Where do I find monologues to practice acting?

On this page and in the audition library: public-domain speeches with the situation explained, the text in full and the scene around them voiced. Practice pieces are shorter than audition pieces and have a clear person to talk to, which is what the six above have in common.

How do I practice acting at home by myself?

With a scene, not a mirror. Upload a two-person scene and open it with the other part voiced, play it three ways with three different wants, and record one take on your phone to watch back. Twenty minutes a day of that beats two hours of reading about technique.

What should I bring to acting class?

What the teacher asked for, learned. If the choice is open, a short scene you can do with a partner in class and have already run alone with the other part voiced; class time then goes on the work, not the words.

Are these free acting scripts?

Yes. The authors have been dead more than seventy years, so the texts are in the public domain. Each page names its source edition.

Can one person practice a two-person scene?

That is the point of the rehearsal partner. The other role is voiced, cue mode waits for your line, and you play the scene rather than reciting your half of it.

Practice pieces

Monologues and scenes to practice acting

Short public-domain pieces chosen for practice, not for panels: a clear person to talk to, a want that changes, under two minutes. The situation, the text, and a rehearsal partner that voices the other characters so you can practice at home, alone.

The pieces How actors learn lines

Six monologues for practice

Macbeth · William Shakespeare

Lady Macbeth: "Come, you spirits"

The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And…

Lady Macbeth · 128 words · 1 min spoken

The Merchant of Venice · William Shakespeare

Shylock: "Hath not a Jew eyes?"

To bait fish withal; if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgrac’d me and hind’red me half a million, laugh’d at my losses, mock’d…

Shylock · 194 words · 1 min spoken

Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare

Viola: "I left no ring with her"

I left no ring with her; what means this lady? Fortune forbid my outside have not charm’d her! She made good view of me, indeed, so much, That methought her…

Viola · 207 words · 2 min spoken

A Midsummer Night's Dream · William Shakespeare

Helena: "How happy some o’er other some can be!"

How happy some o’er other some can be! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so; He will not know what all but he…

Helena · 208 words · 2 min spoken

Othello · William Shakespeare

Emilia: "But I do think it is their husbands’ faults"

Yes, a dozen; and as many to the vantage as would store the world they played for. But I do think it is their husbands’ faults If wives do fall: say that they…

Emilia · 175 words · 1 min spoken

The Bear · Anton Chekhov, translated by Julius West

Smirnov on women

[Teasing her] Silly and rude! I don’t know how to behave before women! Madam, in my time I’ve seen more women than you’ve seen sparrows! Three times I’ve…

Smirnov · 400 words · 3 min spoken

Four scenes to practice with the other part voiced

Much Ado About Nothing · William Shakespeare

Beatrice and Benedick: "a kind of merry war"

I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.

Beatrice, Benedick · 225 words · 2 min spoken

Macbeth · William Shakespeare

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: "If we should fail?"

How now! what news?

Macbeth, Lady Macbeth · 467 words · 4 min spoken

Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare

Viola and Olivia: "Make me a willow cabin at your gate"

Good madam, let me see your face.

Viola, Olivia · 482 words · 4 min spoken

The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde

Jack and Algernon: the cigarette case

How are you, my dear Ernest? What brings you up to town?

Algernon, Jack · 663 words · 5 min spoken

How to practice acting at home, alone

Pick a scene, not a speech. Acting is reacting; a scene gives you something to react to. Upload a two-hander and open it with the other role voiced.
Decide what you want from the other person, in one sentence, before you say a word. Then play the scene to get it.
Play it three ways. Same lines, three different wants. Notice which one makes the other character’s lines land differently.
Record one take on your phone and watch it once, for one thing only: were you listening, or waiting to speak?
Twenty minutes, most days. Practice is spacing. Short and often beats long and rare, for lines and for everything else.

For learning the words themselves, see how actors learn their lines. For the reader problem on a self-tape, see self-tape without a reader.

Questions people ask

Where do I find monologues to practice acting?: On this page and in the audition library: public-domain speeches with the situation explained, the text in full and the scene around them voiced. Practice pieces are shorter than audition pieces and have a clear person to talk to, which is what the six above have in common.
How do I practice acting at home by myself?: With a scene, not a mirror. Upload a two-person scene and open it with the other part voiced, play it three ways with three different wants, and record one take on your phone to watch back. Twenty minutes a day of that beats two hours of reading about technique.
What should I bring to acting class?: What the teacher asked for, learned. If the choice is open, a short scene you can do with a partner in class and have already run alone with the other part voiced; class time then goes on the work, not the words.
Are these free acting scripts?: Yes. The authors have been dead more than seventy years, so the texts are in the public domain. Each page names its source edition.
Can one person practice a two-person scene?: That is the point of the rehearsal partner. The other role is voiced, cue mode waits for your line, and you play the scene rather than reciting your half of it.

Practice with the other part voiced

Open any piece from this page or upload your own scene. Free to start.

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