DRAMATIC MONOLOGUES

Tara's dramatic monologues range in actor age from 5 years old to mature adult.  These monologues are great for auditions, workshops, competitions, classes, reels, showcases, monologue slams, performances, and videos. But please contact Tara for permission of use, stating your name and desired use of the monologue.  You must always give proper credit.

Scroll down for descriptions and excerpts from dramatic monologues, or click the title for a link to the specific monologue. 

A Break from Remembering, monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE/Any gender, Setting: STORE
A Life Spurred into Meaningful Adventure, monologue Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY/TEEN, Cast FEMALE, Setting: FOREST
A Nice Night Together, monologue Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY Cast: MALE, Setting: Hotel
Abhay and the Banana, monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast: MALE (female), Setting: MUMBAI, INDIA
Apple Pie Pain, monologue Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast FEMALE, Setting, LIVING ROOM
Amanda’s Monologue from the one-act, What Happened at the Mud Puddle Genre: COMEDY/TEEN/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE
Birthday Balloons, monologue Genre: DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: BEDROOM
Blessings, a monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast: MALE (female), Setting: GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP
Boringest. Ghost. Ever., monologue Genre: COMEDY/CHILDREN’S/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE/MALE/ANY GENDER, Setting: Bedroom
Buddy’s Mommy, monologue Genre: DRAMA/THRILLER, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: LIVING ROOM
Butterfly in the Tomato Plant, monologue Genre: CHILDREN/DRAMATIC/TWEEN, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: A PARK
Chloe’s Monologue from What Happened at the Mud Puddle Genre: DRAMATIC/TEEN/TWEEN, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: Outside
Claire, My Eclair, monologue Genre: DRAMA/TEEN Cast: MALE (FEMALE) Setting: Outside
Clippers, monologue Genre: DRAMA/DARK COMEDY/TEEN, Cast: MALE/FEMALE, Setting: SPACE BETWEEN LINES
Comprehending Forever, monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast: MALE (female), Setting: HOME KITCHEN
Covering My Ears, monologue Genre: DRAMATIC/TEEN/CHILDREN Cast: FEMALE/MALE Setting: A Bathroom
Crispy Leaves, monologue Genre: DRAMA Cast: FEMALE (MALE) Setting: GRAVEYARD
Cutting Down The Maple Tree, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA/THRILLER, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: BACK YARD
Dinner at Canale's, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: DINING ROOM
Don’t Close the Doors, monologue Genre: DRAMATIC/THRILLER/10-minute Cast: FEMALE, Setting: CLOSET IN A BEDROOM
Eiffel Tower Keychain, monologue Genre: CHILDREN/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: SCHOOLYARD
Engulf the Evil Ashes, monologue Genre: DRAMATIC/TEEN, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: BUILDING IN ALBANIA *Content contains references to violence and human trafficking
F For Friendship, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/THRILLER/TEEN Cast: FEMALE Setting: WOODS
Ferret Envy, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/THRILLER/DRAMA, Cast FEMALE (male), Setting: APARTMENT
Fingernail Heart, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast FEMALE, Setting: OUTSIDE HOUSE
Frog Band-Aid, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA/THRILLER, Cast FEMALE, Setting: OUTSIDE
Growing Up on the Wrong Side of Bingo, monologue Genre: COMEDY/DARK COMEDY/TEEN/DRAMA, cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: FRONT LAWN
Growing Up Treacherously, monologue Genre: DRAMA/PERIOD/1800s, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: KITCHEN
Head to Toe, monologue Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC/ROM-COM, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: KITCHEN/ZOOM
His First English Words, 5-10 minute monologue Genre; DRAMA/1940s, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: HOME/LIBRARY
I Am a Shark, monologue Genre: DRAMA Cast: MALE/FEMALE Setting: A Beach
If I Were a Kind of Flower, monologue Genre: CHILDREN'S/TWEEN/PRETEEN/COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: A Cafe
I'm Your Frankenstein, monologue Genre: DRAMA Cast: MALE/FEMALE Setting: A laboratory
Livvy's Vase, monologue Genre: DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: HOUSE
Locking the Store, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: MALE, Setting: GIFT SHOP
March in Line, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: BEDROOM
Maybe the Next iOS Update... Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA/TEEN, Cast: FEMALE (Male), Setting: RESTAURANT
More Than Santa, monologue Genre: COMEDY/CHRISTMAS/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: MALL FOOD COURT
My Motherhood, monologue Genre: ABSURDIST/DRAMATIC/COMEDIC Cast: FEMALE Setting: LIVING ROOM
No More Mirrors, monologue Genre: DRAMATIC, Cast FEMALE (male), Setting: HOTEL/CAMBODIA
No Release, monologue Genre: DRAMA/TEEN, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: HOUSE
On Washing Cereal Bowls and Other Millennial Matters, monologue Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: KITCHEN
Pieces of Coal, monologue Genre: HORROR/THRILLER/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: BEDROOM
Pit Trap Meredith monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE (male/any gender), Setting: RIVERBANK
Pitfalls and Treasures—Mary’s Monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/HEIGHTENED/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: Parking Lot
Purple Banana Nose, monologue Genre: DRAMATIC, Cast: MALE (female), Setting: POLICE STATION
Remove the Rock, Please, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/THRILLER/DRAMA Cast: FEMALE (Male), Setting: OUTSIDE
Rising Fast, monologue Genre: DRAMA Cast: FEMALE (MALE)  Setting: HOUSE
Second-Hand Dirt, monologue Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY/CHILDREN/TEEN, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: Garden
Secret Santa, monologue Genre: COMEDY (DRAMA), Cast: MALE, Setting: AN OFFICE
Seventeen Stitches, Rachel’s monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: A vortex-like line
Shelley Knows, monologue Genre: THRILLER/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: A bedroom
Still Standing Under the Mistletoe monologue Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC, Cast, MALE, Setting: Christmas Party
Strawberry Shortcake Lamp, a 5-minute monologue Genre: DRAMATIC, Cast, FEMALE, Setting: Bedroom
The Adventure of the Seed, monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: HOME
The Beanstalk monologue Genre: Drama/Comedy, Cast: MALE, Setting: A BEANSTALK
The Best General Tso’s, monologue Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: KITCHEN, GLOBAL PANDEMIC
The Beautiful Bracelet, monologue Genre: TEEN/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE, Setting Coffee shop
The Bus Stop, monologue/Waiting for The Bus in Red-Checkered Earmuffs Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY Cast: MALE (FEMALE), MATURE ADULT Setting: BUS STOP
The Hotel Hallway, monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast FEMALE, Setting: A HOTEL HALLWAY
The Meaning of Plants, 1-minute version, monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: DOG GROOMING SALON
The Meaning of Plants, 2-minute version, monologue Genre: DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE/MALE, Setting: DOG GROOMING SALON
The Nicest Worst Club, monologue Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: A HOUSE
The Other "Other Women," monologue Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: HOTEL ROOM
The Plum-Colored Sweater, monologue Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: A CLOTHING STORE
The Statistics Aren’t Real, monologue Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC/TEEN, Cast: MALE (female), Setting: A DYING FLOWER
This Heat In My Brain, monologue Genre: THRILLER/DRAMATIC/HORROR, Cast: MALE/FEMALE, Setting: AN ALLEY
Those Jimmy Choo Shoes, monologue Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast: FEMALE, Setting: PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE
Tinsel For Christmas, monologue Genre: DRAMA/DARK COMEDY, Cast: MALE (female), Setting: HOSPITAL
WHACK THE CHRISTMAS TREE, MAN: Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC/CHRISTMAS, Cast: MALE, Setting: Christmas Tree Farm
Waiting for The Bus in Red-Checkered Earmuffs (previously title The Bus Stop) Genre: DRAMA/COMEDY Cast: MALE (FEMALE), MATURE ADULT Setting: BUS STOP
What I Did Before Bingo, 2.5 min version, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast FEMALE (Male), Setting: LIVING ROOM
What I Did Before Bingo, 1 minute version, monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA, Cast FEMALE (Male), Setting: LIVING ROOM
What My Fangs Are For monologue Genre: DARK COMEDY/THRILLER/DRAMA/CHILDREN/TEEN, Cast: MALE/FEMALE, Setting: Back Yard
Where’s Your Hand, Chloe? monologue Genre: THRILLER/DRAMA/TEEN, Cast: FEMALE (male), Setting: Woods at night

 A BREAK FROM REMEMBERING

Cassie is at a store when she runs into her friends, Meg and Leo. Leo mentions hearing a song that reminded him of Cassie’s recently deceased love-of-her-life, Owen, and Cassie breaks down in front of them. Feeling bad, Leo apologizes and walks to another part of the store to allow Cassie and Meg to talk privately. In the monologue, Cassie expresses how she can’t hear memories about Owen yet because they don’t bring her any joy right now—only pain. She wants other people to remember him and share thoughts and memories of him—but with other people, not her; right now, she needs a break from remembering him, just in order to survive.

DETAILS:
Genre: Dramatic
Running time: Approximately 2.5-3 minutes
Cast: Female (Any gender)
Age range: late teens-any age adult
Setting: A store
Time period: contemporary

 CASSIE

I know that as soon as you talk about Owen, my face gets all red—I can’t help it. And I start crying and look away, or walk away even, and…I basically can’t have a conversation about him at all—and it makes you think I don’t want to remember him… And… that’s not it… Well… (pause) It kind of is. Sometimes. (pause) Does that make me seem like… like the worst person in the world? Shouldn’t I want people to talk about him to me? And share all these little details that they remember – like, how Leo just said he heard Stairway to Heaven on the radio and it reminded him of how Owen played it on his guitar and… I know he’s sharing something nice, but I just can’t….hear that. (pause) My head and heart fill up with so much…I want to say love, but it’s not. Because Owen’s not here for me to love anymore, so my love is, like…It’s like poison, Meg. It’s like…poisoned love. And I can’t—END OF EXCERPT Click below for the complete 3-minute dramatic monologue, A BREAK FROM REMEMBERING.

A LIFE SPURRED INTO MEANINGFUL ADVENTURE
Goldilocks’ Monologue
excerpted from the 10-minute play, A Life Spurred into Meaningful Adventure

About the play:
Goldilocks and Little Bear have run away from Little Bear’s house in the forest to start a new life together, one full of adventure and hope and away from judgmental eyes. However, they don’t quite know where they are going, how they will find their next meal, and Little Bear has never even made a shelter in the woods. Suddenly, the reality of two young friends on their own in the woods, does not seem as carefree as they once envisioned. To read the 10-minute play, A Life Spurred into Meaningful Adventure, click here.

About the monologue:
Goldilocks, the clear leader of the pair, confesses to Little Bear that, despite her apparent confidence, she actually does not know where they are going. As Little Bear appears to be having second thoughts, Goldilocks does not know if her dear friend deserves to have a life without loving parents, like the one she has been ill-fated to endure. She expresses her gratitude of their friendship, but gives him the freedom to return to his protective and loving family, as the adventure she is embarking on will not be easy.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMA/TEEN/COMEDY/CHILDREN
Cast: FEMALE
Setting: A FOREST
Age range: 10-20
Running time: 1-1.5 minutes

_______________________________

GOLDILOCKS

I…I don’t know where we’re going…We know your parents don’t accept me in your house.  And…I don’t have much of a home to offer you. (pause) You can go back, Little Bear. If you want to.  I mean—I’d understand.  You have a family that loves you.  You’re not like me. And…I don’t want you to become like me. Bears—They’re—they’re not meant to sleep in beds. But—look, maybe I’m not meant to be scavenging a forest for berries, and yet—this is where I am.  And…this is my life.  This is my adventure…but it doesn’t have to be yours....END OF EXCERPT

Click below for Goldilocks’s complete monologue of “A Life Spurred into Meaningful Adventure.”

To read the complete 10-minute play, A Life Spurred into Meaningful Adventure click below:

A NICE NIGHT TOGETHER

SAMUEL, a married man, is standing outside of a hotel bedroom, speaking to his recent fling, Brigit. He explains the difference in her expressing things that will make them have a nice night together and expressing things that will make them have a bad night. He’ll stick around if it’s the former. He’ll leave if it’s the latter.

DETAILS
Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANTIC
Cast: MALE
Setting: HOTEL
Age range: 20-70
Approximate running time: 2 minutes

____________________

SAMUEL

If you can keep those thoughts in your head, if you can, whatever it is you have to do, to make sure those thoughts that you think you’re feeling stay there—inside your head—where they belong, not outside your head—not coming out of your mouth, not going into my ears—then, well, we can have a nice night together. (pause) If you’re not sure what to say out loud and what to keep inside, ask yourself this question: “Is saying what I think going to help us have a nice night? (pause) If it is?  By all means—share.  You want examples?  Okay, so…you could tell me how you brought a bottle of whiskey with you. That’s fine. Whiskey’s gonna help things. Make us have a nice night together. Okay.  You could say how you’ve been thinking about me.  Remembering last night. You could tell me how you’ve been replaying the night over and over. Every touch…every sound…every breath…Yeah, that’s gonna help us have a nice night.  You see?  (pause) What I don’t want to hear, examples of things that should just stay in your head, because, well, they’re not gonna help us have a nice night, um, some examples would be…talking about your husband’s triathlon. Asking me what my wife... END OF EXCERPT
CLICK HERE FOR THE FREE COMPLETE "A NICE NIGHT TOGETHER" MONOLOGUE.

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

APPLE PIE PAIN

HOLLY, is a mother in her 20s-50s. She is at home in the living room. She speaks to her husband, Jesse, who has been watching tv.

DETAILS
Genre: COMEDIC
Cast: FEMALE
Age range: 20-50s
Setting: A living room
Running time: 1-1.5 minutes

HOLLY

My hands are raw—look at them!  I have so many cracks—do you know it stings when I squeeze the lemons? Yeah, it does. I bet you didn’t think about that yesterday.  When you and the boys were sauntering around the apple orchard—picking all that low hanging fruit that even Sammy could reach. Eating cider donuts and launching rotten apples out of the apple canon. Oh, I know you had fun while I was working at the hospital and brought me back this, what, I don’t know, bushel of apples? Yes, I say brought me back because no one else planned on washing all that white pesticide off of them, right?—END OF EXCERPT
Click for the complete free monologue, APPLE PIE PAIN.

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

ABHAY AND THE BANANA
Extracted from the play For My Silent Sisters

Abhay has lived on the harsh streets of Mumbai before being “taken in” by a brothel owner who is grooming Abhay to enter the field. Abhay is a teenager now, and it has been years since he had any kind of home or regular meals at all. Yet he's conflicted as he learns he has moved from one horrific circumstance to another. Abhay relives, to the audience, the moment he loses his mother and home, and what that means to him and his baby sister.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMA
Cast: MALE (female)
Setting: MUMBAI, INDIA , a brothel
Age Range: 12-25
Running time: 2 minutes

_____________________

ABHAY

I’ve had two people I loved. And two people who’ve died. I never met my dad, if you can call him that. Some man that got my mom pregnant. A different guy got her pregnant again two years later and gave me my sister. I never met him either but I owe him—‘cause he gave me Purnima. (pause) My mom was always warm, right up until the end. Always kissing my forehead, stroking my cheek with her hand, calling me “baby,” when she was just a kid herself. She had me when she was 14. She wore dark purple nail polish. It almost looked black. I liked the smell of it, like strawberry. Her bracelets would jingle when she hugged me and she told me I gave her the best hugs in the world. I believe it too because she was surrounded by some real bad people. (pause) She never even got to turn 20. She died of tuberculosis when she was 18. My baby sister was two. We got no family, no friends that would stick around and raise two bastard kids. Only took a day before some crazy men took over the hut she’d somehow managed to get for us. They said it was theirs. But I knew they were thieves, but I’m four so what can I do. One guy throws me a banana as he kicks me out. I ask him for another one. I got a baby sister, I tell him. He sorta laughs... END OF EXCERPT
Click for the entire free monologue, "Abhay and the Banana."

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

To purchase the play, For My Silent Sisters, from which this monologue is extracted, click below:

BIRTHDAY BALLOONS

Adelaide, suffering from a terminal illness, speaks to her best friend in her bedroom. She wants to give her a son as special birthday, but also feels the hopelessness of her situation. 

DETAILS
Genre: Drama
Cast: Female (male)
Age range: 20s-40s
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
Setting: Bedroom

____________________

ADELAIDE

I want to make him a birthday cake. And buy him a gift, you know, one of those complicated Lego sets. He’s into those right now. And, I always put balloons outside his bedroom door in the middle of the night, so when he wakes up, he’s greeted by these yellow—that’s his favorite color—these yellow “it’s your birthday” balloons and…it’s a great way to start your birthday, right? (pause) Most of the time, I want this, and I think, it’s a month away, only one month away. I can do this. I can do this for him. You know? But… (pause) Then sometimes, it doesn’t seem important anymore. Is that awful to say? Is that awful to say I don’t always feel my 6-year-old’s birthday is important? (pause) I want to be one of those parents where—END OF EXCERPT

CLICK HERE for the complete FREE digital monologue, Birthday Balloons.

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

BLESSINGS

Ian attends a Grief Counseling Group Session and speaks to the other participants. He confronts the whispered notion that it was a blessing that he and his wife did not have children before she died.

DETAILS:
Genre: Drama
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
Cast: Male (could be female)
Age range: Adult
Time Period: Contemporary
Setting: A grief counseling group session

 _______________

IAN

Oh, people say it all the time. It’s behind my back, or in the corner of the room, so they think I don’t hear. My wife is dead so my heart is broken but my ears work fine. So I hear them say it—it’s not just one person—it’s a lot of people, my friends and coworkers and even family members. It must console them to be able to say it to each other. To try to find something good about her death. “Thank God at least they didn’t have children.” (pause) But, you know. She had me. She left me behind. (pause) And maybe if I had children, I could share some of this, this crippling pain with them, and maybe spreading it out between a few people would make it more…bearable. But that’s bad to say, I guess. Why share pain with someone else when you can absorb it all yourself? Maybe I would understand that self-sacrificing concept better if I were a father. But—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete digital copy of the monologue, Blessings:

BORINGEST. GHOST. EVER

Ayla is frustrated that her middle-of-the-night visitor won’t play with her, won’t talk until the wee hours of the night with her, and won’t even tell her what her name is! Instead, this girl in the odd dress just keeps…well…standing there. Staring at Ayla. Being the boringest ghost she’s ever seen.

DETAILS:
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Children/Halloween
Running time: Approximately 1 minute
Cast: Any gender
Age range: Child
Setting: bedroom at night
Time period: contemporary

AYLA

Why do you always come to my room if you never want to play? I have so much stuff to do in here, and I even got a new Lego set I haven’t opened yet, and we could stay up all night and no one would know! (pause) But you won’t talk to me. Or even sing! (pause) Are you gonna at least tell me your name tonight? So I don’t have to keep calling you ‘girl in the ripped up old dress?’ —END OF EXCERPT. CLICK BELOW for the complete 1-minute children’s monologue, BORINGEST. GHOST. EVER.

BUDDY’S MOMMY

Cali is a mother of a young boy, Buddy. She has killed someone she thought was endangering Buddy. Now she is imploring her son to remember that she is a good mother, one who loves him and would protect him, not to think of her as an evil murderer as she may soon be depicted. She pleads her final motherly words as she hears the sirens and police cars drawing nearer.

DETAILS
Genre: Dark, dramatic, thriller
Cast: Female
Age range: 20s-50s
Setting: Inside a living room
Running time: approximately 2 minutes

____________________

CALI

They’re gonna paint me as some psycho, you hear me? They’re gonna say I’m crazy and out of my mind, and some are gonna say I’m evil. Because when you look at what I did, on paper, okay?—I’m talking on paper, it might look that way. Are you listening? Ignore those sirens. You gotta listen, Buddy, you gotta hear me because I’m not gonna be able to talk to you for a while. Okay? On paper, it might look one way, but paper’s just—it’s just a scrap of a dead tree, right?  There’s no feeling in that. A person is not a piece of paper. So when you hear them say those silly things, you remember what I’m telling you now. Okay?  I’m not crazy. I mean, I’m crazy with love for you, but you know, that’s not a bad thing. Crazy love, mad love, love love love love love! (pause) Buddy, move away from the window. Don’t let those sirens distract you. Look at me, honey. You gotta remember that it was those other people who pushed me, right? Who pushed us? I’m going to—END OF EXCERPT
Click for the complete free monologue, “Buddy’s Mommy.”

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

BUTTERFLY IN THE TOMATO PLANT

NICOLE relates to a butterfly with a torn wing, after a group of children mishandled it. She offers the butterfly a safe home in her windowsill.

DETAILS
Genre: Dramatic/Children/Tween/Teen
Cast: Female/male
Age range: 5-12
Setting: A park
Running time: Approximately 30 seconds
Great for: children, dramatic monologue for children, short monologue, competitions, auditions, monologues relating to bullying, finding strength, caring for others

Originally Commissioned by American Pageants.

_____________________

NICOLE

Oh…Little Butterfly…they ripped your wing…Didn’t they? Those kids…They’re in my class but they are not nice kids. They ripped my bag yesterday too. My mom sewed it up, but you can still see the hole. I thought if I had wings—END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the complete digital copy of the 30-second monologue, Butterfly in the Tomato Plant.

CLAIRE, MY ECLAIR

ANDRES, a boy around 16 years old, talks to his ex-girlfriend, Claire. He begs her for forgiveness in stealing from her father, and pleads that she consider how his actions were always for the benefit of their relationship.

DETAILS
Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC/TEEN monologue
Cast: MALE
Setting: Outside of a school
Age Range: 13-20
Running time: approximately 1 minute long

_________________

ANDRES

Claire, Claire—my éclair…My chocolatey, sweet treat, my—okay, okay! I’ll stop!  Don’t leave!  I won’t call you that. I guess—I don’t deserve to call you that, do I? You’re not my—you’re not my éclair now. Not anymore. I’m just—if you’re sweet then I’m, I’m a—a—a—a Tylenol, like when you chew it up. All bitter and gross. That’s me. I know it, Claire. I’m a gross chewed up Tylenol, and you don’t deserve that. Why would you talk to me? Why would you even look at me after what I did? (pause) But you do look at me. And that’s just because—that’s just because you’re so perfect. You’re like, the most incredible person in the world, and I was so lucky for those two months to be part of such an incredible person’s life. (pause) And, I want you to know, I mean, I hope you already do—but…I know I messed up.  You trusted me...END OF EXCERPT.
Click for complete free monologue of “Claire, My Eclair.”

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

CLIPPERS
a dramatic teen/young adult monologue from the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches

About the play, Seventeen Stitches:
In this one-act dark comedy/thriller, teens Rachel and Peter meet in a vortex-like space between opposing lines of people. While Rachel is confidently passing the time before she returns to place in her line, Peter has stepped out of his line in protest. As the lines begin to close in on them, he must make a life-altering decision by choosing to continue forging his path in his father’s line, or join the haunting allure of Rachel’s line, the “line of diamonds.

About the monologue, Clippers:
Peter speaks to a girl, Rachel, who waits for her turn in an ominous line in in the same abyss-like space as Peter. While she is encouraged by words from her father, Peter has severed ties to his father after he feels his father abandoned him. He shares how a bully had once attacked him in order to steal his bike. When Peter’s father came to his rescue, instead of punishing the bully, he told the bully to take the bike. Peter’s father was never able to afford another bike, and without that bike, Peter has not been able to get away from people or things ever since—until now. Peter holds onto his resentment that his father would not seek revenge on the bully for him.

DETAILS
From the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches.
Genre: Dark Comedy/Thriller/Teen/Drama
Cast: Male (female)
Age range: 12-20
Setting: A waiting area in an abyss
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes

EXCERPT BELOW

______________________

PETER

One summer my father gave me a bike for my birthday. I rode it everywhere—for five days. I was so happy to be able to finally get away from things and people and… A bike is fast for a kid, y’know? (pause) Then this kid down the street, Jeff Oakland, saw me with it and said he wanted it. He was a lot bigger than me, maybe 2 years older. He had garden clippers from his mom’s greenhouse and that day, he came at me with them. I put the kickstand down and told him to leave me alone. I was right outside my parents’ house, so I figured nothing could happen to me. I was safe, right? But he kept coming closer with the garden clippers and telling me to get off the bike. When I didn’t, he grabbed my right leg and held it while he dug the clippers into my leg. The blood got all over the right pedal and on the lightning decals my dad put on it. But I wouldn’t get off the bike. When he went to my left leg with the clippers, I started screaming. I yelled that my dad was gonna come out, so he better leave me alone. But when my dad did come out, when he finally came out… He—END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the complete digital 2-minute monologue, Clippers, from the one-act play Seventeen Stitches.

Click below to learn more about Peter and to read the complete one-act play, Seventeen Stitches, from which this monologue comes:

COMPREHENDING FOREVER

Alan’s wife has recently died. His brother, Joe, has stopped by to see him. Alan wonders if it is normal to keep asking where his wife is in moments that remind him of her. His brain hurts trying to comprehend the reality that she is gone.

DETAILS:
Genre: Drama
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
Cast: Male
Age range: Adult
Setting: Alan’s house, kitchen
Time period: Contemporary

ALAN

Is it strange that I keep asking where she is? I know, I mean, I know she’s not here. Logically. I know that. But—it’s not just the bigger things—like, how I’ll be sitting at the kitchen table where we’ve had coffee together every morning since we moved in together. I’ll look at my mug from, you know, Barcelona or something. She collected a mug from every vacation we went on, so I’m staring at memories with her every single morning. And I’ll look at her chair and just say, I’ll just say it out loud, “Where are you, Elizabeth?” (pause) “Where are you? I shouldn’t be drinking coffee. From this mug. By myself.” (pause) But Joe, it’s the small, random things too. Not just our routines and her chair, but these things that you, that maybe you don’t think you would even remember. This morning, I’m putting eye drops in and I—END OF EXCERPT.

CLICK for the entire free monologue, Comprehending Forever.

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COVERING MY EARS

Whitney is in the bathroom, envisioning the calmness, peace and escape covering her ears in the shower gives her, before the abrupt harshness of reality comes when she uncovers her ears.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMATIC/CHILDREN/TEEN monologue
Cast: FEMALE/MALE
Setting: A bathroom
Age Range: 12-70+
Running time: approximately 2 minutes

____________________

WHITNEY

I cover my ears in the shower. I stand there—letting the water drip down my hair, my back. I turn into it. It flows down my face. It’s loud. Not like thunder. It’s…it’s…peaceful. Like…I’m swimming under water, in a lake, it’s dark and the rain is pouring down. It’s loud under water. But it’s quiet. Muffled.  Calm. There are no problems under water. There is no yelling. No hurt. No pain. Everything is erased. And no one knows me.  What I’ve done. What’s been done to me. I’m nothing under the water. And nothing is…freeing. To me.  (pause) I uncover my ears. (pause) I have to. I know I can’t stand like this forever. (pause) And when I do…END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete monologue of "Covering My Ears"

CRISPY LEAVES

After a physical run-in with a florist, Lexy visits her mother’s grave, informing her of a change she is making. She speaks to her deceased mother, at her grave.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMA
Cast: FEMALE (MALE)
Setting: A cemetery
Age Range: 20-40

____________________

 LEXY

Yes, the tulips are dead, Mother.  But I didn’t originally plan that.  Plan on giving you brown tulips.  With crispy leaves.  I tried to refuse them, but…I’m just not good at talking to florists...But I know it’s important to you—to have fresh flowers on your grave.  So this afternoon—when she—the florist—when she brings out these dead ones, I try to explain.  But still be polite, like you taught me.  So I say, “Ma’am, thank you for the thought, but—” And I put my hand out, I gesture, to sort of make my point.  And I’m not done, but that’s all I get out, when she shoves them in my hand and almost screams at me, “You’re welcome!” (pause) So the flowers are in my hands and she’s looking at me, grinning, like she expects money or something.  And I’m about to pay her, I’m about to pay her for four dead tulips and leave—when something—I don’t know, something suddenly surges through me, through my veins—like I’ve got new blood in me!  Powerful blood!  Strong blood that people will listen to!  Respect!  So with my new blood pumping through me, I grab the tulips with one hand and this lady’s neck with the other, and I shove those moldy flowers all over her!  I shove them in her ears, and her mouth—since she’s got it open, screaming—and just all over her face!  And it feels so good, Mother!  It feels so good…END OF EXCERPT
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CUTTING DOWN THE MAPLE TREE
A dark comedy monologue

Kari speaks to her husband, Richard, by a chopped down maple tree in her back yard. She quickly admits she’s guilty of cutting down the tree, but relays how it has been taunting her, stealing her breath, trying to trap her. This should come as no surprise to Richard as she’s told him of this before. He has refused to do anything about it, but rather, has spent far too much time with “the tree.” Kari asks Richard not to judge her, as…she doesn’t think she knew he was passed out drunk under the tree when she chain-sawed it down (thus appearing to have injured, at minimum, his legs). Well, without the tree and his legs….at least no more distractions now. She looks forward to their fresh start together.

DETAILS
Genre: Dark comedy/drama/thriller
Cast: Female
Age range: 20-60
Setting: Back yard, near a tree
Time period: Present
Running time: Approximately 2 - 2.5 minutes

KARI

You got me, Richard! Guilty! I cut it down. This—this Maple tree. But, between you and me, we both knew it was coming. You know it’s been taunting me. Standing there with its slim branches outstretching toward me as if it wanted to—no—not hug me—but...slash me or trap me maybe. (pause) I didn’t want to have to cut it down myself. I asked you to make it stop, didn’t I? I gave you a chance first. Even this morning, over coffee, I said, “That Maple tree is stealing my breath! How can I focus on my job and cook meals and train for the half marathon if that tree is suffocating me? Richard,” I said and then I burned my tongue on the coffee, “Richard, if I have to choose between that tree and having my own life, I’m going to choose to live! (pause) Why would I give up my life for that tree? (pause) You were willing to do that though, weren’t you? To give up your life with me…to spend time with the…tree. (pause) I can still picture you, sitting with your back against it, basking in its shade like a vampire, texting and whispering. I can—END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the complete digital copy of the monologue, Cutting Down the Maple Tree by Tara Meddaugh.

DINNER AT CANALE'S
A dark comedy monologue

Vicky has found evidence that her husband, Peter, has been cheating on her and she now confronts him. There is a gun on the table between them, and she implores him to lie to her, so that she is not tempted to actually use the gun against him.

DETAILS
Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA
Setting: DINING ROOM
Age Range: 20s-50s
Running Time: 1 MINUTE

___________________

VICKY

Can you please not make me do this?  Just don’t—just don’t tell me what happened.  If you don’t tell me, if I don’t know, then I can’t react.  Right?  Just, let’s keep it simple, okay?    I don’t wanna—I don’t wanna do anything that…you know, that we’ll both regret later?  And…(pause) God, I wish you hadn’t left that gun right there.  It’s just—I can’t stop playing with it now…and you left the safety off, and I…Peter, just tell me you love me and you didn’t cheat on me last night and...END OF EXCERPT
CLICK FOR THE COMPLETE FREE MONOLOGUE, Dinner at Canale's

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DON’T CLOSE THE DOORS

Abigail, a ghost in Stephanie’s closet, is sorry she must use her limited powers to freeze Stephanie in place, but what she must share with Stephanie is so dire that sometimes these things must be done. While at first, it appears Abigail’s ominous presence is a threat to Stephanie, as Abigail relays the tragedies which have left her paralyzed in Stephanie’s closet, we realize it is Abigail who desperately needs Stephanie’s help to end her heartbreaking torture.

DETAILS:
Genre: Thriller/drama/Halloween
Age range: 20s-40s
Cast: Female
Time period: Contemporary
Setting: A bedroom closet in an old house/apartment building
Running time: Approximately 10 minutes

To read a free excerpt of Don’t Close the Doors, click here.

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EIFFEL TOWER KEYCHAIN
A dramatic children’s monologue

LINDSEY gains strength as she confronts a bully who has taken a precious glass souvenir of hers.

DETAILS
Genre: Dramatic/Children/Tween/Teen
Cast: Female/male
Age range: 5-12
Setting: A schoolyard
Running time: Approximately 30 seconds

 EXCERPT BELOW:

_____________________ 

LINDSEY

It’s from Paris—please! Don’t drop—it’s glass! Please. Listen—Just— (pause) My dad gave it to me. That Eiffel Tower keychain. He…he moved there, to France, last year and I don’t…I don’t see him much now. And…(pause) I know you think it’s just a dumb keychain and—END OF EXCERPT

Click here for the complete digital free 30-second children’s dramatic monologue, Eiffel Tower Keychain.

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ENGULF THE EVIL ASHES
A monologue from the play, For My Silent Sisters

*Note that this monologue contains content referencing human trafficking and violence.

About the monologue: After her dear friend, Tasaria, has been killed trying to escape a “training camp” for forced prostitution, Marta is punished by association. She is placed in the ground, simulating being buried alive. Though grieving, her rage and determination give her strength, and Marta comes up with a plan for her own freedom. She hides sticks from the outdoors and brings them with her when she is placed in an isolated room inside. During the course of a few hours, she is able to start a fire and begin burning down the old wooden building. While the building goes up in flames and smoke, Marta only smells freedom.

About the play, FOR MY SILENT SISTERS: Set in the countries of Cambodia, Romania, India and the United States, four teenagers struggle to escape the dark underworld of child sex trafficking.  Jorani has been sold to a brothel in payment for her sister’s gambling debt, and her Buddhist upbringing is put to the test.  Marta seeks a new life as a translator in England, but after finding her “employer” has vastly different plans for her, she must risk her own life to save another.  After a fight with her father, Claire meets an older man whom she starts to fall for—but whose manipulation over her brings on severe consequences. Abhay, living on the streets of Mumbai, finds employment at a brothel and must decide if the “good life” is worth the atrocities.  While living in four different parts of the world, their lives are intertwined, and their support of each other binds this connection.  This drama shines light on the real horrors that occur all over the world, and the hope and faith that allow children to survive.

MONOLOGUE DETAILS:
Genre: Drama/Teen
Cast: Female
Age range: teen through adult
Setting: Forced prostitution “training camp” in Albania
Time period: Contemporary
Running time: around 2.5 minutes
*Note that this monologue contains content referencing human trafficking and violence.
Good for: social justice issues, powerful monologue for teens, awareness of human trafficking, discussion, conversation for change, empowerment, strong female voice

____________

MARTA (out)

My ashes engulf the evil ashes…I do it for her. For us. For my silent sisters.  (pause) As they fill my mouth, my lungs with dirt, sticks poking at my beaten skin, I grab one. I grab two. They’re small. Not even bigger than the palm of my hand, but I grasp them through the powdery dirt. If this is not the end for me, I will do justice for Tasaria and I will take these sticks with me. I’m naked, so I put the sticks the only place I can hide them. (pause) When they let me back in, they make their mistake. They don’t burn me too or search my naked body. They put me in a room. By myself. They think that seeing my best friend burned to death, feeling myself be buried alive for hours, and now sticking me solitary confinement—this will be punishment enough. This will break me. This will end my resistance. But it doesn’t. And I am not by myself in here. I have two sticks. (pause) I take out my sticks and I blow on them until I feel dizzy, waving my hands over them to dry them completely. It’s dark, but I don’t need light. My mind rushes back to when my brothers and sisters and I would camp in the woods behind our house. My father made us start a fire on our own, no matches. In the wild, we would not have matches, he’d say. We’d race to see who could start their fire first. I never won, but I never gave up and my fire would eventually burn as brightly as any of my brothers’. When my sticks are dry, I feel for the other thing they left in this room with me. My hair. I grab a fistful of dirty hair and I pull. END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the entire digital copy of the monologue, Engulf The Evil Ashes by Tara Meddaugh:

To learn more about Marta and her story, check out the play, For My Silent Sisters. You can find information about the play here, or click below for a digital copy of the entire play.

 F FOR FRIENDSHIP

Michelle is having a casual conversation with fellow mean girl, Alicia. Alicia has complimented Michelle’s nails and shoes, but for some reason, Michelle isn’t buying it. She’s not buying it because Michelle has just beaten up Alicia and Michelle is now holding a gun. Michelle is sick of Alicia’s back-stabbing and the way she treats other people and she has been trying to purge the high school of mean girls, just like Alicia.

DETAILS
Genre: dark comedy/dramatic/thriller/teen monologue
Age range: teen-young adult
Running time: approximately 1 minute

*Contains mature language in the pdf purchase of monologue, although substitutions are also included as an alternative. For the website excerpt, only the substitutions are written (no mature language)

_____________________________

MICHELLE

Now you’ll talk to me, right? Now you’ll smile…and tell me you like my shoes and My God, did I do my nails myself because they’re so perfect?  (pause) You little back-stabbing snob.(pause) Your voice is a little shaky, you see. So I don’t know if I should believe you.  (playing with gun) Because my nails are actually chipping, Alicia.  See?—END OF EXCERPT

For the complete 1-minute monologue, F For Friendship, click below:

FERRET ENVY

After murdering her friend’s ferret, Jyoti, wrought with guilt, tries to make some form of amends. Perhaps she could take over the role as ferret of the house. But this hopeful suggestion seems to unnerve her friend, and devastated Jyoti decides to follow the plight of the ferret.

DETAILS
Genre: DARK COMEDY
Cast FEMALE (male)
Setting: APARTMENT
Age range: teen through adult
Running time: Approximately 2.5 minutes

___________________________

JYOTI

I know you think I murdered your ferret, but—hey, stop crying.  You’re gonna make me cry too.  And you (starts crying)—know—happens—when—we—both—start—oh!  I’m doing it too now…(gaining composure) Okay.  Okay.  What would Hermione do? (pause) Julia, your ferret ran away.  He did.  I know you don’t want to believe me, but I know this, because…well, I saw him.  And I was wearing my glasses, so I had 20/20.  Or 20/30.  I need a new prescription.  But I could still see it was Foozu, and he was wearing the yellow rain slicker, not the winter coat you tie dyed for him, so I think he was headed for Seattle. (pause) And, I don’t think we should go after him, Julia.  That Payless box wasn’t big enough; you always forgot to feed him, and when you did, it was usually just pebbles and sticks—and I really don’t think ferrets can live on that.  Seattle has a lot more to offer Foozu.  Food, drinks, warm shelter, intellectual stimulation, perpetual contentment.  He deserves that, don’t you think? (pause) I, I know coming in and seeing me with the knife over Foozu’s box makes it look rather strange.  But…Well—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the entire digital copy of the monologue, Ferret Envy.

FINGERNAIL HEART

Emily is horrified that her ex-boyfriend has thrown to the ground the precious gift she’s given him. A bit at a breaking point, she implores him to see all the love and effort that went into crafting her gift: a fingernail heart (yes…a fingernail heart). She urges him to see their love like the muddied fingernail heart metaphor and give them another chance…But…it seems he’s only backing away…

DETAILS
Genre: Dark comedy/comedy/drama
Cast: Female
Age range: 18-40s
Setting: Outside Erik’s house
Time period: Contemporary
Running time: Approximately 1.5 - 2 minutes
Good for: monologue about scorned love, breaking point, lost love, absurd, weird, desperate, love, desperate love

____________________ 

EMILY

(to her ex-boyfriend. She is horrified at something on the ground) I can’t believe you just threw it on the ground! (pause) I collected your fingernails from the bathroom trash for 9 months, Erik. Nine months of sifting through tissues during Allergy Season and Bandaids when you had that wart—I know it sounds gross, but love can be dirty sometimes, and I’m willing to, you know, get down in the grime because…I love you, Erik! That should mean something to you. (pause) And… (picks up a heart shape object made from fingernails) This fingernail heart should mean something to you too. I crafted it with...well…with my own heart. (pause) And some ideas from Pinterest. (pause) And a few of my own fingernails I threw in, because love is about two people becoming one. (pause) I know you said you never want to see me again, but that was before I gave you this fingernail heart. And—don’t say it now—don’t—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete monologue, Fingernail Heart, by Tara Meddaugh.

 FROG BAND-AID
A monologue from the full-length play, Free Space

Amelia’s excitement over her new connection with Ricky is diminished when she realizes she may end up hurting him, as she once hurt a frog she stepped on and directed toward a road. She vows she will act wiser with Ricky than the frog, but the domineering talking bingo chip she keeps in her pocket dashes her hope; it threatens Ricky and demands that she focus only on planning their special Bingo Event. Amelia defends her budding relationship with Ricky, but when the bingo chip begins to leave her alone, she concedes, saying she will put her friendship with Ricky on hold and work on the Bingo Night posters with the chip.

ABOUT THE PLAY, Free Space:
Amelia spends her days under the watchful eye of her mother, doing the same nothing she has done for years. Yet when Bingo arrives at her local community center, a talking Bingo chip convinces Amelia that forming her own game is the way out of this life and away from her controlling mother. However, as her mother begins acting like her newly arrived sister, and the chip becomes increasingly dominating, Amelia discovers her new life is nothing as she imagined. To get the full play, visit here.

SETTING THE SCENE FOR THE MONOLOGUE, Frog Band-Aid:
Amelia is thrilled when the boy she connects with, Ricky, gives her a tour of the cannery where he works. During the tour, she mentions she wishes to run her own life-changing Bingo Game, but has not been able to find a space to hold the event. Ricky offers to host the bingo game at the cannery warehouse. They are excited as they begin to make plans together for the game, as well as to visit a pet shop together. After Amelia leaves the cannery, she speaks to the mysterious Bingo Chip in her pocket which has become increasingly demanding.

MONOLOGUE DETAILS
Cast: Female (or male)
Age range: teen-adult
Genre: Dark Comedy/Drama/Absurd
Running time: Approximately 3 minutes
Setting: Outside, path walking to her home

EXCERPT below:

__________________________________ 

AMELIA

(to a bingo chip) He wants to show me an albino frog!  I— (pause) Oh, you’re right.  I guess I don’t know how to act in a place like a pet shop.  With Ricky.  And around all those frogs.  I wouldn’t want to hurt them, but sometimes I do things I don’t mean to.  And Ricky said that’s not my fault.  (pause) But I did step on a frog once and—I think I broke his paw.  Or his leg.  But I didn’t kill him, and I even took off the Band-Aid I had on my own knee and put it on the frog’s little leg.  I wish it’d had a picture on it.  Maybe a picture of a mouse.  Or a ‘possum.  He would have looked cute with a ‘possum Band-Aid on him.  But it was just a brown one.  Plain.  So then I sort of—pointed him toward the road and gave him a little push, to help him get started on his way…And I knew even as I pushed him, I was directing him toward that road.  And I don’t know why I did that, because I knew he was going to get hit by a car.  Maybe I wanted to see if the Band-Aid would save him, if he’d escape from under a car…But he didn’t…maybe he escaped from something else though…  (looks down at chip) No, I wouldn’t!  I wouldn’t do that at the pet shop!  I don’t want to push any more frogs in that direction.  I’ll just go with Ricky and he can help me— END OF EXCERPT MONOLOGUE

Click below to get the entire monologue, Frog Band-Aid. To learn more about Amelia and Free Space, from which this monologue comes, click here.

For the complete full-length play, Free Space, from which the monologue, Frog Band-Aid comes, click below:

 GROWING UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF BINGO
A monologue from the full-length play, Free Space

About the play, Free Space:
Amelia spends her days under the watchful eye of her mother, doing the same nothing she has done for years. Yet when Bingo arrives at her local community center, a talking Bingo chip convinces Amelia that forming her own game is the way out of this life and away from her controlling mother. However, as her mother begins acting like her newly arrived sister, and the chip becomes increasingly dominating, Amelia discovers her new life is nothing as she imagined. Learn more about the play here.

About the monologue, Growing Up on the Wrong Side of Bingo, extracted from the play, Free Space:
Amelia has just been fired from her volunteer position helping out with Bingo at the local community center, due to refusing to leave the center and jabbing Diane, the Community Center Director, with a bingo chip. It is now late at night and she is outside Diane’s home. She begs for her job back and explains how important Bingo is in her life.

DETAILS
Cast: Female (or male)
Age range: teen-adult
Genre: Dark Comedy/Drama/Absurd
Running time: Approximately 1 ½ to 2 minutes
Setting: A front lawn outside a house, nighttime

____________________

AMELIA

No, wait!  Okay, I’m ready to talk. (pause) Okay. I just wanted to say that, well, I haven’t done a lot of stuff or anything since High School ended. I just sort of stay at home with my mom and, I don’t really do a lot of activities like a lot of girls do. But I’ve been waiting for Bingo to come here for all my life. I mean, I didn’t really know it was Bingo I was waiting for, but I knew there must be—something more…And when I saw that poster you made—When I saw the pictures of those solid square spaces—all so perfectly in line with each other, and when I stopped by the Center for the first time last week… and I heard all those jumbled up balls, racing through their metal cage, all trying to be the special one chosen to be…well, I knew then my Thursdays would never be the same. Because—Because I know what it’s like to grow up on the wrong side of Bingo, on the wrong end of chance, of luck. You know? I was so—END OF EXCERPT
Click for a complete free digital copy of the monologue, Growing Up on the Wrong Side of Bingo.

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

To learn more about Amelia and her story, check out the full-length play, Free Space!

READ THE FULL PLAY, FREE SPACE, DIGITAL COPY
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READ THE FULL PLAY, HARD COPY
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GROWING UP TREACHEROUSLY

1800s. MRS. GRANT, a woman in her 30s-40s, has been away caring for her sick aunt when she is called back home by her teenage daughter, Mary. Mary informs her that Jane, Mrs. Grant’s younger daughter, who has also been ill, has taken a turn for the worse and is now dying. Mary has held the house together while her father (fighting in the Civil War) and mother are gone, but she has been desperate to have her mother back. MRS. GRANT speaks to Mary, to give her comfort that she may now resume the role as child once more, but also warns her that the future, as an adult, is not one without obstacles. One merely hopes that the joy of love outweighs the grief of tragedy.

DETAILS
Genre: Drama/Period/1800s
Cast: Female
Age range: 30s-40s
Setting: Kitchen of small New England home, 1800s

_____________________

MRS. GRANT

When I received your telegram to make haste and come home, my heart ached for you. You’re but sixteen years old and you have had to care for your very ill sister entirely on your own. Your last letter to me expressed your fear in how treacherous growing up will be. How if it will be only one obstacle after another, you would rather decline this invitation into adulthood. I wish that I could tell you that you would not experience obstacles. That this would be your only trial. Your only loss. (pause) I know you have longed for me, your mother, to come and make things right. To restore you to your proper place as daughter, as older sister—not as nurse, not as the only grown up person of the house to make decisions on very serious matters. I can do this for you, my darling Mary. You may step back and read your books aloud to Jane and let me change her bed and hold the cloth to her forehead and make arrangements as the situation necessitates. You may go on a stroll now and breathe the fresh air outdoors. You may pick flowers and bring them back if you like, but you may leave them on their stalks, as well. I will comfort you and Jane and I will make things easier for you now. (pause) But I cannot stop what is to come. What you will see as Jane grows worse. I cannot...END OF EXCERPT - Click for complete free monologue, “Growing Up Treacherously.” This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

HEAD TO TOE
A comedic/dramatic monologue

Sydney is on a first date. A blind date. And a zoom date during the covid-19 lockdown. Needless to say, she’s nervous—but also excited to possibly form a new human connection. And during this date…her cat pees on the floor. Is her cat seeking attention, since he’s been the only one to get her affection for 8 weeks? And will her date wait for her while she cleans up the mess?

DETAILS
Genre: Comedy/Drama, rom-com
Running time: Approximately 2-3 minutes
Cast: Female (Male/any gender)
Age range: Teen-adult
Setting: kitchen/zoom
Time period: Spring 2020

SYDNEY

(speaks to her blind date on zoom) Do you mind if I put on my weighted blanket? I know it’s not—it’s not a typical date thing to do, but, I’ve never had a zoom date before and nothing is really typical right now so…I hope you don’t mind? (wraps her blanket around her shoulders) It makes me feel… I don’t know, cozy? It was the first thing I bought when we went into this quarantine. I had $200 in my bank account, but I was like, if I’m gonna be alone with no one but my cat, I am getting a weighted blanket.  (pause) You look really nice—I like that you’re wearing a suit. It’s cute you got dressed up. I really—(hears her cat peeing on the floor behind her) Oh—(to her cat, behind her) No, you did not! Barney! Barney, no! You did NOT just pee on my—Barney—get back here! (back to the zoom) I’m sorry—I’m—Look—I— Can you hold on a minute? You don’t have to go—don’t go. Not yet—I mean, I just have to—I have to clean this up, but you can stay on. Stay on…Please…Don’t go. (looks at screen and smiles, relieved he will not go) Okay, I’m just gonna get a wipe. One sec. (off screen) Barney can be a pain but…he’s the only living thing I’ve touched in 8 weeks—END OF EXCERPT. Click below to download the entire monologue, HEAD TO TOE.

HIS FIRST ENGLISH WORDS

Grace is a Catholic widow who takes in a Jewish refugee child in the 1940s. She knows very little of his experience, culture, or language and strives to find a way to connect.

DETAILS
Genre: Drama, 1940s, monologue
Running time: Approximately 5-6 minutes
Cast: Female, 40s-60s
Setting: a home, a public library
Great for: Showcases, performances, festivals, monologue competitions, forensics, dramatic interpretation, Toastmasters performance, 5-minute solo pieces, strong female role, a play about an historical issue

Click here for more information on this monologue.
*This monologue stands alone as its own piece, but it also comes from the collection of shorts in the full-length play, Victory Gardens.

Click for a free excerpt to His First English Words.

Click below for a complete digital copy of His First English Words (once purchased, you will be given a link to download the script)-

For The Victory Garden Plays, the collection of shorts from which His First English Words comes, please click below:

I AM A SHARK

Jaime is standing at a beach when confronted by a group of bullies who push him into the sand. He imagines he is a shark who is tough and can feel no pain.

DETAILS:
Genre: Drama/Children/Teen
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
Cast: Male/Female, 10 years and up
Setting: A beach

_____________

JAMIE

Sometimes, when I stand on the beach and look out at the ocean, I imagine I’m a shark.  My feet are hot, so hot they’re burning.  Burning so much, I start to not feel the pain anymore.  I take several deep breaths, and I breathe out the heat through my nose.  I can feel it leaving me.  My feet are tingling.  A little numb.  But I feel no pain.  I am a shark.  I’m swimming through the water and you can cut me with your knives, but my skin is hard and I am tough.  And I feel no pain.  A boy, this boy I know, but wish I didn’t, runs out of the ocean and past me.  I feel the cold water he’s brought in on my legs.  He’s tossed sand on me too and it’s sticking to me.  I reach my hand down to feel the roughness on my legs.  It’s like sandpaper.  His friend runs out of the water too, chasing him, and he bumps into me.  Pushes past me—END OF EXCERPT
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IF I WERE A KIND OF FLOWER

Anibel speaks to her older sister, Gracie, at a café. Anibel expresses joy that her newly planted daffodils actually came up for the first year, but also expresses concern that they will die in the Spring snowstorm. Her mother has faith in the daffodil’s strength, but Anibel is not so certain. She imagines how she would respond to the snow, if she were a daffodil.

DETAILS
Genre: COMEDY/CHILDREN/PRETEEN/TWEEN
Cast: FEMALE (male)
Setting: A CAFE
Age range: 5-11
Length: Approximately 1-1.5 minutes

___________________

ANIBEL

Do you know the daffodils I planted last year actually came up? They did! I was like, “What are these little yellow hats doing in the grass?” And then I was like, “They’re not hats, Anibel! They’re your daffodils!” It worked, Gracie! I planted them with Mom and she said they would come up and I didn’t believe her but they did come up! (pause) But then now, there’s all this snow covering them, and it’s already Spring, and it’s not right, but the world keeps getting weirder and weirder. (pause) I don’t want my daffodils to die, Gracie… (pause) Mom said daffodils are really strong and excited for Spring, like me, and that’s why they come up so quickly after Winter. She thinks they’ll survive the snow. (pause) I don’t know if I believe her, but if I were a daffodil, I would—END OF EXCERPT

Click for the complete free pdf of the monologue, If I Were A Kind of Flower.

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I’M YOUR FRANKENSTEIN

JOE is in his science lab. He speaks to his creation, a horrid mass of muscles and blood. While he knows he should be repulsed by this monstrous experiment, he finds himself drawn to it.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMATIC
Cast MALE/FEMALE
Setting: A LABORATORY
Age range: 20-80+

____________________

JOE

I should think you’re ugly. Logically.  You—you—are covered in scale-like features—They’re not scales of a fish—placoid, cosmoid, ganoid or cycloid and ctenoid, and they don’t bear resemblance of reptilian scales, not being ossified or tubercular, or modified elaborately, so I dare say they are not truly scales as we know them, and it would go against my standards to call them scales. So I call them scale-like features, and I hope that you take no offense to this generalization, but I doubt that you do, considering I find it very implausible that you would understand my language, being only truly self-aware—if you are at all even self-aware—for less than this one day (pause And yet (pause You cock your head, and…you crinkle the balls in your eye sockets, and you use the wrinkles above those eye sockets to furrow or to make compassionate gestures with your face (pause So while your face is far from symmetrical and your body is more blood and muscle with little skeleton and only occasional scale-like substances—it does not repulse me as I know it should.  (pause I want to…hug you, and, shake what ought to be your hand, and pat you on the back. Because—I created you. And not like a father creates a son with his wife, but as a, well, as the truth stands: As a biochemist living seventy miles from the next known human creates some form of life from shreds of his own life and from carbon and…you are the “Adam of my labors…” and yet…END OF EXCERPT
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LIVVY'S VASE
Adapted from the 10-minute play, Holding Ginger

Jenna is standing in the hallway of her house.  Her older sister, Livvy, is near her, and they’ve both witnessed Jenna’s running through the hall and knocking over Livvy’s (empty) glass vase. There is broken glass on the floor.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMATIC
Cast: FEMALE (male)
Setting: HOUSE
Age range: 5-14 years old

____________

JENNA

Uh oh…uh oh…I’m sorry!  I’m so...I’ll clean it up! Right now!  I’ll—I didn’t do it on purpose. You know that, right?  It was an accident! I was just running through—I know I’m not supposed to be running through the hall, but…Ginger was chasing that ball and I was trying to catch him…Come on.  I’m sorry.  Okay?  I just bumped into it by accident…I’m cleaning it up, see?  Even though Mom would probably be mad I’m touching glass like this and you’re not helping even though you’re older than I am.  But look—I’m doing it!  I’m really sorry, Livvy.   You’ve had that vase for…I don’t know…when did that boy give it to you?  You were…were you my age?  Maybe older.  No boy has given me flowers yet…END OF EXCERPT
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LOCKING THE STORE
From the one-act play, Poorly Wrapped

Clark is a young man in his late teens or twenties. He is the sales clerk at a gift shop on a small isolated island. Grace, a beautiful customer, has convinced him to give her a free disposable camera, and to wrap it with a roll of wrapping paper from his store. He is smitten with her, beyond rational thought, and does what she asks. He has been wrapping the camera for her, but has been distracted by her beauty.

DETAILS
Genre: DARK COMEDY/DRAMA
Cast: MALE
Setting: GIFT SHOP
Age range: 13-30 years old
Running time: Around 1.5 minutes

___________

CLARK

Grace, you’re so beautiful. Maybe I should…look, it’s almost five. I think maybe I’ll just turn that sign over. Turn it over to say we’re closed. Lock the door, maybe? Would that be alright with you? If I did that? I mean, just so we could make sure our time wasn’t interrupted. You’re so beautiful that I just couldn’t, I just really wouldn’t want it to be interrupted. You know? I mean, if someone walked through that door right now, I just, I just don’t know what I’d do. What I’d be able to do. I just… (moves to door) I’m going to lock it. To say we’re closed. No one will come here anyway. No one should. No one on this island stays out past 4:00. I’m mean, we’re out. But that’s us. We’re different than all of them, aren’t we? We’re the two people who are different, and I’m going to keep the rest of them out…END OF EXCERPT
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MARCH IN LINE

Stephanie has been bullied long enough and she is now making a point her community will never forget! She commands her troops to obey her every word and they are willing to even jump out a window for her. But first…she notices a problem one of her loyal troops is having… It’s Mr. Teddy. His stuffing is seeping out again.

DETAILS
Genre: DARK COMEDY
Cast: FEMALE/MALE, inclusive casting
Setting: BEDROOM
Age range: 13-25 years old

 STEPHANIE

(to her bedroom stuffed animals) I’m thrilled you all could make it tonight, gentlemen.  I know I ask a lot of you, but I hope you all realize, I notice everything.  Every tiny smile, every command obeyed, every sacrifice given.  You’re my men, aren’t you?  And tonight, you’re going to prove it. (pause)
Now, I want you all to pick up your instruments and line up in—You!  Stand up straight, please.  I said, stand up!  Would you like the whole town to see you in a wrinkled band uniform?  Don’t answer, just listen. (surveys the troops) Now, form that single line and reflect on your assignment tonight.  Remember, you’re more than simply clarinet players or baton twirlers.  You have a mission, a purpose—and while you may not be here to witness the difference you make, know that I will.  And that’s really what matters most, now isn’t it? (pause) So all those people who said I didn’t have a voice, who said no one would ever listen to me—those awful people, with their awful taunts in my head—“She called ‘fire’ and no one heard her!”  “Have you noticed how the waiter never stops at her table?”  “She can’t even get a dog to lick her hand!” Well—END OF EXCERPT

For the complete 2-minute dark comedy monologue, March in Line, click below:

MAYBE THE NEXT IOS UPDATE...

ESTELLE, a woman in her 20s-40s, has just made it to a restaurant to meet Dan, a man she is dating. She is one hour late to their dinner, and implores him to understand this is not her fault and no reflection of how much she likes him. It’s all just because of, well, her jealous Siri…

DETAILS
Genre: COMEDY
Cast FEMALE (MALE)
Setting: A RESTAURANT
Age Range: late teen-40s
Running time: approximately 3 minutes

____________________

ESTELLE

I know I’m late again, and you’re a, you’re a saint to wait an hour for me, but, listen, really, I didn’t know we were meeting at 6. I thought—remember yesterday, you said 7? And, I know, I know, I know, you’re not gonna believe me, but, I never got the update you sent to my calendar.  I thought we were still meeting at 7.  And—listen to me, I know this has happened before, and you think, you think I’m some sort of flake or, maybe I get off by making you wait, but I don’t. I don’t!  I (pause) Dan…I really like you. (pause) I like…how you make fun of my penguin socks, and how I sometimes have to look up words you use in your emails. I like how you take me to vegan restaurants when I know you love steak.  And, how you’ll listen to pop music with me and pretend to dance even though I know you want to listen to old-man jazz music. And…I like how you look at me, and take your glasses off, because your eyes make me feel warm…and safe… like we’re sitting by a fire place with a blanket around us and maybe drinking hot chocolate…and…you make me feel so happy my stomach’s always nervous around you. (pause) And…I think, see, I think that’s the problem. (pause) I haven’t felt this way before.  Not since...END OF EXCERPT
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MORE THAN SANTA TO ME

It’s Christmas Day and Brandy has to convince her new Mall-Santa-Boyfriend that she’s going to keep on liking him tomorrow, even when she sees him for the first time sans-red velvet suit.

DETAILS
Genre: Comedy/Romantic/Drama/Christmas
Cast: Female
Age range: late teens-40s
Setting: Christmastime, the mall food court
Running time: Around 2 minutes

__________________________

BRANDY

(to Kris, her new boyfriend, the Mall Santa)

I know you’re worried everything’s going to change tomorrow because Christmas will be over. I get it and I—I’m not going to lie. Your white beard is…freakin’ sexy—I said “freakin,’” Kris—I keep it PG for you and the elves—But you know it is. It’s so…so fluffy…I could bury my face in it for hours. And—oh…Kris, that laugh… When I first heard your “ho ho ho?” I mean. Please. I was a melted puddle of snowwoman at your feet.

(pause)

Of course…we all have these things that attract us to people at first. You liked my green pleather skirt and thigh high boots, remember? But we, you know, since then, we’ve connected deeper than that initial attraction. You—you’re so funny—having these long conversations with pets people bring to the mall, and when we share hot chocolate at the Food Court, like now…you always let me have the marshmallows. All of them.

(pause)

Look, I know we’ve only had five dates since we met on Black Friday, and—END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the complete digital version of the monologue, MORE THAN SANTA.

MY MOTHERHOOD

Lilah has been trying to convince her sister, Carol, to agree to let the biological mother see the baby placed in Carol’s care. Carol is offended by this and takes it as a personal sign of betrayal. She recalls how she should have seen the signs of early betrayal in her sister, starting back in the first grade. And how she will not let his betrayal stand in the way of her maintaining her motherhood.

DETAILS:
Genre: Dark/Dramatic/Thriller/Absurdist/Dark comedy/Mean
Running time: Approximately
Cast: Female (could be any gender)
Age range: Teen-adult
Setting: Living room
Time period: contemporary
*This monologue is extracted from the play, Knocking Louder. In the play, there are a few interjections from Lilah during this monologue which have been omitted.

CAROL

The day you found out you were held back in the first grade, you cried. Do you remember that? And I wiped the tears from your eyes, because you were my little sister, and I licked the salt from my fingers, and I told you those ocean-water tears were magic…and that if you believed that, if you believed my words, then your next year in the first grade would make you special, successful—you’d have lots of friends, and you’d be happy for the rest of your life.

(pause)

But—if you didn’t believe in the magic of the tears tasted by your older sister, then you would tear away from me. Forever. 

(pause)

I’ve sensed that before, of course. That you never believed me. The signs were there. You never—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete monologue, MY MOTHERHOOD.

Click to learn more about the story and character in the play, KNOCKING LOUDER, from which this monologue comes.

NO MORE MIRRORS
From the full-length play, For My Silent Sisters.

JORANI is a young teen in Cambodia when she is taken from her home to work at a brothel. She sees herself in the mirror and does not recognize her face, filled with bruises.  She is speaking out toward the audience.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMA
Cast: FEMALE (could be male)
Setting: A hotel room
Age Range: 13-30+ years

__________________

JORANI

The bruise should be no surprise.  I’ve felt them often enough.  They don’t hurt unless you touch them.  So don’t touch them.  That’s what my mom would say.  No one says that now.  No one notices them.  They pull on my arm which is covered with bruises.  I flinch but they don’t see.  My caramel skin is more green and yellow now.  I’m used to seeing this.  My skin is no longer mine.  My body is no longer mine.  I understand that.  The Buddha shows us suffering is life.  When I last saw my mother, she reminded me of what I have known all my life—we must rid ourselves of our attachments, and then we can be on the path to enlightenment.  My path.  I think of this often, as I give up my body. I accept that.  I hold no attachment.  But when I see my face, I know that it’s mine.  I’m still attached.  I see it in the broken mirror of the hotel bathroom.  I see it in a reflection of his family’s picture on the nightstand.  I see it in the water he’s put in a bowl for me to drink out of on the floor.  My eyes house my soul.  My mouth houses my voice.  My ears house my compassion.  This essence of who I am is still mine.  Seeing my face reminds me…of me. (pause) The American chose me.  I prayed he would not, but he did.  I saw him months ago and I dirtied my pants when I saw him choose me again.  I’ve been with him for two weeks now and I haven’t once looked at my face after all he’s done to me.  Our faces matter, Madam tells us.  Our faces are to stay clean and soft.  But this doesn’t stop them.  They’ll pay extra, but this doesn’t stop them. (pause) And I need to see. (pause) He’s stepped out to get high again.  He knows I won’t leave.  I crawl to the bathroom and reach up to the sink.  I pull myself up and ignore the pain in all of my body.  I stand, but my legs are shaking.  This mirror is clean.  I rub it with my finger and it squeaks. (pause) I stare.  I breathe in…But I am quiet, I am a mouse.  I cannot make a sound...END OF EXCERPT
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NO RELEASE

MELINDA, a woman in her 20s-40s, speaks to her friend, Lauren. Melinda’s mother is suffering from a debilitating and fatal disease and she has given up her job and apartment to move back at home and care for her. Her mother has stopped eating and Melinda knows that she is dying.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE / TEEN MONOLOGUE
Cast FEMALE/MALE
Setting: A HOUSE
Age range: 15-50 (any age)

_____________________

MELINDA

Everyone keeps telling me to cry like it’s some kind of, some kind of miracle cure or something. I’ll feel better, I’ll feel this, I don’t know, this release, and—I don’t even know what a release feels like.  What—suddenly I’ll have no tightness in my chest? Cause you know, I’m wearing this tightness inside of me like some kind of old fashioned girdle, you know? And, it’s like, if crying really did cure all of that—if it took away this—this monster that’s squeezing the breath out of me—if it took away that feeling in my throat like I’m being choked all the time, or like my throat is tired from whispering all night? I mean, if it took that away, if that’s what a release is…then, yeah.  I’d cry until my eyes dried out. (pause) But…Lauren, it doesn’t work that way. I wish it did. God, I wish it did. Because I do cry. I cry and sometimes I sob like those little kids in the grocery store who want, whatever, candy or, I don’t know what they want. But I’m sobbing in the shower or in front of the refrigerator and that tightness in my chest is making me heave and those hands around my neck are still choking me, and…END OF EXCERPT
Click for the complete free pdf of the monologue, “No Release.” This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

ON WASHING CEREAL BOWLS AND OTHER MILLENNIAL MATTERS

Amber is in the kitchen of her and her parents’ home, speaking to her mother. She is tired of washing cereal bowls that she is not even using. She reminds her mother that she almost exclusively eats out, thus supporting the economy, and also not creating dirty dishes. She stresses she has matured as a young adult (now out of college and working a full-time job). She has learned the value of using time for what is important and she doesn’t want to squander her time washing dishes.

DETAILS
Cast: Female (or male)
Age range: Young adult
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
Setting: A kitchen

__________________________ 

AMBER

That is not my cereal bowl, and I’m sorry, but, I don’t want to keep washing dishes that aren’t mine. It’s not because—no, listen, listen, Mom. It’s not because I don’t want to help out. I mean, I would pay you rent, but you said you don’t want me to. It’s just—you keep thinking I’m the one leaving cereal bowls in the sink, and I want you to know, it’s not me. I usually eat out. And that’s a good thing. It’s not a waste of my money, Mom, and I hate when you say that, because, it’s like, you’re not seeing how my generation is trying to fix the economy by supporting it. You know? We have to go to the small businesses to keep them open and give people jobs, and, you know, that could be me owning a restaurant some day, or one of my friends. Actually, Megan just told me she wants to open a gourmet chia seed and oatmeal café. I would totally go there. And you should too, Mom, because it’s so good for you and I’ve never seen you soak chia seeds at home. (pause) And you know, the reason I don’t eat cereal here, and create all these dishes that need washing? It’s really because…(pause) As I’ve grown up, I think I just kind of realize what’s important in life. And I realize how precious our time is. I know you understand, because this morning you were crying watching that old video of me when I was two and I was watering our tomatoes with the little turquoise watering can—END OF EXCERPT
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 PIECES OF COAL 

Night. ADELE is in her bedroom, where she sees a haunting boy inside the mirror, who is playing with toy soldiers. When she gains courage to speak, she questions him until he finally stares directly at her. She is stunned as his eyes turn to coal and then begin to bleed. She is terrified and fearful that he is in pain—or that he is there to put her into pain. She begs him to turn away from her.

DETAILS
Genre: Thriller/Drama/Horror
Cast: Female/Male
Age range: Teen through adult
Setting: Bedroom, night
Running time: Approximately 1.5 - 2 minutes

_______________________ 

ADELE

(very quietly at first) What…do…you… (stares at the boy in the mirror) It’s hard to speak. (pause) I can barely breathe... (steadies herself) Okay. (pause) What…do you want? (pause) Maybe you can’t see me. Can you see me? You’re not—you’re not looking at me. You’re foggy, dark, barely this…moving image in the mirror. But I can see you’re a little boy. Playing with tiny soldiers and…a mouse? Or rat? Oh, don’t put that rat on your face, little boy. It’ll bite you! It’s biting—-Oh…you’re smiling…you like that?…Hm… Where are your teeth? You’re—END OF EXCERPT

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PIT TRAP MEREDITH
A dark comedy

ABOUT THE MONOLOGUE, PIT TRAP MEREDITH:
Meredith has been searching for her wounded sister, Selina, and is happy to find her at last. Selina is upset with Meredith, however, thinking she abandoned her in a tree stump, just like all the other rabbits abandoned her after she was injured. In this monologue, Meredith defends the unjust accusation.

ABOUT THE PLAY, THE MOON RIVER RAFT:
When the rabbit, Selina, breaks her leg, she knows she will not survive long in a forest filled with predators. While the rest of her rabbit colony has ostracized her as a “magnet of death,” her sister, Meredith, remains loyal and plans to keep her safe by hiding her in a tree stump forever. But when Meredith finds Selina at a very creepy river in the middle of the night, Selina reveals a secret she has learned from the elder-rabbits that will save her: The Moon River Raft is arriving tonight and will take all “woundeds” to a perfect place where injuries are healed and no predators exist. Selina pleads with Meredith to come with her, but Meredith has serious doubts. As the Moon River Raft approaches, their fate becomes clear and their loyalty to each other is truly tested.

DETAILS:
Genre: Comedy/Drama/dark comedy
Running time: Approximately 30 seconds-1 minute
Cast: Female (could be any gender)
Age range: Teen-adult
Setting: Middle of the night, in a forest, by a riverbank
Time period: contemporary

MEREDITH 

Don’t lump me in with them! Who sleeps with you every night and grooms you every day? You know I’m different! Do you see all the mud in my fur? Probably ticks too—I haven’t had time to clean. I tried to get to you sooner, Selina—as soon as the dogs left. But the other rabbits trapped me in a pit. They said it was a game, but I’ve never heard of “Pit Trap Meredith.” Have you? (pause) They wouldn’t let me out until sunset but—END OF EXCERPT

Click here for the complete free monologue, Pit Trap Meredith. Click here to learn more about the play The Moon River Raft, from which this monologue comes. The monologue is free to download, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

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PITFALLS AND TREASURES – Mary’s monologue

About the play, Pitfalls and Treasures:  
Mary and Andrew are lonely and troubled seagulls, each ostracized by their former flocks. When Mary embarks on the desperate challenge of removing twine wrapped around Andrew’s leg, they both must decide how much to trust each other in the hope of finding a better life.

About the monologue:
While seagull, Mary, is helping fellow seagull, Andrew, search through a littered parking lot for something that will help cut off the twine wrapped around his leg, she warns him of dangerous litter pitfalls which might appear treasures to Andrew if he is not careful. Andrew has sincere gratitude for Mary and marvels at how he survived without her. Mary warns him not to be too open and trusting of her—or anyone, as she gets lost in thoughts of her own experience.

DETAILS 
Genre: Dark comedy/heightened/drama
Cast: Female
Age range: late teens through adult
Setting: Outside, parking lot
Time period: Present 
Running time: Approximately 30 seconds

____________________________

MARY

Even if someone is trustworthy, it doesn’t mean they can thwart death for themselves, or revive a nest full of eggs that will never hatch, or prevent leaving you entirely alone and excluded from everyone because they think a curse is wrapped around your neck and follows you everywhere you go—even though—END OF EXCERPT. CLICK HERE for the entire free digital monologue, Pitfalls and Treasures—Mary’s Monologue. This monologue is free to download, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

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PURPLE BANANA NOSE

A room in a police station.  The light is white, cold.  A DETECTIVE sits at a table with a folder in front of him/her.  DANNY, a man with an intellectual disability, sits on the other side of the table.  His hands are on his head and he shakes it back and forth. 

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMATIC
Cast: MALE (female)
Setting: POLICE STATION
Age range: 15-50 years old

________________

DANNY

Not s’posed to tell!  Not s’posed to tell! (pause) I tell but not use names.  Okay?  That’s what Jimm—that’s what my best friend tell me to do.  No names.  ‘Cause we’re best friends.  My friends always save the cherry one for me.  They good friends.  ‘Cause I useta play by myself, but now they play games wi’ me.  My friend teach me S-s-s-sah-li-taire.  Put black on red.  Black on red.  Black-on-red.  Blackonred. (pause) Why I gotta tell you ‘bout the game we play?  It our game!  My game wi’ my friends! (pause) We gonna play Muppets, he tell me.  You be Gonzo!  He tell me.  GONZO!  (pause) Gonzo got a purple banana nose.  I like Gonzo.  They tell me be Gonzo ‘cause Gonzo weird and stupid.  Like me.  They funny.  My friends.  (pause) We gonna do Muppet Caper.  My friend Pe—my friend, he play Kermit.  And one play Piggy—but he’s a boy, not a girl. (laughing) He’s a boy, not a girl.  Boy-not-girl. Boynotgirl.  They all silly. (pause) I don’t wanna tell you no more.  You’re not laughing.  You don’t think my friends funny.  They make me laugh.  But you make me cry.  Why you look like you so mad?  Wanna go home.  Don’t wanna stay here.  You look so mad.  Don’t wanna talk…END OF EXCERPT
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REMOVE THE ROCK, PLEASE

Ashley has a large amount of blood on her dress and speaks to her friend, Stella. She is frustrated that the town mayor has ignored her repeated requests to remove a large (and, in her opinion, dangerous) rock from a local street. The blood was not caused by a rock-related injury, but in a way, the blood is related to the mayor’s lack of response to her rock-removal request. The mayor should have just listened to her in the first place and they would not be having this conversation right now, and there wouldn’t be blood on her dress either.

DETAILS
Genre: Dark Comedy/Thriller
Cast: Female, 20s+
Setting: Outside
Running time: Approximately 2 ½ minutes

__________________________________

ASHLEY

It’s exactly what you think, Stella. The blood. I’d love to say I was jogging down Fremont and fell on that God-awful rock by the bench that I keep asking the town to remove and that’s why I’m bloodied on my new Banana Republic dress.  You know just as well as I do that the mayor plays his favorites with our requests. You had no problem getting him to make that bar turn down its Thursday night music. Even though I’d prefer to hear it across town. Free date-night in for me and Ricky. We used to order Thai food. Well, you ruined that for me now, didn’t you? (pause) But me—you know. I ask the mayor for one little rock—or, gigantic rock, to be more accurate—I ask for it to be removed, so that the good citizens of our upstanding town should not cut themselves on its jagged edges—and what response do I get back from the mayor? (pause) Crickets. It’s always crickets for Ashley Mahoney, whatever I request. You know they still do trash pickup at 6am on my block. Why do you get to sleep in until 7, a mile away, when I’m listening to the beeping of that garbage truck back up on our dead street before the sun even comes up? I’ve written ten letters but…crickets. Okay, that’s just my sleep. But this rock. This is a real hazard and if it had bloodied me, maybe they’d take me seriously. Well, it’s a moot point anyway, because I didn’t get all this blood on me from the rock. Although, it’s kind of related. (pause) It’s actually entirely related. (pause) If the mayor had listened when I kindly asked him to remove the rock, please, then you wouldn’t be looking at me like that, with your mouth open, and—END OF EXCERPT.
CLICK FOR THE FREE MONOLOGUE, Remove the Rock, Please, by Tara Meddaugh.

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RISING FAST

Elizabeth is at her mother's house, after a terrible flood that has devastated the town. Elizabeth and her mother are safe.  She speaks to her mother and confesses that she lost track of her nephew during the flood.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMA
Cast: FEMALE (MALE)
Setting: A HOUSE
Age Range: 18-50

ELIZABETH

I—I saw the baby, Mom, the baby, he…She calls me, Clara calls me around noon and says the winds are getting bad and water levels are rising.  I’m sitting there, eating popcorn, watching reruns of Ally McBeal on DVD—and the whole town is evacuating!  She asks if I can come to her place, give them a ride to your house.  So of course, I tell her I’ll pick them up.  I don’t even hesitate...I walk outside and it’s pouring, and I see the water rising too.  Rising fast.  But I get in my car and start for her house.  The wipers can’t keep up with rain, so I drive less than 5 miles an hour.  It takes me forty-five minutes, forty-five minutes to drive one mile to her house.  But I get there.  And I’m not even thinking about how we’re going to get out of town, how I’m going to get my car to move again.  I’m just so relieved to be with my sister, and the baby. (pause) But when I stop the car, when I crawl out the window and look up at her house…her cozy ranch-style home…it’s not there.  It’s just…not there.  I mean, there are pieces of it, there are boards and there’s the frame or whatever it’s called.  But it’s not a house anymore.  (pause) And I start screaming and running around—as fast as I can through all that water—and I’m terrified because I can’t find them—then I hear a cry, a baby cry, and I see my little nephew, sort of propped up in a piece of broken gutter, between two boards, and I start toward him...END OF EXCERPT
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SECOND-HAND DIRT
From the full-length play, Movements of the Wind, 2nd movement, Sharing Soil

About the play, Movements of the Wind:
As wind sweeps through a garden, its inhabitants must confront the volatile effects of Mother Nature, as well as their own changing nature. The story follows several short, intertwined pieces, as Carrot and Potato, taught to be enemies from birth, struggle to remain friends, Tulip wants more out of life than only her partner, and two pieces of pollen attempt to make a dangerous jump from a dying flower to a fresh one. Through sacrifice and friendship, they must not only survive their trials, but also come to populate another generation.

About the 10-minute play/scene from Movements of the Wind, Sharing Soil:
In soil cultures, prejudices run deep for carrots and potatoes. But when bully vegetables draw Carrot and Potato together, they must decide if their new friendship is worth risking their safety and rejection from their own garden cultures.

About the monologue, Second-Hand Dirt:
Carrot has just run away from mean carrots who have bitten off her carrot tip, and has been alone crying. Soon, Potato ambles by, and Carrot mistakes her for a lumpy brown carrot. Carrot is embarrassed and hurt from her run-in with the bullying carrots and speaks harshly to the potato. Potato thinks Carrot is acting mean to her. In this monologue, Carrot explains her failed attempts of being accepted into the mainstream carrot group.

DETAILS
Genre: Comedy/Teen/Drama/Allegory
Cast: Female (male)
Age range: 12-20
Setting: Garden
Running time: Approximately 45 seconds - 1 minute

______________________ 

CARROT

They’re always picking at me. The carrots at the north end. Just because I’m beautiful, and strong! (pause) I’m not mean! (pause) Well, they make me mean. (pause) I usta be nice.  Too nice, I guess.  You know, when Carrot 92’s mother got taken away, I offered her some of the moistest soil I had.  I’d been guarding that soil ever since I can remember.  And I’m still young and growing, you know?  But I offer it to her anyway!  And you know what she does? END OF EXCERPT

CLICK HERE for the free, complete monologue, Second-Hand Dirt. This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

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SECRET SANTA

Dan has failed the Secret Santa “be creative” exchange and left his coworker, Penny, terribly disappointed. He now much defend his lack of creativity to this poor recipient of his gift. Considering his wife has recently made him move out, and she kept both of their cars (she needs one for work and one for the kids), the CVS gift card next to the EconoLodge was not so bad. Dan still has hope that the Christmas season will open his wife’s heart to take him back. But in the mean time, he can at least give Penny a better gift. She deserves a nice Christmas too.

DETAILS
A 5-minute monologue play
Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA
Cast: MALE (FEMALE)
Setting: AN OFFER:
Age range: 20-50s
Running time: Approximately 5 minutes

_____________________

DAN

What did you expect? Me to knit a scarf? You think I’m gonna bake, what, cookies shaped like Santa and put a bow on it? (shakes head) You can’t have the same expectation on me as you do Chrissy—we all see her at lunch, reading those magazines with, I don’t know what they have on them—little crafts—and—food…things? And Gerald has his own woodworking shop in his garage. I’ve seen it. You probably haven’t, but he’s got everything. He built his kids a huge wooden fire truck.  They can stand inside of it and it has a real hose installed.. They keep it in their driveway all summer. So his handcrafted Frank-shaped nutcracker is nothing for him. (pause) So. Look. It’s—you’re taking this too personally. I know the rules of Secret Santa this year were that we had to make our own gift. But…Penny. You know what I’ve been going through, right? Sarah left me right on Halloween. We’re going through the kids’ candy when they’re in bed, you know, making sure they’re fine, eating a few peanut butter cups. And she gets all excited and says she’s found one with the wrapper open. I tell her Joey was starting to open a pack of Skittles after he brushed his teeth, so I had him save it for the next day. And it’s a pack of Skittles she’s got in her hands too, so it’ gotta be the same one. I tell her all this but she doesn’t believe me and she gets hysterical that someone in the neighborhood is trying to poison the kids. I say I doubt that, but she keeps going on about it, so I shrug it off and let her get it out of her system. We’ll throw them out if it makes her happy, who cares. Joey has enough candy...END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the 5-minute comedic/dramatic monologue play, “Secret Santa.”

SEVENTEEN STITCHES: RACHEL’S MONOLOGUE
From the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches

About the monologue: Rachel recounts to her old classmate, Peter, how she first met him. After being bullied by a classmate on a teeter totter, Peter stepped in and punch the bully.

About the play: In this one-act dark comedy/thriller, Rachel and Peter meet in a vortex-like space between opposing lines of people. While Rachel is simply passing the time before she returns to her place in line, Peter has stepped out of his line in protest. As the lines begin to close in on them, he must make a life-altering decision by choosing to continue forging his path in his father’s line, or join the haunting allure of Rachel’s line, the “line of diamonds.”

DETAILS
Genre: Dark comedy/drama
Cast: Female
Age range: teen – young adult
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes

__________________________________

RACHEL

We weren’t in the same class, but we had recess together. Play time. I’m Rachel. You’re Peter, right? I remember the name of someone who saved me. I was on the teeter totter with Becky Hill—she was really big, remember? She was my age—maybe six, or whatever age you are in first grade.  I think she weighed over a hundred pounds already. I weighed maybe 40, or whatever you’re supposed to weigh at that age. Hey, are you crying? I’m telling you the tale of why I know you and I really think you ought to be listening to me. So maybe Becky didn’t like me because I stuttered when I read Dr. Seuss, or she was jealous that I still wore kids’ t-shirts or maybe she didn’t like me because I was just who she didn’t want to like—I don’t know. But when I was way up high and she was way down low, when her totter was touching the pavement, she—END OF EXCERPT

Click for the free monologue, Seventeen Stitches: Rachel’s monologue.

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Click below for the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches, from which Rachel’s monologue comes.

SHELLEY KNOWS

Louise, riddled with guilt after murdering Shelley in a fit of passion, fears this friend may be coming for her, from beyond the grave…She speaks to her husband.

DETAILS
Genre: Dramatic/Thriller
Setting: Bedroom
Cast: Female
Age range: 20s to any age
Running time: Approximately 1 minute

____________

LOUISE

She’s staring at me like she knows…It doesn’t matter that her eyes are closed. She sees through them. She sees through me. (pause) When I was four, I asked my priest if when we died, we got to read everyone’s mind, ‘cause, you know, my sister had just been hit by that car and I was afraid she’d find out where I hid my allowance. The priest said—END OF EXCERPT
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STILL STANDING UNDER THE MISTLETOE

Larry is at a Christmas party and speaks to his ex-girlfriend Mindy. She is standing under a mistletoe and he nervously confesses he still has feelings for her. He hopes that she still has feelings for him too, and that if she notices she is standing under the mistletoe, she will not move away from it… 

DETAILS
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romantic Comedy/Rom-Com
Age range: teen-adult
Cast: Male
Running time: Approximately 1.5-2 minutes
Setting: A Christmas party

_____________________________

LARRY

Is it okay that I’m, I mean, you don’t mind talking to me, when you’re—you know, you’re standing there? I mean, maybe you don’t even notice, but you’re standing under—Okay, I shouldn’t even mention. You’ll just move. And I—I—I don’t want you to move. (pause)You’re…Mindy…you’re the most beautiful thing at this Christmas party and that winter wonderland display is very pleasing to the eye, so it’s not easy competition. (pause) But—blue lights and artificial snow? It’s nothing compared to you. I haven’t forgotten how you smell like cinnamon or how your hair feels like velvet or how your laugh could, it could melt those icicles hanging from the roof. (pause) You make me a poet! (pause) So why would I want you to move when we’re finally so close? (pause) You don’t have to say anything. I don’t mind if you’re quiet because if you say something, you might tell me to leave. Or tell me I’m crazy. That this is all in my head that—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete copy of the monologue, Still Standing Under the Mistletoe

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE LAMP
A 5-minute monologue play 

JANINE recounts the first few moments after she has arrived at her childhood home to see her mother whose state of health has been rapidly declining in the past few days. Janine’s mother has ALS, and while one month ago, she was sitting in a wheelchair and speaking, at this visit, she is no longer eating, only lying down, and barely speaking. When Janine first arrives to the house, she asks her mother what she would like to do. Her mother give her the simply request to “talk.” And so, Janine cuddles up in bed beside her, and talks.

DETAILS
Genre: Drama
Cast: Female (male)
Age range: 20s-40s
Setting: A Bedroom
Running time: Approximately 4-6 minutes

Click for a free excerpt to the monologue, Strawberry Shortcake Lamp.
Click below for the complete digital 5-minute monologue, Strawberry Shortcake Lamp.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE SEED
a monologue play from The Victory Garden Plays

Alice is a newlywed when her husband is stationed abroad during WW2. She relays the stark life change her husband has undergone from playing the clarinet in High School to holding a gun in muddy trenches. She knows receiving mail is “second only to food and munition,” and she has a piece of mail to send her husband that will give him the love, security and will to come home safely to her—and their growing family.

DETAILS
Genre: Drama, WW2
Cast: Female
Time period: 1940s
Age range: Older teen to adult
Running time: Approximately 4-5 minutes
*This story, complete as a whole play itself, comes from the collection of shorts in the full-length play, Victory Gardens.

______________

ALICE

I’m mailing this seed today, and it will go on a greater adventure than I have ever been on. It’ll start right here, in New Rochelle. A seed I’ve taken from a watermelon I’ve grown in our backyard victory garden and dried over two weeks. It’s sealed in an envelope and it’ll be picked up tomorrow morning by Mr. Parker, our mailman. It will ride in a US Postal truck to New York City, then it will find a good long rest on a boat, or maybe a plane, which will cross the Atlantic Ocean to France. From there, it will bump along in a military vehicle, until it reaches its final destination and infantry division, and into the warm, fair hands of Mr. Richard Ayers. (pause) Richard is most likely in the trenches, because he’s 19, and in the army. The trenches often fill with mud, and it’s hard to sleep because he hears the bombs in the distance and he wonders if the sounds are getting closer or he is just imagining it. It’s getting harder to tell what is really happening anymore, because none of it seems real when he thinks about it. (pause) A year ago, when we fell in love, he was in High School, hoping to become a university professor one day. He liked English literature courses and playing the clarinet, and he had never killed anyone, or thought of killing anyone before. Then they bombed Pearl Harbor, and this caused him to be filled with a new kind of hatred he had only read about, and—END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the complete 4-5 minute dramatic monologue, The Adventure of the Seed.

Click below for the complete play, The Victory Garden Plays, from which Alice’s monologue comes:

THE BEANSTALK
A 5-minute comedy/drama/fairy tale

Jack has impulsively climbed the giant beanstalk that had somehow appeared in his backyard over night. While it was exciting climbing up, he is starting to feel kind of lonely now…missing Mother, Brown Cow and even Fence Post. And the worst part of all…while it would be nice to climb down back to home…he realizes…he’s kind of stuck. And doesn’t want to be the laughing stock of the village, once again, as the boy who got stuck in a giant beanstalk. He solicits the help of a passing raven who has taken the time to stop and observe this strange human creature way up in the clouds. And maybe Jack’s solution isn’t really about climbing down the beanstalk…

DETAILS
Genre: COMEDY/DRAMA
Cast: MALE (FEMALE)
Setting: A GIANT BEANSTALK
Age range: 12-25 years old
Running time: 3-6 minutes
*Adapted from the 10-minute play, Jack and Dear Raven.

EXCERPT BELOW

JACK

Please don’t poke my eyes out! I’m not—I’m not an evil stepsister! Just a boy! No curses on me! I promise! (looks anxiously around then realizes raven won’t hurt him) So you—so you won’t…peck my eyes? Can we agree…to not do that? Because… because if you won’t…if you have no intention of hurting me, then…would you…would you mind staying with me? For a bit? I’m awfully lonely up here, Dear Raven. I hope it’s okay that I call you that because you are. Dear—that is. You’re the only creature that has stopped to see me. (pause) See, I didn’t…really…think that I’d make it up this far. I didn’t really think it through at all.  Mother keeps telling me that’s my problem—I don’t think, I don’t think! I guess she’s right… because now that I think about it…not thinking has landed me in quite a few pickles. Even just yesterday, I chased after what I thought was a sack of coins, but don’t you know, Dear Raven, I chased that sack of coins right into a cave and turns out the sack of coins was a baby bear! (pause) And his mama was not pleased with me. (pause) Still. I managed my way out of that pickle. As I always do, because my body reacts even if I don’t think. But Dear Raven…my body is not helping me out of this pickle. Not this time. (pause) Oh, climbing up here was easy. Put one foot in front of the other. Mother says I’ve always been a climber. It must be an instinct. When I was nine months old, she found me sitting on top of the brown cow in the barn one morning. But how long was I sitting there before she found me and she brought me down? (pause) I’ve never considered myself afraid of heights before, but it’s not really the climbing up that scares me. It’s the getting down, Dear Raven. (pause) You see, I think I’m stuck here on this giant beanstalk. (pause) Oh, I’ve tried climbing backwards already. I—END OF EXCERPT—

Click below for the complete version of the 5-minute-monologue, The Beanstalk.

Click below for the entire 10-minute play, Jack and Dear Raven, from which this monologue is adapted.

THE BEST GENERAL TSO’s

Larissa finds a container of leftover General Tso’s chicken in the refrigerator from the last time she and her husband ventured to a restaurant, at the beginning of the covid-19 global pandemic. She discovers the chicken is now moldy and confronts her husband about how they can never have this meal from the restaurant again; it is now permanently closed. 

DETAILS
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Cast: Female (male)
Age range: 20s-50s, older teens
Running time: Approximately 1.5 minutes
Setting: A kitchen
Time period: Spring 2020 during global pandemic stay-at-home measures

LARISSA

Babe—look at…look at what I found…It’s… It’s General Tso’s chicken! It was way in the back, behind the melon and those giant bags of nuts. They were blocking the leftovers. This is from…March…it was a Saturday…let me look at the calendar. March 14…I know it was then because it was a week before the lockdown but we already had, like, 500 cases in the county, so I was really nervous going to a restaurant and I was like, “This is the last time we’re going out. (pause) And now…Babe, the chicken is all moldy. Look…The broccoli too. You don’t wanna see? (pause) We could have eaten this if that bag of almonds wasn’t blocking it! Why do you keep buying almonds? No one is eating them! (pause) And no, Babe, we can’t just order take-out—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete digital copy of the monologue, The Best General Tso’s by Tara Meddaugh.

THE BEAUTIFUL BRACELET

RILEY confronts her grieving friend, Hayley, whom she saw shoplift a bracelet.

DETAILS:
Genre: Dramatic
Setting: A coffee shop
Age range: Tween, teen
Cast: Female
Time period: Contemporary
Running time: Approximately 30-60 seconds
Originally Commissioned by American Pageants

____________________________

RILEY

That’s really, um, that’s a…beautiful bracelet. But…Haley, I’m not a psychologist or anything and I’m not trying to pretend that I am, but…You haven’t been calling or texting since your mom died, and I get it—you must be devastated and maybe you don’t want to talk, but…END OF EXCERPT. This monologue, The Beautiful Bracelet, is free to download here, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

THE BUS STOP
or
WAITING FOR THE BUS IN RED-CHECKERED EARMUFFS

Lawrence, a man in his 80s or so, stands at a bus stop. It is cold. He has just been to the grocery store. He talks to a woman in her 70s or so, who is also waiting at the bus stop. He expresses his frustration at a bad driver who almost hit him with his car, yet Lawrence’s license has been taken away from him because he’s “too old” to drive. He expresses how difficult it is to accept that he’s at the age where he won’t be given second chances for many things anymore because there isn’t the time or the opportunity.

DETAILS:
Genre: Drama
Running time: Approximately 2-3 minutes
Cast: Male (Any gender ok)
Age range: 60s-90s
Setting: bus stop, night, Fall/Winter
Time period: contemporary

LAWRENCE

I’m walking outta the damn food store carrying this bag of clementines—that’s all I got. Not even pushing a damn shopping cart. And some idiot with a Korean car almost runs me over! Some teenage kid driving, no doubt. Spikey hair. Playing games on his damn iphone, no doubt. Some lady behind me yanks on my elbow. She’s got her other hand holding some smart-allack kid’s hand and she says, “You all right?”  and he copies her like some damn parrot and says, “You all right?” I jerk her hand off my damn elbow and tell her and her smart-allack parrot-kid I’m fine. And I walk to the bus stop ‘cause I gotta take a damn bus and I think, this kid almost runs me over and I’m the one who can’t drive anymore?
     (shakes his head)
Not right. 
     (pause)
Not right for a damn second.
     (pause)
And I could tell you about how I served this country and put in my time and how Americans don’t give a damn about the elderly, when we should be respected because we’ve been places and built things and dammit we’re still here.
     (pause)
But it’s mostly…it gets me…because this is it—END OF EXCERPT
Click here for the complete WAITING FOR THE BUS IN RED-CHECKERED EARMUFFS monologue (previously title THE BUS STOP) This monologue is free to download, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

THE HOTEL HALLWAY

Candace stands in hotel hallway, at the door of a bedroom. She speaks to Samuel, an older man, and former fling. They have just been reunited after 10 years apart, and each is married to someone else now.

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMA
Cast: FEMALE
Setting: HOTEL HALLWAYS
Age range: late 20s-50s

____________________

CANDACE

Your hair is—shorter, right? I mean, I don’t think I could run my fingers through it now. But it’s fine—it’s—it’s—I wouldn’t expect you to look exactly the same. It’s been ten years. I don’t—I know I don’t look the same. Look at these lines under my eyes. I don’t sleep. I mean—I didn’t sleep back then either, but it’s just—my body doesn’t bounce back as much, maybe? (pause) But it is good to see you…I mean...I’ve been thinking of you and imagining and…but now, we’re really here, and you’re standing in front of me and we’re back at a hotel hallway and I—I…A few weeks ago? When we were first texting, I just… (pause) —If I had seen you then…it would have been…Dangerous (pause) But, you know, we can’t—END OF EXCERPT.

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THE MEANING OF PLANTS
A 2-minute monologue from the play, Brush Them Fleas

About the play, Brush Them Fleas:
As the owner of a high-end dog grooming salon, Tootsie takes great pride in presenting an upstanding establishment. Yet when Mr. Boland's dog is murdered on site, it stirs up ill feelings and suspicion amongst the staff and clients. Through the commotion, however, Mr. Boland discovers a rare connection with an awkward dog groomer, Stacy, who thinks he may give meaning to her past. And…who murdered Mr. Boland’s dog?
Click here to learn more about the entire play, Brush Them Fleas, from which this monologue comes.

About the monologue, The Meaning of Plants:
Stacy, an awkward young dog groomer at an upscale dog grooming salon, bullied by a fellow employee, finds herself in a room with Mr. Boland, a client who has been undergoing some stress of his own. As they struggle to find even absurd conversation, she lands on confessing that she sometimes “knows things.” When pressed on what she knows, Stacy reveals her interest in plants. In this monologue, she speaks about her disinterest in typically beautiful flowers which may hold emotional meanings from the giver. She prefers dandelions, which have a brightness and relatable dying process she appreciates. But she truly cares about potatoes, humble but important, vegetables hidden in a world of their own, which no one else sees.

MONOLOGUE DETAILS
Genre: Dramatic/Comedic/Teen/Young adult
Cast: Female/male
Age range: 14-50
Setting: A dog grooming salon waiting room
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
EXCERPT BELOW

___________________ 

STACY

I guess, um, I know about plants. I took a class about them once and I started planting my own little garden. I’m not too big on pretty flowers. They frighten me… They always mean something. They mean, “I’m sorry or “I love you”… or… you died. (pause) I do like dandelions though. They don’t mean anything. No one gives dandelions to someone else. They grow as much as they want to and they make your hands turn brown when you pick them, and they don’t smell or even look that pretty. But, I like them. Because if you have enough of them, in your hands or in a field, you have to squint your eyes to look at them—they’re so bright. And when they get old, they don’t just wither away. They get grey hair like us and then fall apart all over the grass and the air. (pause) But I don’t even care that much about dandelions. I like them, but I don’t care about them. I really care about potatoes. I like planting them because no one sees them. Most people—END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the digital download of the 2-minute monologue, The Meaning of Plants.

To learn more about Stacy and to read the absurdist comedy, Brush Them Fleas, from which the monologue comes, click below:

THE MEANING OF PLANTS
A 1-minute monologue from the play, Brush Them Fleas

About the play, Brush Them Fleas:
As the owner of a high-end dog grooming salon, Tootsie takes great pride in presenting an upstanding establishment. Yet when Mr. Boland's dog is murdered on site, it stirs up ill feelings and suspicion amongst the staff and clients. Through the commotion, however, Mr. Boland discovers a rare connection with an awkward dog groomer, Stacy, who thinks he may give meaning to her past. And…who murdered Mr. Boland’s dog?
Click here to learn more about the entire play, Brush Them Fleas, from which this monologue comes.

About the monologue, The Meaning of Plants:
Stacy, an awkward young dog groomer at an upscale dog grooming salon, bullied by a fellow employee, finds herself in a room with Mr. Boland, a client who has been undergoing some stress of his own. As they struggle to find even absurd conversation, she lands on confessing that she sometimes “knows things.” When pressed on what she knows, Stacy reveals her interest in plants. In this monologue, she speaks about her disinterest in typically beautiful flowers which may hold emotional meanings from the giver. She prefers dandelions, which have a brightness and relatable dying process she appreciates.

MONOLOGUE DETAILS
Genre: Dramatic/Comedic/Teen/Young adult
Cast: Female/male
Age range: 14-50
Setting: A dog grooming salon waiting room
Running time: Approximately 1 minute
EXCERPT BELOW

___________________ 

STACY

I guess, um, I know about plants. I took a class about them once and I started planting my own little garden. I’m not too big on pretty flowers. They frighten me… They always mean something. They mean, “I’m sorry or “I love you”… or… you died. (pause) I do like dandelions though. They don’t mean anything. No one gives dandelions to someone else. They grow as much as they want to and they make your hands turn brown when you pick them, and they don’t smell or even look that pretty. But, I like them. Because if you have enough of them—END OF EXCERPT

Click here for the free 1-minute version of the monologue, The Meaning of Plants, from the absurdist comedy, Brush Them Fleas.

Click here for the 2-minute version of the monologue, The Meaning of Plants, including Stacy’s view on the humble, yet important potato, hidden below the surface.

The 1-minute monologue, The Meaning of Plants, is free to download, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

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THE NICEST WORST CLUB

Julie, a married woman with children, speaks to her friend, Jan, about not wanting to be part of a club of very nice women (who have all lost a husband).

DETAILS
Genre: DRAMA
Cast: FEMALE (could be male)
Setting: A house
Age Range: 18-90

___________

JULIE

I think you’re awesome, Jan. Like, you’re so sweet, and understanding, and, like, you’re always there if I call or email you these ten page epics on how I’m feeling, and…I mean, I’m so lucky, because everyone’s nice.  Everyone in this—I don’t know, this—club or something. I guess, I guess it’s a kind of club. And, I don’t know if this is chance or just the people I know, or what, but none of you are bitter. Like, you’re still nice, and caring, and open, and happy. You’re all, like, the best group of women I could be part of. (pause) And…I so…I so wish I was not a part of this club… (pause) Like…I don’t want to have this in common with you. I’m sorry. I just—I want to push you and Maddie and Adele—I want to push you all away…and pretend I don’t deserve to be in this…really terrible club…of really nice women. (pause) I want to be a spectator.  I don’t want to be on this side of things.  I want to comfort you. I want to be, I don’t know, I want to be there for you when you’re hurting, and, I want to order food from that sushi restaurant you like and have them surprise you and deliver it because you’re just so emotionally exhausted at the end of the day. I want to take you to the sauna and have a girls’ day out so you can, you know, replenish. (pause) But then, after the sauna, I wanna go home and eat mint chocolate chip ice cream, and cuddle with Brandon and the kids, and leave it all at the spa, and be so grateful that I’m just a spectator. (pause) But now you’re dropping off meals at my place. (pause) And I love that you do that for me, Jan. I really do. (pause) But I don’t want to have to need it. (pause) I know Brandon is dying…END OF EXCERPT
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THE OTHER “OTHER WOMAN”

MARIAN, a woman in her 20s-50s, is in a very small NYC hotel room.  She speaks to her boyfriend, Patrick. He is a married man, but her status of The Other Woman has been diminished when she finds out he has three other “other women.” After throwing some white wine in his face, she demands the respect she deserves, as the Original Other Woman.

DETAILS:
Genre: Comedy/drama
Cast: Female
Setting: Hotel room
Age Range: Adult
Running time: Approximately 2.5-3 minutes
Time period: Contemporary

____________________

MARIAN

Are you still complaining about the wine spill? Okay, fine—it wasn’t a spill exactly, but you-you-you just made me so mad!  Here—I’ll lick it off you. You want me to do that? Let me do that.  It’ll be sexy. Come on.  Don’t back away.  Come on.  Okay, FINE! Then stop complaining about it! You sound like your 3-year-old right now!  You know how unattractive that is? (pause) I bet you’d let one of your other women lick it off.  Yeah, I’m gonna start this up again!  Because up until tonight, I thought I was your only other woman, and to find out you’ve got, what, three more?  It’s kind of a lot to digest.  Like, I need a probiotic kind of digesting. And…and…while I’m digesting this, I’m, I mean, I know I’m crying now—don’t try to comfort me!  I’m crying because I really, I really thought I was special and like, the only one you’d want to cheat on your wife with, because I was really that amazing. But now—I can stop crying on my own, Patrick! Don’t coddle me—Now it’s like I’m not special. I’m just part of a, a, an addiction or something.  Like I’m crack cocaine or heroin. And that’s not good for someone!  I don’t want to be that bad!  Don’t make me be that bad! (pause) I do wanna calm down, I do, but I can’t even walk away from you—there’s no where to go!  Do the other women have to stay in closets like this?  I mean, I know it’s New York, but—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete digital copy of The Other “Other Women” monologue, by Tara Meddaugh.

THE PLUM COLORED SWEATER

Jasmine knows it’s only a sweater, but she just might be obsessively in love with it. She can’t help thinking of it, imagining it, touching it. She feels guilty; she cannot afford it, and it goes against her friend-policy of not buying what another friend already owns (Lilah has the same sweater). Still. She knows the sweater wants her. And she wants the sweater too.

DETAILS:
Genre: Dramatic, comedic
Running time: Approximately 4 minutes
Cast: Female
Age range: teen-20s
Setting: clothing store
Time period: Contemporary

JASMINE

(to Dave) I want to go shopping.  And not just that typical “girl shopping” where you try on seven pairs of skinny jeans and four tank tops in different shades of blue. I don’t need to check to make sure the camel belt looks just right around my….  I don’t need to try on anything—because I know exactly what I want. Right now. (pause) I want a new sweater.  (pause) And I know I already have a bunch of sweaters, and you’re right—they fit fine. They fit well.  Beautifully. And I love them. Really—every one. Well, except for the pilled up green one. I should really just get rid it. But the others…I wouldn’t stop wearing them. I just… (pause) See, I didn’t even know I wanted a new one. You know me. Practical. I don’t buy what I don’t need. I even saw this same sweater, a few weeks ago, and didn’t think much of it. Lilah was wearing it, and I thought, that’s a cool sweater. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with it. But Lilah has it. It’s hers, and… (pause) I know you’re not a girl, but…you know how Eva dropped that blueberry cheesecake on me at Junior Prom? Got that caramel sauce all over my hair and the blueberry stains never did come out of the fabric. Well, that wasn’t because she’s clumsy. It was because I came in a sequin dress, just like her! And my dress wasn’t even the same color! (pause) So…I don’t really want to do that to Lilah. Or have her do anything to me. We run in the same dance circle, you know? (pause)  But this…is…the same sweater. The same cut, the same beautiful purple-plum color, so rich, but light at the same time. That same softness, mixed with a little of something else to make it…rougher? It’s just…it’s a perfect sweater…I would never have even thought of buying a sweater that Lilah already has, but—END OF EXCERPT

Click below for the digital copy of the monologue, The Plum Colored Sweater, by Tara Meddaugh.

THE STATISTICS AREN’T REAL
From the ten-minute play Jumping the Wind

Pollen K-10 cites various statistics which prove that since he has started his flower jumping course, the rate of pollen falling to their demise during jumps has dramatically decreased. In fact, the rate of success now is astoundingly high and should be encouraging to Pollen V-6, who is terrified to jump from the dying flower to a fresh flower. Pollen K-10 has never revealed where he has received these statistics, and Pollen V-6 begs him to tell her where he has gotten them from. She will make the jump during the next wind, but needs to know this information. She needs to know the truth.

About the 10-minute play, Jumping the Wind:
Pollen K-10 and Pollen V-6 are the last two remaining pieces of pollen on a dying flower, and they now must make the treacherous jump from the dying flower to a fresh one. Pollen K-10 has taught flower-jumping courses to the pollen in order to make their jumps successful, yet Pollen V-6 is terrified to jump the next wind, afraid of falling and being lost forever. As the leader of the pollen, Pollen K-10 risks his own safety, remaining to help her make this jump. The winds are fading, the flower will be destroyed by Cat that night, and Pollen V-6 doesn’t look any closer to jumping.

DETAILS
Genre: COMEDIC/DRAMATIC/TEEN
Cast: MALE (female)
Setting: A DYING FLOWER
Running Time: Approximately 1.5 minutes

_____________________

POLLEN K-10

The statistics aren’t real. I made them up. (brief pause) Please don’t lose faith in me, Pollen V-6! I tried to get the statistics! I really tried! I asked the flies, but they’re too fickle. They forget what I’ve asked them to do almost immediately after they leave, and they don’t remember me when they return. The friendlier bees tried to help, but then, even the most honorable ones told me upfront there was a conflict of interest. The birds don’t care. The Talls don’t understand us. There was nowhere for me to get the statistics. The statistics aren’t real…but… (pause) The statistics are true. Pollens survive the ride so much more than they used to, because they believe they can. They believe they’re prepared, and…END OF EXCERPT
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THIS HEAT IN MY BRAIN

SLOANE speaks to a person he has just accosted then assaulted. He justifies it is the heat in his brain, similar to the burning heat of sand on a hot summer day, which has forced him to harm the person. He believes this attack is the only way to cool down his brain and implores his victim to sympathize with him.

DETAILS
Genre: Thriller/Horror/Drama
Cast: Male/Female
Age range: Teen through adult
Setting: An alley
Time period: Present
Running time: Approximately 1.5 minutes

SLOANE

It’s this heat—I feel it in, I feel it in my face first, my head. (pause) That’s the most dangerous place, isn’t it? It controls everything. My brain. So when my brain is hot, then…my body, it gets hot too and it just…it does what my brain needs to have done. I don’t want to twist your wrist until I hear those little bones crackling. I just feel so hot and it’s the only thing that cools me down. Oh…you look so sad. So scared… (pause) Have you ever walked along the beach in a heat wave? Felt the sand so hot under your feet that it stings? Thousands of sizzling dagger blades, twisting and burning and pressing, invading your body. Have you felt that? (pause) It’s unbearable, isn’t it? You look—END OF EXCERPT CLICK FOR THE COMPLETE FREE MONOLOGUE, THIS HEAT IN MY BRAIN

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THOSE JIMMY CHOO SHOES

SARAH is at the principal’s office. She implores the principal to understand all of the terrible things that Madison has done to her, and how it has logically led to Sarah hitting Madison in the face with one of her Jimmy Choo shoes.

DETAILS
Genre: Comedy/Teen/Drama
Cast: Female
Age range: 12-20
Setting: Principal’s office
Running time: Approximately 1 minute

______________________

SARAH

You wanna know why I did it, I get it. But really, there are hundreds of reasons, so it’s more like, why didn’t I do it sooner? Madison is always, like, shoving those bags that cost a thousand dollars or whatever, like, shoving them on my desk when she walks by, and telling me about how she’s donating her Jimmy Choo shoes to the thrift shop and maybe I can afford them there. She also flirts with my dad. Did you know that? When he picks me up from school, she always finds a way to bend over, like she’s in some movie. And, she invited all the girls in our grade to the spa—except me. They went in a hot and cold sauna. I could—really, I could keep going, but the last thing she did, right before I got called to your office—and I hope, like, I hope all of this makes sense to you now—END OF EXCERPT

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TINSEL FOR CHRISTMAS

Stan is trying to remain patient and respectful in the ER waiting room, while blood drips from his arm. He explains his evening of cheerfully bringing a Christmas tree to his ex-girlfriend’s porch. True, she had a restraining order against him, but…he’s not really great with measuring distances. Somehow all of this has landed him in the ER…where he’s beginning to not feel so hot…

DETAILS:
Genre: DARK COMEDY
Cast: MALE
Setting: HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM
Age range: 20-60
Running time: Approximately 2.5 - 3 minutes

____________________

STAN

I think I’m next actually. I was here before—It’s only… my arm is kinda bleeding right now and I was here before that woman with the twitch.  But I can wait over here.  Maybe you can’t see me very well.  Maybe I’ll wave my arms around like this. Is that better? Now you can see me real clear, right? (pause) Well…I think I should stop waving my arms around. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know that for sure, but the blood from my arm is dripping on things. It’s dripping because…well, it’s Christmas time, y’know. And my girlfriend wanted a real tree. But I have allergies. That’s not why I’m at the hospital—I sniffle a lot and it annoys people but I wouldn’t come to the ER for allergies. I wish I would stop sniffling. (pause) My girlfriend’s sure been disappointed not having a real tree for Christmas the past few years. My allergies spoil everything. But this year, I thought it could be different because—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for a digital copy of the monologue, Tinsel For Christmas, by Tara Meddaugh.

WHAT I DID BEFORE BINGO, full version, 2.5 minutes
A monologue from the full-length play, Free Space

About the full-length play, Free Space:
Amelia spends her days under the watchful eye of her mother, doing the same nothing she has done for years. Yet when Bingo arrives at her local community center, a talking Bingo chip convinces Amelia that forming her own game is the way out of this life and away from her controlling mother. However, as her mother begins acting like her newly arrived sister, and the chip becomes increasingly dominating, Amelia discovers her new life is nothing as she imagined. Learn more here.

About the monologue, What I Did Before Bingo:
Tonight, Amelia has lost her valued volunteer position at the local community center, helping with Bingo Night. Now her mother has just wrestled away all of Amelia’s precious bingo chips, as she sees them as a sign of depravity. Her mother informs her that a new sister has taken Amelia’s bedroom so she must sleep on the living room floor that night. Amelia is dejected after a night of losing Bingo, the one thing that brought her joy and hope in her isolated world. She lies down to sleep on the floor when she realizes her mother did not take away all of her bingo chips. One is left and this one is special. Amelia hears it talking to her, and she is encouraged to share about what life was like before and after Bingo. She begins to have hope once more with the idea that she could form her very own bingo game.

DETAILS
Cast: Female (or male)
Age range: teen-adult
Genre: Dark Comedy/Drama/Absurd
Running time: Approximately 2 ½ minutes. For the 1-minute version of this monologue, click here.
Setting: A living room  

__________________

AMELIA

What? (she looks around and sees no one is there. After a moment, she settles onto the floor once more. Again, she starts suddenly and sits up.) Who’s there? (she stands and looks toward the door) Who said that? Who’s talking? (she walks around the room and looks under a piece of furniture.  She stares at something and her eyes widen.) You… (She pulls out a single bingo chip from under the furniture and holds it up) She didn’t get you…You’re a lucky chip—she took all the others. (pause) So…what do you want from me? (pause) Just to listen? But…why me? (pause) You really think I’m that special? That pure? (pause) Yes, I think I understand Bingo more than them too. I’m glad you noticed. Some of them still think that if you’re prettier or smarter or people like you more—that you have a better chance of winning…But you don’t. (pause) Well, it’s hard to remember really, what I did before Bingo. I know I just saw it last week, but I guess I didn’t really do too much before it. I just…I stared out the window with my mother…but besides that….oh—I guess I used to look at the stars by myself sometimes. Is that doing something? (pause) Because if I squinted my eyes hard enough, I could see myself on one of those stars. And I’d wave down to myself from that star and think, “I look so tiny on that earth.” And then I’d wave up at myself from earth and think, “I look so tiny on that star.” Of course, I know I’d be dead if I were actually on a star…but, sometimes, I’d really like to be there. But my mom—END OF EXCERPT
Click for the complete free monologue, What I Did Before Bingo, full version

This monologue is free to download above, but if you would like to support the playwright and her craft, you may do so below:

To learn more about Amelia and her story, check out the full-length play, Free Space!

READ THE FULL PLAY, FREE SPACE, DIGITAL COPY
Click below for a digital copy of the complete play, Free Space

WHAT I DID BEFORE BINGO 1 minute version
A monologue from the full-length play, Free Space

About the full-length play, Free Space:
Amelia spends her days under the watchful eye of her mother, doing the same nothing she has done for years. Yet when Bingo arrives at her local community center, a talking Bingo chip convinces Amelia that forming her own game is the way out of this life and away from her controlling mother. However, as her mother begins acting like her newly arrived sister, and the chip becomes increasingly dominating, Amelia discovers her new life is nothing as she imagined. Learn more here.

About the monologue, What I Did Before Bingo:
Tonight, Amelia has lost her valued volunteer position at the local community center, helping with Bingo Night. Now her mother has just wrestled away all of Amelia’s precious bingo chips, as she sees them as a sign of depravity. Her mother informs her that a new sister has taken Amelia’s bedroom so she must sleep on the living room floor that night. Amelia is dejected after a night of losing Bingo, the one thing that brought her joy and hope in her isolated world. She lies down to sleep on the floor when she realizes her mother did not take away all of her bingo chips. One is left and this one is special. Amelia hears it talking to her, and she is encouraged to share about what life was like before and after Bingo. She begins to have hope once more with the idea that she could form her very own bingo game.

DETAILS
Cast: Female (or male)
Age range: teen-adult
Genre: Dark Comedy/Drama/Absurd
Running time: Approximately 1 minute.
For longer (2.5 minute version), click here.
Setting: A living room  

__________________

AMELIA

Yes, I think I understand Bingo more than them too. I’m glad you noticed. Some of them still think that if you’re prettier or smarter or people like you more—that you have a better chance of winning…But you don’t. (pause) Well, it’s hard to remember really, what I did before Bingo. I know I just saw it last week, but I guess I didn’t really do too much before it. I just…I stared out the window with my mother…but besides that….oh—I guess I used to look at the stars by myself sometimes. Is that doing something? (pause) Because if I squinted my eyes hard enough, I could see myself on one of those stars. And I’d—END OF EXCERPT
Click for the complete free monologue, What I Did Before Bingo, short version.

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To learn more about Amelia and her story, check out the full-length play, Free Space!

READ THE FULL PLAY, FREE SPACE, DIGITAL COPY
Click below for a digital copy of the complete play, Free Space

WHAT MY FANGS ARE FOR
from the 10-minute play, When Marshmallows Burn

While roasting marshmallows with his mom over a campfire, Sammy has grown fur and fangs, in the light of the full moon. He has just run off to the woods to catch a squirrel for a snack. When he returns, blood around his mouth, his mother backs away from him, and asks what he has done. In this monologue, Sammy proudly explains to his mother how he has hunted his first squirrel. When his mom does not respond or seem proud of him, Sammy worries she is mad at him and will not talk to him again. He wonders if she only loved him when he was a human child.

DETAILS:
Genre: Drama/Dark Comedy/Thriller/Teen/Children
Cast: Male/Female/Gender neutral/flexible casting
Age range: 10 years old, but the role may be played by a child, teenager, or young adult
Setting: Outside, around campfire in backyard
Time period: Contemporary
Running time: Around 1 minute
From the play: When Marshmallows Burn

_______________

SAMMY

I ran in the woods, then crouched down and was really quiet. After just a couple of seconds, I saw a squirrel—because, Mom, now I can see in the dark better than normal! So then, I jumped up, super fast, and ran to the squirrel, super super fast! And I put my mouth on the squirrel’s body and chomped down and just started chewing! The fur and bones didn’t even bother me! I guess that’s what my fangs are for. I think I ate most of in, like, 5 bites. That’s good, right? I always thought I was slower than most kids, but now, I might be faster than anyone! (pause) Mom? (pause) You’re proud of me, right (pause) Do you want me to get you a squirrel now? END OF EXCERPT
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WHERE’S YOUR HAND, CHLOE?

ADDISON has been walking through the woods with her friend, Chloe, very late at night in an effort to take a shortcut home from a party. It’s dark, quiet. In a quick moment, Chloe has disappeared. ADDISON calls out to find her, but instead meets a strange, grotesque Being behind a tree. Addison’s panic increases as she sees the bloodied Being holds Chloe’s braid wrapped around its shoulder.

MONOLOGUE DETAILS
Cast: Female (or male)
Age range: teen-adult
Genre: Thriller, Drama, Horror, Suspense
Running time: Approximately 2-2.5 minutes
Setting: In a forest, late at night

__________________
ADDISON

Chloe. Chloe?...Where did you… (hears a noise and turns quickly) Oh, thank God you’re here, Chloe. I looked at my phone for, like, a second and then I didn’t know where you were and it’s so dark out here and does your phone have reception ‘cause mine just lost it? (Silence.) Chloe? Why are you so far away? I wanna hold your hand while we walk because I do not like these woods. Okay, let’s never cut across this way at night again. Why are you behind that tree? You’re being so weird. (pause) Come over here. Chloe? (Holds her phone out as a light to see better. It is not Chloe behind the tree. ADDISON is stunned) You’re…not… (pause) Oh my God you’re not Chloe. Chloe? Who are…END OF EXCERPT Click below for the complete thriller monologue, Where’s Your Hand, Chloe?

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