Tara Meddaugh

5-MINUTE MONOLOGUES

FIND ME
A one-woman thriller play/monologue

Yearning for her deceased husband, Elizabeth embarks on a chilling quest to bring him closer to her…

DETAILS
Genre: Spooky/thriller/drama
Cast: Female
Age range: Late teen/20s/30s
Running time: around 5-10 minutes, depending on performance and staging
Setting: Outdoors, in the deep of the night, a private burial site at a family estate in Sing Sing, NY
Time Period: 1850s
Great for/tags: Halloween theater, spooky, creepy, grief, longing, love, monologue, one-woman show, outdoor theater

 “In the 1850s, when Dale Cemetery opened, many local graveyards at churches and estates dug up their dead and moved them to Dale for reburial. It was quite a gruesome sight.”

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EXCERPT

SETTING: The private family burial site at an estate in Sing Sing, NY, 1850s. Deep into the night. ELIZABETH, a woman in her 20s-30s, has been digging up the coffin and corpse of her deceased husband. She has a shovel and continues to dig on and off. The CORPSE/COFFIN may or may not be visible.

ELIZABETH

Grandmother says moving the dead will release their souls to the air… (Looking down to the COFFIN) Is that true? (Digging with a shovel) She says they will wander and search, and wander and search, like fireflies lighting up the summer night sky. I asked her, this morning, while we were quilting, what they would be searching for. “A place to settle,” she told me. I thought you were already settled in your bodies, but Grandmother says bodies, corpses, they’re only vessels. She says the earth, your grave, this is your home. So when you’re moved, you’re disturbed. And you must search for a new home. Mama does not like Grandmother to talk in this manner. Mama is a woman of Science and Facts, as you know, while Grandmother is open to everything that lies between. So Mama says you’ll have a new home in your new grave. She says Dale Cemetery will be beautiful and peaceful. She doesn’t want to live in a plague spot anymore, and when the bodies are moved, she says it will be safer and better for all of us, especially the baby in my growing womb. Mama took a firm breath after this and walked off to the kitchen. She thought making tea would put a stop to our conversation, but neither Grandmother nor I wished to cease our talk about…the dead… (Looking down to the COFFIN/CORPSE) You… (Pause) While Mama was in the kitchen, Grandmother turned to me. “Mmmmmm,” she warned. “It will not be better for all of us. Do not be here when they move the bodies. They are not all good people buried there. And those who were good, beyond the grave…can go bad.” —END OF EXCERPT

CLICK BELOW for the complete one-woman thriller play/monologue, FIND ME.

WHY THAT WALKING SNOWMAN DIDN’T LIKE ME

MADISON, a popular IG (Instagram) model, sees a snowman come to life in front of her very eyes on Christmas Eve. And sure, of course, Madison knows this is all pretty insane, but it’s also a pretty amazing opportunity for her social media presence. However, as much as she would like, the silent snowman doesn’t seem to be cooperating for her selfie. Is it intimidated? Worried about collabs? She isn’t sure, but she is shocked when the snowman leaves before she can even get a video. It makes no sense why it wouldn’t want to hang out with her and her adorable rescue doggie, Bailey, especially when they both look so cute in their winter outfits. Luckily, Madison has Bailey to help her figure out a reasonable explanation for this disappointment.

DETAILS
Cast: 1-3 actors.*
1 speaking Female.
Optional 1-2 male/female nonspeaking roles (Bailey, the dog and the Snowman)
Age: Teen-young adult
Genre: Comedy
Setting: Outside, winter, snowy, Christmas Eve
Running time: around 4-5 minutes 
*This play may stand alone as a monologue, or if desired, the role of Bailey, the dog, may be added (gender inclusive). Bailey does not speak, but has noted “murmurs” of communication. The role of Snowman may be added as a third non-speaking role (gender inclusive).

Read a free digital excerpt of WHY THAT WALKING SNOWMAN DIDN’T LIKE ME here.

For the complete play, WHY THAT WALKING SNOWMAN DIDN’T LIKE ME, click below:

 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 5-10 minutes, depending on performance and staging
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:

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

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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.”

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.

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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 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 4-5 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.