Does anyone know any good 2-3 minute monolouges, scripts, or from an original scene?

There’s a scene in Othello that might fit your description – right at the end, after Othello realises that he has killed Desdemona (his wife) ‘by mistake’. Othello makes an incredibly powerful speech which moves from numb shock to complete hysteria as he prepares to commit suicide.

The monologue starts “Behold, I have a weapon”, and should only take a few minutes to read.

My only concern is that it may not makes sense when detatched from the rest of the play. Otherwise, try some other Shakespeare. King Lear perhaps?

Do you want a contemporary or classical monologue? The first thing that comes to mind is Euripides’ The Trojan Women/The Women of Troy or Iphigen(e)ia in Aulis (that’s where I got my username from) but then again, in the classical Greek style they were not written to be presented with plenty of tears and physically unrestrained expression.

Contemporary plays are harder to find because they are not in the public domain.

http://notmyshoes.net/monologues/

There are a number of poems of appropriate length (that read like monologues). For emotive (sad) stuff, I recommend Anne Sexton, Edna St. Vincent Millay etc. Using a poem, you get to roll some wonderful word combinations around in your mouth.

Check out “The Subject Was Roses” by Frank D. Gilroy. Powerful stuff.

@Austinlad I had forgotten about that one, excellent choice

A few good men – monologue that begins “ We live in a world with walls. “

The quick and the dead – Gene Hackman has a monologue that begins “I’m confused. All I ever hear from you, you spineless cowards, is how poor you are.”

William Daniels has on in the opening of the movie 1776 – it begins “ I have come to the conclusion, that one useless man is called a disgrace. Two, become a law firm, and that Three or more become a congress.”

John Milton / the devil in Devil’s advocate has an excellent monologue. It begins “Who are you carrying all those bricks for anyway? God? Is that it? God? Well I’ll tell ya, let me give you a little inside information… about god.”

Captain Ramsey in Crimson Tide, at the very beginning has a monologue that begins “Little ducks, there’s trouble in Russia!”

Hope that helps.

Actually ignore that, I didn’t read. :) Sorry. I was just thinking MONOLOGUES! I know those!

I don’t know how long it would take for you to read, but a classic Shakespeare monologue is Hamlet’s to be or not to be monologue wherein he contemplates suicide.

My personal favorite Shakespeare monologue is Mercutio’s monologue about love in Romeo and Juliet that starts with “Oh, then I see Queen Mab hath been with thee.” It’s not about pain or suicide, but it is an interesting monologue about the futility of love and the idiocy of lovers. If done right, it can be very powerful and display quite a range of emotions.

Go to the library, get a scene source book. There are plenty that list recent dramatic monologues for women.

Then you should just start reading a bunch of plays and start paying attention to parts that are good for you.

Is your monologue for an audition or an assignment? A little more information might help.

1. Cassie from Skins.
2. Jen’s Video from the Dawson’s Creek finale.
3. Desiree from Wristcutters: A Love Story.

The first two aren’t troubled teens per se, but there’s a good depth of emotion in each performance. They’re not terribly hard to perform without needing to give much context. The last one is from a movie about where people go after they have committed suicide. It’s an interesting movie.

Thank you. :) You could try this movie called Ordinary People. I haven’t seen it in awhile, but I think the son has a suicidal mind set. It’s really good. A Single Man was excellent.

@muppetish yeah it’s for an audtion.

Good luck!

For strong emotions check out Death of a Salesman. I think there might be a good monologue where the wife says, “Attention must be paid.” You can check Tennessee Williams plays. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf should have something.