She’s smart, and she loves to read. She works in the library with her skinny friend, Alice Biddle. So, when class is over, Gus and I will head over there.
Our Town: Thornton Wilder
Emily I don't like the whole change that's come over you in the last year. I'm sorry if that hurts your feelings, but I've got to tell the truth and shame the devil. W ell, up to a year ago I used to like you a lot. And I used to watch you as you did everything... because we'd been friends so long... and then you began spending all your time at baseball... and you never stopped to speak to anybody any more. Not even to your own family you didn't... and, George, it's a fact, you've got awful conceited and stuck-up, and all the girls say so. They may not say so to your face, but that's what they say about you behind your back, and it hurts me to hear them say it, but I've got to agree with them a little. I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings... but I 6 can't be sorry I said it.
The Clean House: Sarah Ruhl
Virginia Don’t be sorry. My husband is barren. Is that the right word for a man? I never thought that the world was quite good enough for children anyway. I didn’t trust myself to cope with how sick and ugly the world is and how beautiful children are, and the idea of watching them grow into the dirt and mess of the world—someone might kidnap them or rape them or otherwise trample on their innocence, leaving them in the middle of the road, naked, in some perverse sexual position, to die, while strangers rode past on bicycles and tried not to look. I’ve thought about doing some volunteer work, but I don’t know who to volunteer for.
A pause. She looks at Matilde.
Since I was twenty-two, my life has gone downhill, and not only have I not done what I wanted to do, but I have lost the qualities and temperament that would help me reverse the downward spiral—and now I am a completely different person.
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon-Marigolds: Paul Zindel
Tillie He told me to look at my hand for a part of it came from a star that exploded too long ago to imagine. This part of me was formed from a tongue of fire that screamed through the heavens until there was our sun. And this part of me-this tiny part of me-was on the sun when it itself exploded and whirled in a great storm until the planets came to be. And this small part of me was then a whisper of the earth. When there was life perhaps this part of me got lost in a fern that was crushed and covered until it was coal. And then it was a diamond millions of years later-it must have been a diamond as beautiful as the star from which it had first come. Or perhaps this part of me got lost in a terrible beast, or became part of a huge bird that flew above the primeval swamps. And he said this thing was so small- this part of me was so small it couldn’t be seen-but it was there from the beginning of the world. And he called this bit of me an atom. And when he wrote the word, I fell in love with it. Atom. Atom. What a beautiful word.
Till We Meet Again: Colin and Mary Crowther
Unknown Oh no! It's happening again. I'm sweating. Do you know the first thing I'll do? When I know everything? I'll invent a cure for puberty. No more flushes and blushes and gallons of sweat and stink and... things. I'll be able to say, "You are my body and you are under my control. You are my brain and you will think what I tell you, when I tell you, and you will never embarrass me on public transport again!" And when someone says - oh something clever and cutting - I'll be able to come back with just the right words. Kapow! And I'll be smooth and cool and... And not sweaty and stinky and covered in zits! Do you know my greatest fear? That one day someone will squeeze me - and I'm so oily and sweaty and sticky - I'll 7 just go pfit and pop out of my shirt - my whole body will pop out of my clothes and up in the air and I'll be up there in full view of everyone - stark bollock naked - and they'll all laugh! Because they don't understand. No one understands... what it's like... to be me!
Charlene: Unknown
Charlene Sorry? No. Upset? Not at all. Don’t be silly. Got yourself a real catch, girlfriend. No hard feelings here, none. When I first heard you two were goin’ out I thought, “Um-hum, that’ll work.” Birds of a feather, y’know? You two are made for each other. As I always say, water seeks its own. Only thing that surprised me though is that you never mentioned it. Never said nothin’. Musta slipped ya mind, huh? An’ I hear you two have been goin’ out for weeks. Weeks! Just forgot, I guess, huh? An’ you an’ me talk so often. Funny, huh? But I’m glad. Happy for you, he’s some guy. You’re gonna get exactly what you deserve. Look, I gotta go girlfriend. Got me another date. New guy, just met him. But don’t worry, if it don’t work out I’ll give him your number, okay? I’ll let you have all my rejects. Just this time, before you come “stalkin’ my man,” give me a couple weeks okay? I like to find out on my own. Gotta go, girlfriend, see ya around.
Irreconcilable Differences: Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer
Casey I'm just a kid, and I don't know what I'm doing sometimes. But I think you should know better when you're all grown up. I think you should know how to act, and how to treat people. And I think if you once loved someone enough to marry them, you should at least be nice to them, even if you don't love 'em any more. And I think if you have a child, you should treat that child like a human being and not like a pet. Not like you treat your dog or somethin'. You know, when you have a dog sometimes you forget he's there, and then when you get lonely suddenly you remember him, and you remember how cute he is and stuff, and you kiss him a lot, but then the next day when you're busy again you don't notice him. That's how I've been treated for the past four years, and you don't treat your kid like your dog. It's not right.
Juno: Diablo Cody
Juno Are you honestly and truly taking Kristina DeVort to the prom? Your mom must be so happy that you're not taking me. Whatever though, I'm fine. I'm in a fucking great mood. Despite the fact that I'm stuck in a fat suit that I can't get out of, despite the fact that everyone's making fun of me behind my back, and despite the fact that your little girlfriend gave me the stink eye in art class yesterday. But have fun taking Soupy Sales to the prom. I'm sure I can think of way more fun things to do that night, like I could pumice my feet, or I could go to Bren's dumb Unitarian church, or I could get hit by a ten ton truck full of garbage juice. Cause any of those things would be exponentially more fun than going to the prom with you.
Dirty Dancing: Eleanor Bergstein 8
Frances I told you I was telling the truth Daddy. I'm sorry I lied to you. But you lied too. You told me everyone was alike and deserved a fair break. But you meant everyone who was like you. You told me you wanted me to change the world, make it better. But you meant by becoming a lawyer or an economist and marrying someone from Harvard. I'm not proud of myself, but I'm in this family too and you can't keep giving me the silent treatment. There are a lot of things about me that aren't what you thought. But if you love me, you have to love all the things about me. And I love you, and I'm sorry I let you down, I'm so sorry Daddy. But you let me down too.
Felicity: J.J. Abrams
Felicity Um....I just want to preface this by saying, that, uh, I don't want you to feel weird about anything I am about to say. At all. Uh...the thing is...I came to New York...um...mostly because of you. (nervous laugh) Yeah, I had these, sort of, um..intense feelings for you back in high school, and, uh, even though I know that we never really talked before graduation, except that one time when I, uh, was passing out that flyer for the blood drive. Anyway, maybe the fact that we never did talk was why I had those feelings. Because now, of course, I realize, now that it was a crazy thing to do to follow someone I don't know 3,000 miles. And I sort of panicked about it, but I just wanted you to know that I'm past that. And I'm -- I'm totally ok with it now. I mean it, you know, because it's really not about you so much anymore. I'm here now, you know....uh...because...I'm here.
Can't Hardly Wait: D eborah Kaplan, H arry Elfont
Denise I know exactly who you are. You're Kenny Fisher...we used to...we used to play Miami Vice in my basement. You used to sleep over my house...you had to leave the hall light on every night. You're Kenny Fisher who used to buy me a card every Valentine's Day and a bag of those little hearts with the words on them. And you're Kenny Fisher who suddenly got too cool to hang out with me when we hit junior high. Cause, I was in all the smart classes, and cause my parent's didn't make a lot of money. And cause you desperately needed to sit at the trendy table in the cafeteria.
A Chorus Line: James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante
Maggie Maggie Winslow ... sometimes known as Margaret, Margie, Peggy ... all of the above. Whatever, it’s real and I was born in San Mateo, California on a Thursday evening at 10:40pm, August 17, 1950. I don’t know what they were for or against really, except each other. I mean I was born to save their marriage but when my father came to pick my mother up at the hospital he said, “Well, I thought this was going to help. But I guess it’s not …” A few months later, he left. Anyway, I did have a fantastic fantasy life. I used to dance around the living room with my arms up like this. My fantasy was that I was an Indian Chief … And 9 he’d say to me, “Maggie, do you wanna dance?” And I’d say, “Daddy, I would love to dance.”
A Chorus Line: James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante
Mike (Stepping forward) I’m Mike Costa – it used to be Costafalone. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, July 9, 1951, which makes me twenty-four. W hat do you wanna know? (Fidgets) A h, I can’t think of a thing. Why did I start dancing? Oh – because my sister did. I come from this big Italian family. My grandmother was always hanging out the window, leaning on a little pillow. ‘Cause that’s what Italian grandmothers do – hang out windows. I was the last of twelve ... I was an accident. (The group laughs) I was. That’s what my sister told me ... Oh ... That was the sister, Rosalie – she was the one who started taking dance lessons. My mother would take her every Saturday, she used to take me along. I liked going.
A Chorus Line: James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante
Diana (Stepping forward) M y name is Diana Morales. And I didn’t change it ‘cause I figured ethnic was in. Six-ten-forty-eight. You got that? And I was born on a Hollywood bed in the Bronx. Go on – what? O h, oh, you wanna know how tall I am? The color of my eyes? Or how many shows I’ve done? I just gave you my picture and resume, everything you wanna know is right there. Tell you what’s not on it? Like what? Talk about – what? The Bronx? W hat’s to tell about the Bronx? It’s uptown and to the right. What did I do there? In the Bronx? Mostly wait to get out. What made me start dancing? Who knows? I have rhythm – I’m Puerto Rican. I always jumped around and danced. Hey, do you want to know if I can act? Gimme a scene to read, I’ll act, I’ll perform. But I can’t just talk. Please, I’m too nervous? Look, I really don’t mind talking ... but I just can’t be the first ... please.
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