Celia Monologue

As You Like It

Celia doesn’t technically have a monologue, but her exchange with Rosalind can be cut into a reasonable shape. Remember that when you perform intercut monologues, don’t pause as if you’re waiting for someone else to speak - that’s distracting for the audition panel. Instead, give yourself a pause to think. Create a powerful thought that replaces your scene partner’s lines; something that can help you move from one idea to the next.

Here they are, discussing their plan to run away together after Celia’s dad banishes Rosalind (Celia’s cousin).

When cut, this monologue will be around 1.5 minutes.

Act 1, Scene 3

CELIA

O my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go?
Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine.
I charge thee be not thou more grieved than I am.

ROSALIND

I have more cause.

CELIA

Thou hast not, cousin.
Prithee be cheerful; know’st thou not the duke
Hath banished me, his daughter?

ROSALIND

That he hath not.

CELIA

No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love
Which teacheth thee that thou and I am one.
Shall we be sundered ? Shall we part, sweet girl?
No, let my father seek another heir:
Therefore devise with me how we may fly,
Whither to go and what to bear with us.
And do not seek to take your change upon you,
To bear your griefs yourself and leave me out,
For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale,
Say what thou canst, I’ll go along with thee -

ROSALIND

Why, whither shall we go?

CELIA

To seek your father in the forest of Arden.

ROSALIND

Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold.

CELIA

I’ll put myself in poor and mean attire
And with a kind of umber smirch my face.
The like do you. So shall we pass along
And never stir assailants.