Audition Speeches for Women

Jean Marlow

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780878301461
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135867935
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Teatro

Audition Speeches for Women is an invaluable resource for acting classes, competitions, auditions, and rehearsals, and an affordable and necessary tool for serious actors everywhere.

AUDITION SPEECHES
^for WOMEN

LINDSAY

mid 30s

THE ABSENCE OF WAR

David Hare

First produced at the Olivier Theatre in 1993 as part of the Royal National Theatre’s David Hare trilogy. This is the third part of the trilogy about British institutions and it looks at the way politicians think and act today and the problems that beset them.

After a long period of turmoil, the Leader’s office has imposed an uneasy period of calm on the Labour Party. But the leader, George Jones, knows he has only one chance of power. LINDSAY FONTAINE is George’s new publicity adviser. She is described as articulate and quick thinking. George’s minder, Andrew Buchan and his political adviser, Oliver Dix, are both uneasy over the appointment. George himself is unperturbed.

The election is going badly and LINDSAY wants to hold an emergency meeting. Andrew says that they’ve been trying to introduce properly organised meetings and this is not the time to let that discipline go. George insists that LINDSAY speaks her mind.

Published by Faber & Faber, London

LINDSAY

You see, George, from the beginning, I’ve had a real problem. The first time I met you, I thought, here’s this extraordinary man. In private, articulate, funny, authoritative. Yet who tightens up the minute he goes public, the minute he talks policy.

(Andrew has sat down on the edge of the table. Gwenda is standing over George.)

So the first thing I did was begin to look around you. It’s obvious, really. I began to talk to your team. And it’s like … I don’t know … it was like they’d forgotten, it was clear they’d lost sight of who you really are.

(Andrew looks across to George.)

… No, everything they said, it was as if they were trying to protect you. I found I developed that protective mentality myself. (She smiles at George.) I started to see you as a sort of patient in hospital. And like the rest of us I started to behave like I was a nurse. … I know it’s cowardly to say this when Oliver’s not here. But he does create a certain atmosphere. … He creates a nervousness, and I have to say that nervousness has taken its toll.

(George is watching, giving nothing away.)

That night in the studio, I watched you, I realized … way before Linus Frank did his trick … I thought, this man is trapped. He can only convey one message to the nation:‘Oh God, I hope I don’t drop a bollock tonight …’

(Andrew shakes his head.)

… Oh yes, you explained to me. George once made a blunder, what was it, six years ago …? … and for that you still want to punish him. You decided for some reason to smother his wit. All his gaiety. His humour.

(Andrew turns away, angry now.)

…And that’s why he’s angry. Underneath George is always bloody furious. He’s angry. And who can blame him?

(George watches, giving nothing away.)

Everything in him wants to let rip.

(Andrew looks to George, but LINDSAY goes straight on.)

The public aren’t stupid. They know he’s been programmed. It’s not hard to work out why this man’s ratings are low. The public see only one thing when they look at him, and that’s six rolls of sticky tape wrapped round his mouth …

(She turns, indignant now.)

What’s wrong with us? Are we really so cynical … are we so arrogant, that we truly imagine the public can’t tell?

ALBERTINE AT 30

30

ALBERTINE IN FIVE TIMES

Michel Tremblay
Translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco

First performed in this country at the Donmar Warehouse, London by the Tarragon Theatre, Toronto in 1986.

ALBERTINE is performed by five different actresses at successive ages in the character’s life – thirty, forty, fifty, sixty and seventy. All five talk to each other freely and also to ALBERTINE’s sister, Madeleine.

ALBERTINE AT 30 is recuperating after viciously beating her eleven year old daughter, Thérèse. In this scene she is trying to explain to Madeleine and the other Albertines the rage she feels inside that led her to attack her own child.

Published by Nick Hern Books, London

ALBERTINE AT 30

I’m young, I’m strong, I could do so much if it weren’t for this rage, gnawing at me … Sometimes I think it’s all that keeps me alive … I’ll tell you why I’m here this week, Madeleine, you’ll understand … You’ll understand what I mean by this rage.

(Silence. The other Albertines and Madeleine listen carefully.)

My child, my own daughter, my Thérèse, who I fight with all the time because we’re so alike … though I try to bring her up as best I can …It’s true, you know, I do the best I can … I don’t know much, but what I do know I try to pass on to my kids … though they never listen. Another thing that enrages me … Anyway … my Thérèse who I always thought was so innocent, with her dolls and those girlfriends she leads around by the nose … Believe it or not, she was seeing a man. A man, Madeleine, not some brat her own age who’d be happy to kiss her with her mouth closed, but a grown man! … Eleven years old, Madeleine, and he was chasing her like she was a woman! Following her everywhere. And she let him do what he liked, without a word. She knew, and she didn’t say a word! … She liked it, Madeleine, she told me herself. And that’s why I beat her. … Naturally I found out by accident. I was lying on the sofa the other day, in the middle of the afternoon … I could feel a storm brewing … Mother’d been in a rotten mood all day, the kids were driving me nuts … Thérèse came to sit on the front balcony with her friend Pierrette.

(Silence.)

They talked about it like it was an everyday thing … Pierrette asked Thérèse if she’d seen her ‘gent’ lately and she said he disappeared the beginning of June. I assumed it was some neighbourhood kid, and I figured:‘Here we go, boy problems. Already.’ Then I realized it wasn’t that at all. They were talking about him like he was an actor, for God’s sake. Comparing him to those movie stars in the magazines … They even said he was better looking! I lay there, horrified … They had no idea … of the danger … the danger of men, Madeleine … And when Thérèse started talking about the last time she saw him, how he got down on his knees in front of her right on the street and put his head on … her belly, I got up, not knowing what I was doing and went out on the balcony … and I started to hit her, Madeleine. … I didn’t know where I was hitting. I just hit her as hard as I could. Thérèse was screaming, Pierrette was crying, the neighbours coming out of their houses … and I didn’t stop … I couldn’t. It wasn’t just Thérèse I was hitting, it was … my whole life … I couldn’t find the words to explain the danger, so I just hit! (She turns toward her sister.) I never told Thérèse much about men ’cause the words would have been filthy. (Silence.) If Gabriel hadn’t come out and separated us, I would have killed her.

(Madeleine puts her hand on her sisters shoulder who throws herself into her arms.)

I didn’t cry, Madeleine. Not once. And I still can’t. (Silence.) Rage.

An excerpt (abridged) from Albertine in Five Times by Michel Tremblay.

Translated by John Van Burek and Bill Glassco.

Published by Nick Hern Books, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road,

London W12 8QP.

CAROLINE

German

late 20s

BATTLE ROYAL

Nick Stafford

First performed on the Lyttleton stage of the Royal National Theatre in December 1999.

The play follows the events of the tempestuous marriage of George IV and his outspoken wife, CAROLINE of Brunswick – from their first disastrous meeting in 1795 prior to the wedding, through their inevitable separation and his failed attempt to divorce her for adultery, to her death in 1821.

In this opening scene CAROLINE has been summoned to London from Brunswick. The Prince Regent is under pressure to marry and CAROLINE, whose mother is the King’s sister, is considered the most suitable candidate. She is standing impatiently in a room in the palace whilst her maid, Mariette, is attempting to prepare her for this first important meeting.

Published by Faber & Faber, London

CAROLINE

I cannot sit still any more, I cannot sit at all – … And I must pace and I must fidget. Oh my heartbeat, oh my breath – ow! Yes. Good. Here. I am still. No. Still enough? Good. God, help me through this ordeal. Here I am, then. Here we are. In England. Summoned from an outpost. Me. Here I am. See his picture? (locket) … ‘Here,’ said kind Lord Malmesbury, ‘this is his portrait.’ Isn’t Lord Malmesbury a true English gentleman? … What a land if they all resemble him – which they don’t, of course.… Goodbye, mother; goodbye, father. So proud he’s chosen me.‘Oh my God!,’ my mother said.‘The Prince of Wales seeks your hand? I do not dare to believe.’ The line of carriages; goodbye, goodbye Brunswick – goodbye! Head for the sea. This way, that way. A diversion! Napoleon’s troops reported over there! Camp here. Wait for escort. Here. Go on. Safe now. To the ship. And Malmesbury, so attentive: ‘Perhaps, Ma’am, perhaps I may show you how the Prince conducts himself at the dinner table. Like so. And so. And so.’ … And ahoy! a...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• JEAN MARLOW
• Contents
• Audition Speeches
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• More about Auditioning
• Audition Speeches for Women
• Useful Addresses
• Copyright holders