Contemporary Duologues: One Man & One Woman

Trilby James

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781780018515
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning

THE GOOD AUDITION GUIDES:
Helping you select and perform the audition piece that is best suited to your performing skills

As an actor at any level – whether you are doing theatre studies at school, taking part in youth theatre, preparing for drama-school showcases, or attending professional acting workshops – you will often be required to prepare a duologue with a fellow performer. Your success is often based on locating and selecting a fresh, dynamic scene suited to your specific performing skills, as well as your interplay as a duo. Which is where this book comes in.

This collection features twenty-five fantastic duologues for one man and one woman, all written since the year 2000 by some of our most exciting dramatic voices, offering a wide variety of character types and styles of writing.

Playwrights featured include Howard Brenton, Jez Butterworth, Caryl Churchill, Sam Holcroft, Anna Jordan, Lucy Kirkwood, Rona Munro, Evan Placey, Jessica Swale and Jack Thorne, and the plays themselves were premiered at the very best theatres across the UK including the National Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange, the Traverse in Edinburgh, Shakespeare's Globe, and the Almeida, Bush, Hampstead and Royal Court Theatres.

Drawing on her experience as an actor, director and teacher at several leading drama schools, Trilby James equips each duologue with a thorough introduction including the vital information you need to place the piece in context (the who, what, when, where and why) and suggestions about how to perform the scene to its maximum effect (including the characters' objectives).

The collection also features an introduction on the whole process of selecting and preparing a duologue, and how to present it to the greatest effect. The result is the most comprehensive and useful contemporary duologue book of its kind now available.

'Sound practical advice... a source of inspiration for teachers and students alike' Teaching Drama Magazine on The Good Audition Guides

Ramallah^*

David Greig

WHOHelen, Scottish, early-thirties, and David, her husband, early-thirties, Scottish.

WHERETheir kitchen.

WHENA late-summer evening. Present day.

WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENEDThe following duologue is a short two-hander and a complete play in itself.

WHAT TO CONSIDER

• The political background. Familiarise yourself with the tensions that exist between Israel and Palestine and the profound and devastating effect it has had on the ordinary people living in the West Bank.

• Although physically together in their kitchen, Helen and David are in two very different worlds.

• The difficulty of returning home from a life-changing experience. How does one cope with processing what one has seen and how do those who have stayed at home respond to the changes they perceive in the one who has been gone. Both Helen and David must readjust.

WHAT HELEN WANTS

• Her old husband back.

WHAT DAVID WANTS

• To share his experience with Helen and for her to understand.

WHAT THE SCENE IS ABOUT Separation, change, readjustment.

NB The volume in which Ramallah is published offers a number of other duologues from which to choose.

DANIEL pours the wine.
HELEN	It’s nice to have you back.
DANIEL	It’s good to be – It’s strange.
	He kisses her.
HELEN	You smell of cigarettes.
DANIEL	Yes. I know.
HELEN	Were you smoking?
DANIEL	Everyone smokes there. It’s almost rude not to. And it was a tense environment. It’s difficult to explain. I wanted to smoke.
HELEN	So you’ve started smoking.
DANIEL	I haven’t started smoking. I smoked. There is a difference.
HELEN	You can’t smoke in the house.
DANIEL	Of course not.
	Something of a pause.
	What do you think of the wine?
	HELEN tastes.
HELEN	Mmm.
DANIEL	G...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 2nd May 1997
• Anne Boleyn
• Blue Stockings
• Britannia Waves the Rules
• Chicken Shop
• Chimerica
• Fault Lines
• God’s Property
• Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons
• Love and Information
• Moth
• Pandas
• Pronoun
• Rafta, Rafta…
• Ramallah
• The River
• Scarborough
• Scuttlers
• Sex with a Stranger
• Spinning
• Tiger Country
• Unbroken
• Unscorched
• While You Lie
• Yen
• The Good Audition Guides
• About The Author
• Copyright Information