Michigan Shakespeare Festival

High School Monologue Contest

Tips for Contest Participants

Look for a monologue that has as much dramatic action as possible and provides the opportunity to portray a variety of emotions.

READ THE PLAY - while there are numerous books which contain only selected monologues, a character is best understood when thoroughly read and researched. It is more important to understand what you are saying than to get caught up in the mechanics of Shakespeare's writing. The brilliance of the Bard's characterization is the continuing relevance of his character's emotions, their predicaments, and their idiosyncrasies. As such, remember that the character one selects is a real person, and should be portrayed realistically. Isolate why the individual is speaking, what moves them to speak, and the outcome of the speech.

While the requirement for this contest is two minutes, it is better to have one minute and forty seconds of solid, carefully thought out material than to attempt to force a two minute and fifteen second monologue into the allotted time. It is not productive to rush the language, but you may cut the material in the monologue if you feel that it is repetitive, irrelevant to the your desired interpretation of the speech, or superfluous.

While Shakespeare was indeed British, do not attempt to use a British accent. Without years of training in accents, the use of an artificial one will cause your monologue to sound stilted and contrived.

The performance space is rather large, and you must project to be heard. Please do not shout, but good diction, intonation, and clarity of speech will enable the audience to hear your performance.

The evaluation of your performance begins as soon as you enter the performance space. Please enter the space calmly and select your position a respectful distance from the judge's table. State your name, the name of your character, and the play from which your text was selected. Give the judges a few moments to write down any of this identifying information, and then begin your monologue.

Do not deliver your monologue directly to any of the judges. Such an action would make it difficult for them to fully focus on one and what one is saying.

Move only when you feel compelled to do so by the text. Excessive movement can be distracting and uncomfortable to watch.

It is not necessary to dress in costume. If it is appropriate, a character can be suggested by a piece of clothing. It is not recommended for women to wear pants, as such would take away from the quality of being a Elizabethan female character. Please, no jeans.

There is no need to use props unless they are essential to the speech. Use of unnecessary props can be distracting and demeaning to the text itself.

Remember, this is a friendly contest. Enter with a smile, pause when one is finished, thank the judges and the audience, and exit with the confidence and pride of know that one has done one's best.