Dramatic monologue from play how to#

Tell us how it felt with the metal scraping against paint, leaving a scar like she left on your heart. All the things you did when she broke up with you that eventually you felt embarrassed about, like keying her car, use them. Photo by Marc Szeglat on Unsplash Be MelodramaticĮver feel that the world was over when your ex broke up with you? Good. If you need to go to the grocery store to see the cute checkout girl it’s because this is your last shot at finding love, which leads me to my next point: Oftentimes in monologues there will be a situation or event that is mundane and quotidian, but the stakes behind it are great. You don’t have to find reasons for the author’s words since you are creating the words yourself. The advantage of writing your own monologue is that you can write these stakes into the script. The actor needs to make choices that are high risk and high reward. If you’ve taken any beginning acting class, you’ll know what this means. Give us specifics to make the story real in our minds. Share with us the burning sensation you felt in the back of your throat when you snuck your first shot of brandy from your parents’ liquor cabinet. Tell us what the air smelled like after you had your first kiss. You’re not talking about the abstract idea of love, you’re telling us what it felt like when you were in love and how horrible it was when you lost that love. This is why pulling from your own life is really helpful. Be Specificĭon’t just graze over a topic and use concepts of ideas. Maybe you have a crush on the Wednesday checkout girl and can’t stop thinking about her. What are the reasons you had to go to the grocery store. Don’t tell us that you are doing something, tell us why. We want to watch someone living a moment. Audiences don’t want to watch someone talking to us. Would you want to read about someone going to the grocery store and buying a box of cereal? Probably not. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash Don’t Tell Us, Show Us Use the darkness of a past heartbreak or the death of a loved one, write about how you felt when it happened and don’t be afraid of what comes out. Remember how you felt when it happened to you and how you thought you’d never get over it.

Maybe you’ve overcome this particular event in your life, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the pain. We want to see characters and situations that are intense with extreme reactions that we are too afraid to admit exist inside all of us.

We watch theatre and film because of the drama, because it represents parts of the human experience that we can relate to. When you write a monologue, you want to capture the most heartbreaking moments of your life. Think about experiences that really affected you that made you cry or made you angry. We’ve all experienced heartbreak and sorrow, now is the time to harness it and use it to serve you. This way you are already connected to the story and you can describe in detail what happened. The best material that you can pull from is your own life experience.

Dramatic monologue from play how to#

Here are some quick and easy pointers on how to start writing a dramatic monologue: Think About Your Own Life So how do you find material that resonates with you? Well, you can write it yourself. You’ll need to connect with monologues or short scenes and build up a whole emotional story. As an actor, you’ll have to audition and create emotions on stage from very little. Luckily for me, I found theatre at a young age and have been developing my craft for the past 18 years.