Audition Monologues for Roles Where Characters Experiment With Something New, Vol. 7
Cold-read auditions favor actors who can find the spine of a scene in seconds. That skill is built in rehearsal, on material that resists shortcuts. Characters experimenting with something new are good for this because the stakes are usually small but the emotional range is wide. You have to pivot between bravado, doubt, embarrassment, and quiet realization in under two minutes. That's exactly the range casting wants from working actors. Use these to drill flexibility. Ten characters, ten very different firsts, and a built-in reason to make ten very different choices.
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Vivienne — 75, learning to use a smartphone with help from her grandson
(Sitting on the couch, holding a smartphone like it's a live mouse) Owen. Owen, slow down. Slow down. You are talking too fast. (sighs) What is this little house? On the screen. Yes, that one. The house is home, you said. Home of what? (beat) Owen. Owen, sweetheart. I have used a rotary telephone, a touch-tone telephone, a, what was it, a cordless. I have used a, I had a flip phone for fourteen years. Fourteen. (firmer) Your grandfather used to laugh at me. He said, Viv, you fight every new machine. And I said, every new machine deserves a fight. (laughs) But he's gone now. And your mother says I have to learn this because you'll only text me. (softer) So show me again. Slowly. (touches the screen) Oh. Oh, look at that. (beat) I sent something. What did I send? Owen. What did I send. Why are you laughing. Owen. (laughs herself) You are an awful boy. I love you very much. Show me how to undo it.
Carl — 38, finally signing up for social media at his wife's insistence
(At a desk, on his laptop, to his wife in the next room) Tina. Tina, what does this question mean. (sighs) Profile picture. Okay. Of what? Of me? Just me, by myself? Or me with you? Tina, this is stressful. (beat) Tina, I have made it to thirty-eight years old without a single online account besides my email. Thirty-eight. I have watched the entire culture happen from the outside. (firmer) And now my mother says I have to have, what is it, Facebook, so I can see pictures of my cousin's baby. Because my cousin won't email pictures like a normal person. (sighs) Why is there a button that says 'feeling'? Why does a website need to know my feeling? (laughs nervously) Tina. Tina, what is a like? Are likes good? (longer beat) I miss being unreachable. I miss being unreachable very much. (clicks) Okay. I think I joined. I am on. I exist now. Help me.
Tessa — 26, day one of deleting every social media app she owns
(In a coffee shop, to her best friend, slightly manic) Hannah. I did it. I did it last night at one AM. I deleted them all. All of them. (laughs) Instagram. TikTok. Twitter. Reddit. The little fitness one. Even Pinterest, Hannah, Pinterest. (sighs) I have checked my phone forty-seven times today. Forty-seven. I just stare at the screen. There's nothing. There's a weather app and a calendar. I'm a sad ghost in a phone. (firmer) Three days, the article said. Three days and the brain rewires. I am eight hours in and I am vibrating, Hannah. I keep reaching for my phone in this coffee shop and I have nothing to look at, so I just look at you. (laughs) That's why I keep staring at you. I'm sorry. Your face is now my entertainment. (softer) Tell me something. Tell me anything. Just talk. I am going to lose my mind otherwise. (longer beat) Why is silence so loud.
Murphy — 53, midcareer firefighter starting a coding bootcamp at night
(In a parked car after class, on the phone with his daughter) Kiddo. Kiddo, listen. I made a website tonight. (laughs) Well. I made a webpage. Page, singular. It says hello in red letters. I made hello in red letters happen. (sighs) Three hours of class. Three hours of, of brackets and semicolons. The instructor, this twenty-six-year-old kid, he kept saying think of it like a language. (firmer) Honey, I do not know languages. I know fire. I know smoke patterns. I know which side of a building is going to go in the next forty seconds. (softer) I'm going to retire in nine years. I cannot be a fire captain at sixty-five. My knees are already gone. I gotta learn something. (beat) The kid next to me in class, he's seventeen. Seventeen, kiddo. He thought I was the instructor when I walked in. (laughs) But I made hello in red letters. I made it tonight. I'm gonna show you when I get home. Don't go to sleep yet.
Linnea — 29, copywriter using AI tools for the first time at her job
(At her desk, on a chat call with her colleague) Diego. Diego, you have to see what I just made it do. (laughs, slightly hysterical) I told it to write a tagline for the laundry detergent client. Twelve options. Twelve, in forty seconds. (sighs) Three of them are bad. Bad in a sad way. But four of them, Diego. Four of them are better than the ones I would have written by Friday. (firmer) I don't know how to feel. I spent seven years getting good at this. I went to school for this. I was good at this. (beat) The machine is also good at this. (softer) Marcus from upstairs said, Linn, the people who use the tool replace the people who don't. He said it like it was simple. (longer beat) I'm using the tool, Diego. I'm using it today. I'm going to be good at using the tool. I just, I want to feel sad about it for like four more minutes. Let me feel sad. Then we'll get back to work.
Pascual — 67, learning to video call so he can talk to his grandkids in Madrid
(In front of a laptop, talking to himself and the screen) Okay. Okay. The button. The blue button. (mutters) Marisol said press the blue button. (clicks, then frantically) Oh. Oh no. It's ringing. The thing is ringing. (waits, fixes hair) Hola. Hola, mijo. Can you hear me? (smiles enormously) Can you see your abuelo? (laughs) Look at me, I'm on the computer. Where is your mother. (waves) Hola, Sofia. Hola, niños. (sighs happily) I have been trying for thirty minutes to make this work. Thirty. I had to call your aunt. (laughs) But here we are. I can see your kitchen. Is that the new table? That is so big. (beat) Mateo, stand up. Let me see how tall. (softer) Oh, mijo. Oh, you are so much taller. How is it possible. (catches breath, looks at all of them) I can't believe I can see all of you. From here. (firmer) Now we do this every Sunday. Sunday morning my time. Promise me. I learned the buttons. We do this every Sunday.
Daphne — 22, deleting her dating apps after two years of constant swiping
(In bed at one AM, to a roommate sitting on the edge of the bed) Jenna. Jenna, I'm doing it. (holds up the phone) I'm holding the icon. It's wiggling. The little x is right there. (laughs, nervous) Why is this so hard. Why can't I just press it. (sighs) Eighty-three matches this year, Jenna. Eighty-three. Six dates. Two of them were criminal. One of them, Gavin, his name was, he ate with his mouth open, like, aggressively open, and then asked if I wanted to split the bill on a four-dollar coffee. (laughs) And I still went home and swiped for another hour. Like I'd find the antidote. (firmer) I am not going to find a man on this phone. I know that now. I have known it for a while. (softer) I just got addicted to the looking. To the maybe. (beat) Okay. Don't stop me. Press it for me. I cannot press it. Jenna, you have to, you have to do it. (long beat) Done. It's done. Oh god. Oh, I feel sick. I feel free? I don't know yet. I don't know yet.
Otis — 44, suburban dad installing a full smart home system over a weekend
(In a living room surrounded by boxes, to his wife) Carla. Carla. Don't be mad. (laughs nervously) I know you said wait until next month. But there was a sale. There was a sale, and I had a weekend off, and the kids are at your sister's. (sighs) Yes. Yes, all of these are speakers. And the door thing. And the, the fridge thing. And there's a hub. The hub is the brain, Carla. (firmer) I am going to make our house smart, Carla. By Sunday night, you are going to say lights, and the lights are going to happen. (beat) Stop laughing. (longer beat) Okay. Okay, the instructions are in Korean. I, that doesn't matter. There's a YouTube video. There's always a YouTube video. (softer) Carla. Tell me you believe in me. Just say it out loud once. (laughs) Don't tell my dad I bought any of this. He will mock me until the day he dies.
Belinda — 35, doing a full month with no internet at home
(On a landline phone, to her best friend) Joelle. It's Belinda. Pick up. (beat) She's not picking up. (talks anyway) Joelle. It's day eleven. I'm calling from a landline. A landline, Joelle, like an animal. (sighs) I shut it all off. The wifi. The phone data, I downgraded the plan. I get texts, that's it. (laughs nervously) Do you know what I did last night? I read a book. Cover to cover. Four hours. I have not done that since I was nineteen. (firmer) And then. Then I sat on the porch. With no podcast. With no music. Just, the porch. With the bugs. (softer) I cried, Joelle. I cried for like half an hour. I don't know why. (beat) The silence is so loud at first. And then it isn't. And then you start to hear other things. (longer beat) Twenty days left. I think I'm going to extend it. Don't tell my boss. He thinks I'm on email.
Casper — 31, joining his first online community/forum after years of lurking
(In a small home office, typing and talking to himself, addressing the screen) Okay. Okay, you can do this. (laughs nervously) Type the post. Just type the post. (mutters) Hi, I'm new here. (deletes) That's terrible. (mutters) Long time lurker, first time poster. (deletes) That's a cliche. (sighs) Six years. Six years I have lurked on this forum. Six years of reading everyone else's woodworking questions. Six years of going, hm, I would have answered that differently. (firmer) Today is the day. I made the tray. I have the photos. I want to ask one question about the finish. One question. (beat) Why is this hard? Why does my throat feel weird? Why am I sweating in my own office? (softer) These people don't know me. They will never know me. Their usernames are things like WoodGuy1962. (laughs) I'm scared of WoodGuy1962. (longer beat) Okay. Posting it. (clicks) It's up. Oh god. It's up.
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