Monologues!

Here are the monologues for auditions, whenever they may be. Please memorize one (gender appropriate) and create a character! Be expressive! Bring your best! :)



PHILIA (female)



My name is Philia. I cost 500 minae. Is that a lot of money? More than 300? Those are the two numbers that mix me up, three and five. I hope that captain doesn’t expect me to do a lot of adding. We are taught beauty and grace, and no more. I cannot add, or spell or anything. I have but one talent.




DOMINA (female)



Ah, Hero. Your father and I are off to visit my mother in the country. What a joy it would be were you to accompany us. But alas, the sight of anyone in good health fills my mother with rage. The time of farewell is at hand. Hysterium! Slave-in-chief, here are my husband's final instructions: In his absence his entire household is in your spotless care. Your word shall be absolute, your authority unquestioned. Farewell beloved son. Farewell thoughtful Hysterium. Senex, come along!





PSEUDOLUS (male)

His book of potions! And my pass to freedom! What I need is his potent sleeping potion. With a drop or two of that, the breath stops short, the eyes slam shut, the body hangs limp. I shall mix a few drops in a beaker of wine and give it to the girl to drink. I show Lycus that she has died of the Plague and tell Hero to dispose of the body. Then they to the boat, I to the hills, (Points to audience.) . . .and you to your homes, (looks through pages, then to audience ) I just remembered something frightening. I cannot read! Hero! Come out here. Call these pages off to me.







HYSTERIUM (male)

Who is she? Where is she from? A courtesan! Hero, this will never do. Never, never. Pseudolus! I might have known! Arranging an assignation between an innocent boy and a you-know-what! Hero, as you know, your mother and father placed me in charge of your innocence. Bid farewell to this young lady so that she can go about her-uh-business.





PROLOGUS (Pseudolus) (male or female)

Playgoers, I bid you welcome. The theatre is a temple, and we are here to worship the gods of comedy and tragedy. Tonight I am pleased to announce a comedy. We shall employ every device we know in our desire to divert you. It all takes place on a street in Rome, around and about these three houses. First, the house of Eronius, a befuddled old man abroad now in search of his children, stolen in infancy by pirates.



PROLOGUS (Senex) (male or female)

Permit me to remind you where we were when last you saw us. The virgin was waiting— that's what they do best—waiting here in the house for her captain to claim her. She has refused to drink the potion on religious grounds. Lycus skulks about the city, searching for Philia. Hero is at the baths where he sits and soaks. His mother is on the way to the country to visit her mother. A hundred and four years old, and not one organ in working condition. The courtesans, Miles Gloriosis and his mighty warriors, and Hysterium and Pseudolus are here. And I, SENEX, await the maid in my neighbor's house, hopefully about to sow my last oat, if memory serves. Let the play continue!