How to cut an audition monologue
Cutting a Shakespeare monologue for an audition is risky.
Imagine you are an architect, and a client comes to you and says, “This building is too tall and it’s blocking my view of the ocean. Can you please make it smaller?”
Firstly, you might react along the lines of, “Uh, no, I made it that way for a reason!”
But the client insists. So you try to figure out a way to do it.
The most obvious way, of course, would be to remove a few floors from the top of the building. Then you could possibly just repair the roof and it would be fine. (I know I’m challenging physics and practicality with this metaphor, but just roll with me for a bit longer.)
But your client says, “No, I don’t like those 3 floors in the middle of the building. Can’t we just remove those?”
NO. The answer is a flat no. Chop out the middle of a building and you’re risking structural integrity. This isn’t Jenga.
The same goes for a monologue. All monologues have structural integrity. You need to trust that Shakespeare wrote it that way for a reason. A monologue is not a sonnet; there isn’t a required number of lines. Shakespeare could have made it much shorter or much longer if he thought that was needed. But he didn’t. Shakespeare wrote as much as he thought was required to explain what’s going on and give the character enough of a chance to make an impact on the person they're speaking to.
Hack a section out of the middle and you’ll likely find that it’s difficult to build up momentum, or the monologue becomes very flat and ‘samey’, or it misses crucial information.
Your best option is to cut only lines from the start or end of the monologue, rather than sections from the middle. If that’s not doable, I would recommend asking yourself honestly whether this is definitely the very best monologue for you to do for this audition.
It is, you say? This is absolutely the only monologue you can choose right now that best showcases your skills and talent? Well… I’ll take your word for it. Let’s look at a way to get around this problem.
If you really need to cut a section from somewhere in the middle of the monologue, the key is to understand the function of each beat.
Here are some step by step instructions:
Divide the monologue into beats (‘chunks’ or sections, usually about 2-4 lines long, each encapsulating one main thought)
Label the function of each beats. That is, why is it there?
Beats usually either: provides new information, helps the character make a decision, or raises the stakes (takes the character further into their emotional journey).Note if any beats are similar - if so, you can cut one of them!
NB: Never cut a beat with new information or decisions. If two beats provide the same new information, that’s ok, you can cut one of them - pick the one that seems less direct or less emotional.
Keep in mind that when you cut a monologue, it is condensing the dramatic arc. That means that your character needs to reach their objective/make a decision over a shorter period of time. You need to take that into account in your acting. Things may get more intense, faster.
And there’s more (I’m so sorry).
If you really want to ace this thing, you need to also keep the structural integrity of the lines.
That means - you need to avoid cutting half lines!
If you allow me to continue with my terrible building analogy from earlier, cutting half a line is a bit like just chipping a bit off the side of the building. It doesn’t make any sense, and it’ll probably make the whole thing tip over!
So if you’re cutting out a section in the middle of your monologue, and the section ends with a half line, there are two ways you can fix that problem.
Leave a pause.
Shakespeare wrote in Iambic Pentameter, which has 5 ‘beat’s in a line, and that rhythm has a certain flow to it. If you cut half a line, you’re interrupting the flow. You need something to fill that space - so take a short pause to fill the extra beats.
Try to only do this when it is APPROPRIATE to pause, like when a character is making a decision. Pauses are generally not super useful in Shakespeare.Combine two half lines.
The good thing (sort of) about monologues that have sentences that finish in the middle of lines, is that it often happens over and over again throughout the monologue. So if you’ve had to cut half a line earlier on, there’s a chance you might need to ‘restart’ at a point that is also in the middle of a line! In which case, you can put the two half-lines together.
If possible, check that the two half lines add up to 5 beats.If this is making your brain explode - don’t stress about the line integrity, and just focus on the structural integrity. And above all, TRY IT OUT!
Get up on the floor and speak it out loud and see how it flows. If it feels like your character suddenly gets upset out of nowhere, or if it’s really hard to build to a climax, or if you generally feel like you’re driving along a stupidly bumpy road… maybe try a different cut.
Keep trying different options until you feel like it’s working.
OK, so that’s it! What a crazy ride, hey? If you have any questions about cutting, you can drop me a comment below.
