Published by Oberon Books
Monologues are a vital part of an actor’s life – vital for preparing for drama school and showcasing skills for agents, as well as for auditions. It’s a tricky task, and a tricky art. While reference books like this are intensely useful for actors, and save some of the legwork for the auditioning actor, they cannot replace the necessary preparation that goes with any role.
Editor Catherine Weate should know. She is an experienced voice coach and while she naturally bats back criticism of monologues books, she does counsel users that they ‘only work […] if you read the full play text from which your monologue has been drawn’.
The book is usefully divided into age sections, starting with teens going up to the vast classification of forties plus. This is the only weakness, the vast age range assumes someone of 40 would have the same motivations and experience as one over 60.
Weate offers students a wide choice of brilliant writing from the Oberon canon – recognising that ‘controversial content is tricky to avoid in contemporary theatre texts’ so we have Richard Bean, Dennis Kelly, Kay Adshead and Tim Crouch (imagine trying to audition Malvolio after seeing the master do it!).
Why just recommend this for actors? It’s great for browsers too, and is a useful starting point for a whistlestop tour of contemporary theatre.