This is one of editor Lawrence Harbison's regular monologue collections. It contains 100 selections from contemporary plays. Harbison chooses pieces he judges to be good audition material. They are classified as dramatic, comic or seriocomic. Some are the work of established playwrights, others are from the minds of newcomers. They display a wide range of characters and topics, including awkward romance between students, the paranoia of a homeless man, a young man's fantasy of appearing on Charlie Rose, a television producer laying into an assistant, an exasperated parent explaining his transgender child's behavior to a teacher, a guy in a bar giving pick-up tips to another guy, and an African-American in a jail cell pitching a science-fiction movie idea to his white cell mate, who is an assistant to a movie producer. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
(Applause Acting Series). Lawrence Harbison has selected 100 terrific monologues for men from contemporary plays, all by characters between the ages of 18 and 35 perfect for auditions or class. There are comic monologues (laughs) and dramatic monologues (no laughs). Most have a compelling present-tense action for actors to perform. A few are story monologues and they're great stories. Actors will find pieces by star playwrights such as Don Nigro, Itamar Moses, Stephen Adly Guirgis, and Terence McNally; by exciting up-and-comers such as Nicole Pandolfo, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Crystal Skillman, Greg Kalleres, Reina Hardy, and J. Thalia Cunningham; and information on getting the complete text of each play. This is a must-have resource in the arsenal of every aspiring actor hoping to knock 'em dead with his contemporary piece after bowling over teachers and casting directors alike with a classical excerpt.
