Finding Monologues

READ, READ, READ!

Whole books have been written on this subject but the best way to find a good monologue for you is to simply read as many plays as you can. (Most plays can be read in less than an hour). The key to a successful performance is finding a character and monologue you can relate to.

Print Resources

The majority of our plays are shelved alphabetically by title in the “Playscripts” collection. The back covers of many of the plays have a cast list so you can quickly see which plays have the gender part you are looking for. You may also want to refer to this list of plays with monologues as a starting point.

Monologues can also be found at PN2080 and 808 in the book collection.

We have many monologue books but they usually do not include the whole play. (NOTE: Some of these books only include monologues from unpublished plays.) To find the complete play you need to do a TITLE BROWSE search in the catalog. If it is not available in our library system it may be possible to get it through Interlibrary Loan.

Electronic Resources

Actorama.com
You can search for monologues or scenes from movies, plays, television and books according to gender, source material, type (dramatic, comic, serio-comic). Scripts are not available on this site.

Doollee.com
Search for plays by the number of actors, gender and author. Scripts are not available on this site but you can purchase them from this site.

Dramatists Play Service – Play Finder
Search the catalogue of over 3,000 titles. To find some monologues, limit it to a single player and pick a gender (but this will only find solo plays). You may also browse plays by title or by author. Scripts are not available on this site but you can purchase them from this site.

EServer Drama Collection
A collection of play scripts divided by era, ranging from classical to contemporary.

Find a Monologue… Get the Part
This is a very easy site to use. Monologues are categorized by male/female and then by age ranges. There is also a very good article about selecting a monologue under “What’s a Monologue”.

Gutenberg Project
This site produces free electronic books, including play scripts. Type “drama” in the subject box to find a list of the plays. You may also want to limit the language to “English”. You can also search by title or author.

PlayDatabase.com
A database of plays. Search for monologues by era, gender, length and more. Scripts are not available on this site.