In these pages, you will find sixty terrific monologues, all from recently published plays. Included on the Rights and Permissions pages is information as to who published each play, so if you like a piece in this book, the entire text will be easy to track down. Although there are some wonderful monologues for women �of a certain age,� most of the pieces in this book are appropriate for acting students in their twenties or early thirties. There are, however, some fine monologues here for high and middle schoolers. Something for everyone from Smith and Kraus!
Here, you will find monologues from plays by the finest contemporary playwrights, such as Theresa Rebeck, Ken Ludwig, Don Nigro and Paul Weitz, who have achieved considerable success in the theater, and work from exciting newcomers such as Danai Gurira, Nikkole Salter, Jonathan Rand, Doug Rand, Robert Pridham, and Joseph Goodrich, in a variety of styles.
I was chastised last year, in a generally favorable review of the 2005 monologue books, for not including enough comic pieces � so with considerable effort I have found several for this year�s books. Why �with considerable effort�? you might well ask. Well, because published plays tend to come from America�s nonprofit theaters, where (it seems) everything has to be dark and disturbing and oh-so-terribly �cutting-edge.� I hope you will find enough comic monologues in this book to suit your needs; but if you need to keep looking I highly recommend one of Smith and Kraus� recent publications, The Ultimate Monologue Book, Volume IV: 222 Comedy Monologues 2 Minutes & Under, edited by John Capecci and Irene Ziegler Aston, a wonderful selection of contemporary and classical pieces.
I have had the honor of editing Smith and Kraus� annual Best Monologues series since 2001. I think this year�s edition is the best yet; but ultimately, that�s for you to say.
