“The raven himself is hoarse”
Find the monologue that feels like you.
Explore 34 audition-ready pieces, read every word free, and learn what the audition room really expects—without the confusing theater-school language.
34 complete monologues15 under one minuteNo signup neededUpdated August 2026
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Here is why the advice feels confusing
Different audition rooms have different rules
You are not imagining it: respected drama schools sometimes give completely different instructions. Choose a topic below to see what each school says—and the simplest, safest choice for you.
Juilliard
You may choose any character with whom you imaginatively connect.
Drama admissions guidance · checked Aug 2026
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NYU Tisch
Choose material that is within your age range.
Undergraduate audition requirements · checked Aug 2026
What to do: if the brief does not say, pick the role you would be cast in today. It is the safer of the two positions and it fails nowhere.
There is no universal rule, because the room decides. Read the brief for the specific room, every time — because the institutions do not agree with each other.
Nine questions nobody answers well
What actually happens in the room?
Choosing a piece is only the beginning. These are the nine questions with no good answer anywhere online — the things that happen to you rather than things you prepare. We wrote them because nobody else had.
Q13
What if they cut me off before I finish?
Being stopped is the most misread moment in an audition. It is usually the schedule, not a verdict. At a combined audition a panel may see 150 actors in a day; the cut is administrative.
“Do not worry if the Audition Panel stops you midway through a monologue.”
Guildhall School of Music & Drama — audition preparation guidanceGuildhall goes further: the panel may stop you because talking to you is a better use of the time. Three versions of being stopped are worth telling apart — timed out at a conference, stopped by a panel mid-piece, and stopped early with no conversation in a commercial room. Only the third one is likely to mean anything.
Q12
What does “one minute” actually mean in words?
Nobody publishes this and every actor needs it. There is no study of audition delivery specifically, so the table below is derived from general speech-rate data — treat it as a sanity check, not a substitute for a stopwatch.
| Target | Slow · 110 wpm | Typical · 130 | Fast · 150 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 sec | 110 words | 130 words | 150 words |
| 90 sec | 165 words | 195 words | 225 words |
| 2 min | 220 words | 260 words | 300 words |
Verse is easier: Shakespeare runs about 16–17 lines a minute, so a two-minute classical speech is roughly 32–34 lines. Past 320 words, two minutes will not happen without rushing.
Q25
What do I do with my hands?Gap
The honest answer is that hands stop being a problem when they have something to do that belongs to the character rather than to you.
“…tie them up to my thoughts and my imagination.”
Ian McKellen, on what to do with your handsThe reliable diagnostic is mechanical: film yourself, watch it back with the sound off, and mark which movements are the character’s and which are nerves.
Get a self-tape reviewedQ30
How do I stop going blank when the nerves hit?
Blanking is not a memory failure. It is what happens when attention turns inward onto the words instead of outward onto the person you are talking to. The fix is structural: over-learn the piece past the point of recall, then give yourself something to do to somebody.
The second half of the answer is the part actors never hear: casting directors, on the record, say they mostly do not notice and do not remember.
“I’ve received apologies from actors outlining all the ways they failed their audition, when I hadn’t particularly noticed.”
Lana Veenker, CSA — Cast Iron StudiosWhat they are reading is the recovery. Marci Liroff puts it better than anyone:
“When the tightrope walker missteps and loses her footing… the entire audience gasps. But when she gracefully recovers… the entire audience springs to their feet and applauds.”
Marci Liroff, casting directorDecide your recovery line before you go in, so you execute it instead of deliberating. “Hang on, I’m starting again” — then a beat for the operator, then go.
Try the two-minute resetQ27
Is a self-tape monologue different from an in-person one?Gap
Yes, and this is the seam the rest of the internet skips. In the room your body is the frame. On camera the lens is the frame, and everything gets smaller: less voice, less movement, more thought. The piece that fills a studio reads as shouting in a medium close-up.
It also changes what you can fix. A tape is a take you choose. A room is a take you get.
Send a tape for feedbackQ21
How much should I move? Can I use the chair?Gap
Use the chair if the character would. Move if the character would. The test is not how much — it is whose the movement is.
On camera the answer tightens further: at medium close-up you have perhaps a foot of usable space before you leave the frame. Most pacing on a self-tape is nerves wearing a costume.
Q23
Do I need an accent if the character has one?Gap
Only if it is genuinely secure. A wobbling accent gives the panel something to listen to instead of you, and it is the easiest thing in the room to hear go wrong.
If the accent is not solid, play the piece in your own and say so in the slate if asked. Nobody has ever been cut for declining to do a bad Irish.
Q24
How do I start strong without launching in cold?Gap
The speech does not begin at the first word. Something happened immediately before it that made the character open their mouth — and you have to be inside that thing before you speak.
Practically: know the line that provoked it, hear it, then answer it. Two seconds of that beats any amount of eyes-closed preparation, which panels read as a ritual rather than as work.
Work out the moment beforeQ18
What if they ask for something I don’t have prepared?Gap
Nobody publishes an answer to this — we looked, and there is no named casting director on record with one. So here is the honest version rather than an invented quote.
Say what you do have, briefly, and offer it. “I don’t have a classical piece ready today — I have two contemporary ones, one comedic and one dramatic.” It is not a failure, it is information, and it is over in six seconds.
The real fix is upstream: this is exactly what a book of four to six pieces is for.
Build your monologue bookQ15
Should I introduce the piece, or just start?Gap
There is no safe default here, because the institutions publish opposite instructions.
Both current, August 2026
Guildhall
Introducing the piece is required — and they give you the wording.
SETC
“Please no slate.”
Read the brief. If it is silent, a short name-and-title works almost everywhere.
Keep learning
Prepare for every part of the audition
Choose the question you need help with and get a complete, straightforward answer.
Picking one that fits youThe active-versus-passive testThe overdone listAnd why the Juilliard ban is a mythCutting to timeFinding the spine before you cutContemporary or classicalWhat each school actually meansComedic or dramaticWhether you need bothWhere to lookEyeline, in the room and on cameraSlating and finishingWhat to say, and how to stopBuilding your bookFour to six pieces, ready to goMistakes panels noticeProps, rituals, and “and scene”
Create a monologue that fits you
Choose your age, tone, and ideal length. The Monologue Maker creates practice material for you and helps you rehearse it with built-in self-tape tools.
Open the Monologue Maker✓ Free to use✓ No card required✓ Nothing published without you
Worth saying plainly: most conservatoires want a piece from a published play, and several — Juilliard among them — advise against monologue books and pieces with no play behind them. For those rooms, use a play. The Maker is for practice material, for shaping and timing, and for rooms where original work is welcome.
Common questions
How long should an audition monologue be?
Sixty to ninety seconds for a self-tape or a conference; up to two minutes for a drama school. Some bodies hard-cap at sixty seconds and disqualify anything longer. Read the brief.
Can I use a monologue from a film?
Depends entirely on the room, and this is one of the six disagreements. Yale accepts material from any source. NYU Tisch and RADA both exclude film and television. Assume no unless the brief says otherwise.
Do I have to memorize it, or can I hold sides?
Two working casting directors contradict each other on this in the same article. For a monologue you have chosen and prepared, off-book is the expectation. Holding sides is for material you were handed.
Does it matter if my piece is overdone?
Casting directors tend to say yes. RADA tells applicants in writing not to worry about how original the choice is. If you do a famous piece, you are being compared to everyone else who did it that day.