Mary-Liz vs. The Monologue

Gosh do I hate finding new monologues.

Well I hate trying to find them.

When they magically happen upon me, because I hear them in a play or steal them from another actor (don't pretend you haven't done it) it's serendipity and usually works out pretty well. I find a printed version of said monologue, learn it, and put it in to action.

But as anyone proficient in auditioning knows, monologues get worn out after a while. You need to be refreshing your repertoire somewhat regularly to keep in audition material. Sometimes you outgrow a piece, or you've used it for every company in town and need to show them something different, or you just fall out of love with it. It happens.

But what happens when you find yourself in a monologue-less pit?

How do you recover?

Going on the search is a difficult thing. It requires you to think carefully about what type you are, what genre(s) you're looking for, how long it is, if you like it, if you see enough in the material to simultaneously be able to take risks and be super comfortable performing it. It's a difficult balancing act. And a lot of digging.

The thing that makes new monologues really hard for me though, is my innate tendency towards procrastination. Until I HAVE to have something new, I'm not working on anything new. It's a terrible terrible habit. In college we had to have new material fairly frequently so I was constantly updating my folder-o'-monologues. But at this point, most of those don't work for me, and it's time for some upgrading.

I'm not really sure where or how to begin. I have a stack of plays next to my bed. But I'm not really sure that any of them are there because they have monologue potential. They were more on my 'to read' list than anything. I haven't pinpointed what kinds of pieces I want to be working on. And honestly, it's been so long since I've been cast, I'm a little fuzzy on my type. Where I fit in. What I need to be working with. What I want to working with. From where I am now, I probably can't go wrong with much of anything, simply because it's new, and fresh, and different. Something to play with. But it can be hard to devote the time to all the reading and memorizing that goes in to a new audition piece.

But, I have an audition March 22. So I guess I'd better get on it...