Find Monologues and Scenes

Topics Covered

Browse Monologue Anthologies
Find Monologue and Scene Anthologies in HOMER
Monologue & Scene Indexes: Print and Web
Choosing a Monologue

Dramatic Arts students often need to find monologues or scenes to use in classes or auditions. Students can find complete plays in UConn's Libraries, or they can browse individual monologues and scenes that have been collected in anthologies. Many of these monologue anthologies have specific themes (e.g., contemporary, classical theater, comic, or specific playwrights) or are intended for a particular group of actors (e.g. women, men, younger, older, actors of color, or scenes for two actors). Use the anthologies to identify characters and situations that you can play, but don't just focus on the monologue. Find the play! It might have other appropriate monologues. Read and study the play, and get understanding of your character and the overall dramatic situation.

Below are strategies for finding monologues in HOMER (UConn's library catalog) or by using indexes.

Browse Monologue Anthologies

PN 2080 !!!

That's where you will find about half of the of the monologue and scene books: PN 2080 in the Babbidge and Music/Drama Libraries. The rest of the anthologies have different call numbers; to find them, you'll need to search HOMER or the indexes below. (HOMER also tells you what's checked out...you won't know this if you only browse the shelves.)

Find Monologue and Scene Anthologies in HOMER

Search HOMER to identify monologue and scene books at the UConn Libraries. Below are search strategies.

Easiest: try these Subject Heading searches in HOMER.

1. Go to HOMER (UConn's library catalog).
2. For type of search, click Subject Heading.
3. Under search terms, type one of the words below.

monologues (gives a long, well-organized list of monologue books or works)
acting auditions (finds additional items, including scenes books)
dialogues (finds a few good compilations mixed with lots of historical material)
drama collections (finds a few more compilations)
The Subject Heading searches above are handy since they retrieve a well-organized list.
Here is a more complete guide to Dramatic Arts Subject Headings (PDF).

Also Easy: try Keyword searches (they let you limit results.

1. Get into HOMER (the library catalog).
2. For type of search, click Keyword.
3. Under search terms, type one or more terms.
4. (Optional) Use the Limit To menu to find only "books."
5. (Optional) A question mark after a root word finds all word endings.
6. (Optional) Click Set More Limits to limit results to the Babbidge or Music/Drama Libraries.

Examples:
acting scenes (good for finding scene anthologies)
acting auditions (finds descriptions containing both words)
monolog? (finds monolog, monologs, monologue, monologues, monologo, monologe, etc.)

You an add the words women or men to your Keyword searches, but be careful. This finds monologue books focusing on just women or men, but you'll miss many books have monologues for both.

For Power Users: Keyword Boolean Searches

The searches and options are the same as Keyword above, except you must use the operators and, or, not between terms.

Examples:
acting auditions (finds descriptions containing both words)
monolog? or dialog? (finds descriptions containing either word).

For more precision, type skey in front of each term (this tells HOMER to search subject keywords). In the Advanced search, selecting Subject does the same thing. Example: skey acting and skey auditions.
To get a list of the scene/monologue books that are not PN2080, do a Keyword Boolean search on skey monologues not pn2080 (also try limiting your results to books).

Monologue & Scene Indexes (Print)

Browsing the monologue and scene books above can be time consuming. To save time, try using an index to identify monologues by genre, age, or gender, number of participants, etc.

Actors Guide to Scenes. By Jane Grumbach. PN 2080 G784 1973 Music Ref.

An Index to Monologs and Dialogs. By Norma Olin Ireland. PN 4305 M6 I64 1949 Babbidge Library

More Actors Guide to Monologues. By Jane Grumbach and Robert Emerson. PN 2080 .G785 1974 Music Ref. (The original Actors Guide to Monologues is in UConn's Greater Hartford Library PN 4321 .E5 1974.)

Play Index. Z 6781 P53 Babbidge & Music Ref. Does not index monologues or scenes, but has "Cast Analysis" sections that identify plays by type and number of actors (e.g., one person, female). Other play indexes also do this.

The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook: An Actor's Guide to Over 1,000 Monologues and Scenes from More than 300 Contemporary Plays. By Ed Hooks. Z 5784 A27 H66 1994 Music Ref.

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Monologue & Scene Indexes (Web)

Colin's Movie Monologue Page Students: consult instructors regarding the use of movie monologues.

Diablo Drama (from Mission Viejo H.S.) Has Web pages with links to monologue and scene Web pages and books. Check HOMER to see if UConn owns any of the books.

Dooley's.com: Character (Cast Number) Search Search for plays by number/type of cast members.

Drew’s Script-O-Rama Monologues from movies. Students: consult instructors regarding the use of movie monologues.

Free Monologue Directory -- Not many entries, but does give age, type, and length.

Monologue Archive -- Browse by playwright, gender, or style (comic, dramatic, classical). Also includes child/senior.

Playdatabase.com: Find a Monologue (Loaded with pop-ups.) Search by character, author, gender, age, monologue type, time period, length, and keyword in summary. Users can add or correct database entries.

Play publishers or vendors (such as Dramatists Play Service or Samuel French) have Web sites that allow you to search for plays by cast numbers.

Shakespeare's Monologues Separate lists for men and women and divided by comedy, history and tragedy. Includes character, first line, verse vs. prose, location in the play, and a link to full text.

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