Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway (editor) - Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors: Monologues for Women

Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian
and Middle Eastern Actors
Monologues for Women

This book is dedicated to my mother Charmaine Miller, sister Naomi Dallaway, cousin Cherene Miller and partner Reginald Edmund.

Rest in Eternal Peace

Uncle Jeremiah, Nanny Catherine and Junior Bertie

Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian
and Middle Eastern Actors
Monologues for Women

Edited by
SIMEILIA HODGE-DALLAWAY

Foreword by
Lolita Chakrabarti

Bloomsbury Methuen Drama

An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

We gratefully acknowledge financial assistance from the
Arts Council England and the National Lottery

Contents

I envy you this volume. Twenty-five years ago when I started acting there wasnt a book like this one. When I auditioned for drama school I had to find a classical and a modern piece. Following my drama teachers advice I chose Goneril from King Lear and a middle-aged African American woman from Arthur Millers The American Clock . I was seventeen. It was beautiful writing and pushed my acting abilities, but I made that choice because of a lack of options. I did not know where else to look.

This book gives you a huge head start. It is a signpost showing you what is out there and pointing the way to good stories by great writers with well-rounded female characters.

This is an important collection of monologues in a marketplace where women of colour are rarely centre stage. All too often we are background characters with minor voices, women who support the central narrative but have no real effect on its progress. Here, you have interesting, emotional, conflicted, humorous and fascinating women who are integral to the plot.

This is an essential resource for actresses who have the ability to play these roles. Its a great mark of your versatility as an actress to be able to play characters with different cultural identities. To be able to switch from Shakepeares Juliet to Salima in Ruined by Lynn Nottage; from Anouilhs Antigone to Reema in Khandan by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti; from Euripides Medea to Angela in Category B by Roy Williams, requires true actorly transformation.

As I read the monologues in this book I was genuinely moved. These characters are singular windows into a fascinating array of cultures women from all walks of life with whom we can empathise as their problems and flaws are revealed and explored. Drama allows us to travel without leaving our hometown. It personalizes stories from cultures we are not part of, offering a new understanding of people, values and morality from a different perspective. So with all that in mind, taking these words and making these people live is quite a responsibility!

Auditions are always hard because you have to sustain a dramatic narrative in your head while standing in a fully lit room before a panel that judges you. The more preparation you do, the easier it is. I always find it surprising when actors do not read the play from which their monologue is taken. The playwright has laced the story with everything you need to know about what motivates your character. The more you sit in your character through knowledge and study, the easier the playing becomes. And ultimately, knowing your characters impulses and desires will make the words your own.

In her introduction Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway says this is a celebration of a diverse range of captivating and truly memorable leading female characters. I wholeheartedly agree. Enjoy them and speak loud! These are voices that need to be heard.

Playwright and actor

All rights whatsoever in these plays are strictly reserved and application for performance etc. should be made before rehearsals begin to the following contacts. No performance may be given unless a licence has been obtained.

Alaska by DC Moore

By professionals to Troika Talent, 10a Christina Street, London EC2A 4PA,

Copyright David Moore 2007

Archipelago by Caridad Svich

Elaine Devlin Literary Inc., 411 Lafayette Street, 6th Floor, NY, NY 10003 USA,

Copyright Caridad Svich 2013, 2015. Reprinted by permission of StageReads LLC and the author

At Her Feet by Nadia Davids

Oshun Books, Random House Struik, The Estuaries, No 4, Oxbow Crescent, Century Avenue, Century City, 7441, PO Box 1144, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa

Extract from At Her Feet by Nadia Davids. Copyright Nadia Davids 2002. Used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited

The Beloved by Amir Nizar Zuabi

Judy Daish Associates Limited, 2 St Charles Place, London W10 6EG,

Copyright Amir Nizar Zuabi 2012

Black Jesus by Anders Lustgarten

Curtis Brown Group Ltd., Haymarket House, 2829 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP,

Copyright Anders Lustgarten 2013

Blood by Emteaz Hussain

Julia Tyrrell Management Ltd., 57 Greenham Road, London N10 1LN,

Copyright Emteaz Hussain 2015

Boys With Cars by Anita Majumdar

Playwrights Canada Press, 269 Richmond Street West, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1X1, Canada,

Excerpted from Boys With Cars by Anita Majumdar. Copyright Anita Majumdar 2015. Reprinted by permission of Playwrights Canada Press

Bulrusher by Eisa Davis

The Gersh Agency, 41 Madison Avenue, 33rd Floor, New York, NY 10010,

Copyright Eisa Davis 2012

A Canadian Monsoon by Sheila James

For performance information, please contact the author, Sheila James, at

Copyright Sheila James 1993. Reprinted by permission of the author

Category B by Roy Williams

Alan Brodie Representation, Paddock Suite, The Courtyard, 55 Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HA,

Copyright Roy Williams 2009

Chef by Sabrina Mahfouz

By professionals to Curtis Brown Group Ltd., Haymarket House, 2829 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP,

Copyright Sabrina Mahfouz 2015

Child of the Divide by Sudha Bhuchar

By professionals to Tamasha, Rich Mix, 3547 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA,

Copyright Sudha Bhuchar 2006

Crash by Pamela Mala Sinha

John Rait, A.C.I., 205 Ontario Street, Toronto, ON M5A 2V6, Canada

Copyright Pamela Mala Sinha 2014. Reprinted with permission of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

A Day at the Racists by Anders Lustgarten

Curtis Brown Group Ltd., Haymarket House, 2829 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4SP, ,

Copyright Anders Lustgarten 2010

Desert Sunrise by Misha Shulman

Misha Shulman, 610 East 7th Street, 1B, Brooklyn, NY, 11218, USA

Excerpted from Salaam, Peace: An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama . Copyright Misha Shulman 2009. Reprinted by permission of Theatre Communications Group

The Fever Chart by Naomi Wallace

The Gersh Agency, 41 Madison Avenue, 33rd Floor, New York, NY 10010

Excerpted from The Fever Chart: Three Visions of the Middle East . Copyright Naomi Wallace 2009. Reprinted by permission of Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 100184156

Fireworks by Dalia Taha

Casarotto Ramsay & Associates Ltd, Waverley House, 712 Noel Street, London W1F 8GQ,

Copyright Dalia Taha 2015; translation copyright Clem Naylor 2015

Fish Eyes Trilogy by Anita Majumdar

Playwrights Canada Press, 269 Richmond Street West, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1X1, Canada,

Excerpted from Fish Eyes by Anita Majumdar. Copyright Anita Majumdar 2015. Reprinted by permission of Playwrights Canada Press

Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears

John Rait, A.C.I., 205 Ontario Street, Toronto, ON M5A 2V6, Canada