Audition Speeches for Young Actors 16+

Jean Marlow

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135865139
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Mezzi di comunicazione e arti performative
• Subtopic: Arti performative

Audition Speeches for 6-16 Year Olds offers a generous helping of carefully selected speeches that children can prepare for auditions. Each speech is introduced with commentary to set the scene and help the young actor.

Audition Speeches for Women

Rosaline
(Aged 16)

After Juliet

Sharman Macdonald

This is a BT National Connections project presented as part of the Celebration of Youth Theatre. It was first performed in the summer of 1999 at the Royal National Theatre by Cardiff High School and Strode's College Theatre Company on the Cottesloe and Olivier stages.

After the tragic deaths of Romeo and Juliet, an uneasy truce exists between the Montague and Capulet families. Benvolio, Romeo's best friend, is in love with ROSALINE, Juliet's cousin. However, ROSALINE still loves Romeo and is bent on revenge.

In this scene, it is raining. ROSALINE walks over to a pile of lilies in the corner of the piazza. Benvolio and Mercutio's twin brother Valentine watch her from the shadows. She is holding an umbrella and a single lily as she speaks to the dead Juliet.

From: Connections Series
Published by Faber & Faber, London

Rosaline

Your spirit haunts me, Juliet.
I see more of you dead
Than I did when you were alive; . . .
We were hardly close as cousins.
You were too small, too pretty, too rich,
Too thin and too much loved for me to cope with.
'Spoilt' is the word that springs to mind
Though I don't want to speak ill of the dead.

(She touches the stamen of the lily. Yellow nicotine pollen stains her fingers. She rubs it in)

All a flower does is wither
It's the memories that stay for ever:
So they tell me.
So what do I recall of you?
Juliet, daddy's princess, rich,
Mummy's darling, quite a bitch.
You scratched my face once,
From here to here;
I have the scar. I have it yet.
You can see it quite clearly
In the sunlight;
A silver line.
You wanted my favourite doll.
And of course you got it.
For though I was scarred, you cried.
And your nurse swooped down
And took the moppet from me.
Spanked me hard for making you unhappy;
Gave my doll to you, her dearest baby.
Later you stole my best friend;
Wooed her with whispers;
Told her gossip's secrets;
Gave her trinkets, sweetmeats.
Later still, you took my love
And didn't know you'd done it;
Then having taken him
You let him die . . .
Daddy's princess could not die.
She would be there at her own funeral
To watch the tears flow
And hear her praises sung.
So you haunt me . . .
Here. This is the last flower
You'll get from me.
Death flowers have the sweetest scent.
(She casts the flower down. Shrugs)
That's that bit done.

Agnes
(Young)

Agnes of God

John Pielmeier

First presented in a staged reading at the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference in 1979 at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in 1980. It opened on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in 1982.

Doctor Martha Livingstone has been appointed by the Court to assess AGNES, a young nun accused of killing her new-born baby. AGNES is a simple girl who has spent most of her life in the convent with little or no contact with the outside world. She denies all knowledge of a baby. The Mother Superior objects strongly to her being questioned and applies to have the Doctor taken off the case, but eventually AGNES agrees to submit to hypnosis in order to build up a picture of what happened to her.

In this earlier scene, Doctor Livingstone asks AGNES how babies are born.

Published by Samuel French, US

Agnes

I don't know what you're talking about! You want to talk about the baby, everybody wants to talk about the baby, but I never saw the baby, so I can't talk about the baby, because I don't believe in the baby! . . . No! I'm tired of talking! I've been talking for weeks! And nobody believes me when I tell them anything! Nobody listens to me! ... Where do you think babies come from? ... Well, I think they come from when an angel lights on their mother's chest and whispers into her ear. That makes good babies start to grow. Bad babies come from when a fallen angel squeezes in down there, and they grow and grow until they come out down there. I don't know where good babies come out. (Silence) And you can't tell the difference except that bad babies cry a lot and make their fathers go away and their mothers get very ill and die sometimes. Mummy wasn't very happy when she died and I think she went to hell because every time I see her she looks like she just stepped out of a hot shower. And I'm never sure if it's her or the Lady who tells me things. They fight over me all the time. The Lady I saw when I was ten. I was lying on the grass looking at the sun and the sun became a cloud and the cloud became the Lady, and she told me she would talk to me and then her feet began to bleed and I saw there were holes in her hands and in her side and I tried to catch the blood as it fell from the sky but I couldn't see any more because my eyes hurt because there were big black spots in front of them. And she tells me things like — right now she's crying 'Marie! Marie!' but I don't know what that means. And she uses me to sing. It's as if she's throwing a big hook through the air and it catches me under my ribs and tries to pull me up but I can't move because Mummy is holding my feet and all I can do is sing in her voice, it's the Lady's voice, God loves you! (Silence) God loves you. (Silence)... I don't want to talk anymore, all right? I just want to go home.

Joni
(Aged 16)

Ancient Lights

Shelagh Stephenson

First performed at the Hampstead Theatre Club in November 2000 and set in a country cottage in Northumberland at Christmas, where Bea has invited her oldest friends - Kitty, Tom Cavallero and Tom's girlfriend, Iona — to spend the holiday with her and her new lover, Tad.

Tom is a Hollywood actor and Iona is making a documentary film about his life. Bea's daughter, JONI, is also staying over Christmas but would much rather be with her friends in Shepherd's Bush. Nevertheless, she is anxious to be part of the filming.

In this scene it is two o'clock in the morning and JONI is playing out an imaginary scene in which she is being interviewed about her 'first film role'. She is posing by a chair in her nightdress, trying to look provocative. She is interrupted by Tom before she has completed her 'interview' and dashes out of the room, mortified.

Published by Methuen Drama

Joni

(Lights up, later. Two a.m. Spotlight on JONI posing by the chair in her nightdress. Wild applause, wolf-whistles, camera bulbs flashing. Screen images washing over the set. She strikes a series of provocative poses as the applause dies down)

Yeah, I'm really really happy that the truth's out at last. Yeah, he gave me this ring. (She holds out her hand) It belonged to his mother, so you know, it seemed right. Right, it's incredible, I know, my first film and I'm nominated for an Oscar, I can't believe it, it's been an amazing year. Well, I've known Tom since I was tiny, so I've never been in awe of him or anything, and getting the film was nothing to do with our relationship because I'd already got the part before all this happened. Yeah, I met Iona a couple of times, and it was really terrible about the car crash and everything, but I think the relationship was more or less over by then. Decapitated. She never knew what hit her. I think I probably helped him to get over it. Well, it takes a bit of getting used to being over here in Beverly Hills with all the palm trees and everything, it's not much like Hammersmith, I can tell you. And getting mobbed by fans and not being able to leave the house. I've had a couple of stalkers, you know, the usual, God it's so boring. I can't go places like the supermarket any more, but we have staff and everything. Would I take my clothes off on film? I think that's a very difficult question, but yes, if the part demanded it —

(Lights change abruptly as TOM comes in, still in his bathrobe, clutching his mobile phone and a glass of whisky. He's sniffing, as if he's taken coke, and is obviously mid-conversation)

Tom ... I was just going to bed, goodnight — (She dashes out, mortified).

Mabel Chiltern
(Young)

An Ideal Husband

Oscar Wilde

This society comedy was first performed in 1895 at the Haymarket Theatre and is set in fashionable London.

The 'Ideal Husband' of the title is Sir Robert Chiltern, Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who — having in his youth sold private information about a transaction contemplated by the Government of the day — is now being threatened with exposure by the unscrupulous Mrs Cheveley. He is saved from disgrace by the intervention of his friend, Lord Goring.

MABEL CHILTERN is Sir Robert's high-spirited young sister, who throughout the play is being relentlessly pursued by her brother's secretary, Tommy Trafford, but finally accepts a proposal of marriage from Lord Goring.

In this scene, MABEL is complaining to her sister-in-law, Lady Chiltern, about Tommy's latest proposal. Lady Chiltern protests that Tommy is the best secretary her brother ever had. He has a brilliant future before him.

Published by New Mermaids

Mabel Chiltern

Gertrude, I wish you would speak to Tommy Trafford ... Well, Tommy has proposed to me again. Tommy really does nothing but propose to me. He proposed to me last night in the music-room, when I was quite unprotected, as there was an elaborate trio going on. I didn't dare to make the smallest repartee, I need hardly tell you. If I had, it would have stopped the music at once. Musical people are so absurdly unreasonable. They always want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be absolutely deaf. Then he proposed to me in broad daylight this morning, in front of that dreadful statue of Achilles. Really, the things that go on in front of that work of art are quite appalling. The police should interfere. At luncheon I saw by the glare in his eye that he was going to propose again, and I just managed to check him in time by assuring him that I was a bimetallist. Fortunately I don't know what bimetallism means. And I don't believe anybody else does either. But the observation crushed Tommy for ten minutes. He looked quite shocked. And then Tommy is so annoying in the way he proposes. If he proposed at the top of his voice, I should not mind so much. That might produce some effect on the public. But he does it in a horrid confidential way. When Tommy wants to be romantic he talks to one just like a doctor. I am very fond of Tommy, but his methods of proposing are quite out of date. I wish, Gertrude, you would speak to him, and tell him that once a week is quite often enough to propose to anyone, and that it should always be done in a manner that attracts some attention ... I must go round now and rehearse at Lady Basildon's. You remember we are having tableaux, don't you? The Triumph of something, I don't know what! I hope it will be triumph of me. Only triumph I am really interested in at present. (Kisses LADY CHILTERN and goes out; then comes running back) Oh, Gertrude, do you know who is coming to see you? That dreadful Mrs Cheveley, in a most lovely gown. Did you ask her? ... I assure you she is coming upstairs, as large as life and not nearly so natural.

Linda
(East Anglia — aged 15)

Apart from George

Nick Ward

First staged in a private performance at the National Theatre Studio in 1987, and then at the Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Festival prior to a national tour and production at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs.

This is a tragedy of a small family without hope living in the Fens of East Anglia. George and Pam and their daughter LINDA are unable to communicate with each other or articulate their feelings. George has worked most of his life for John Grey the local landlord, and the only man able to give employment in the area. When times become hard, George is one of the first to be laid off and Pam is forced to work as a cleaner in Mr Grey's large house. This only increases George's sense of uselessness. LINDA has been physically abused by both her parents and now refuses to even talk to her father. When the local priest discovers George prostrate across the church aisle, he tries to help him. But even he has lost the ability to communicate with his parishioners. Eventually George hangs himself from the water pipe in the kitchen.

After the funeral Pam and LINDA talk to the audience. Pam is unable to grieve but acknowledges that she will be lonely without George. LINDA is glad her father is dead. The nightmare is over now and perhaps eventually she can forget. She speaks to her mother just once, but only to tell her that she will be going away.

Published by Faber & Faber, London

Linda

(To audience) I'm glad he's fucking dead ... Won't tell no one though ... Not her neither ... Don't have to tell no one now . . . Won't happen no more ... Like the times before. Could never say nothing and I don't have to 'cause it were wrong, always knew that. Could never tell her. I'm glad he's dead ... No more ... What if he would never go away? What if he were to haunt me ...? Maybe if I don't think no more, he'll be dead in my head an' all... I want him to fuck off out me head ... I'm going away soon, all right? (Pam nods)... (To audience) Screaming stops ... Not a sound ... No noise now ... Breathing, all inside ... Heart sound, inside —not a sound outside ... after screams, nothing just outside me . . . Where they gone ...? No door sound, no slam ... Breathing tight, inside, not out ... Dots have gone, turned to shapes, very dark ... heart sounds, thump, thump, thump ... Not a word — nothing heard ... Wide awake, in the ground ... Lying still ... Where's he gone ...? Sleep time ... Creaking stair, turning right or turning left? Thump, thump. Where's she gone? Not a sound ... And I'm lying there praying, 'Please God, don't let him come' ... Flash of light from the road, someone else, other folk ... Shapes come back ... Ghosts are people that was unha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Introduction
• WHY GO TO DRAMA SCHOOL?
• DEVELOPING EXTRA SKILLS
• MORE ABOUT AUDITIONING
• OUT ON YOUR OWN
• ADVICE FROM THE ACTORS
• A WORD ABOUT THE SPEECHES
• Audition Speeches for Men
• Audition Speeches for Women
• Audition Speeches for Men or Women
• Useful Addresses
• Copyright Holders