This time you will write a monologue. Make sure to view the happy Polaroids and use one as inspiration. Make sure to look at my sample monologue from the play Cicada. When writing a play you must have a Character. It is not in the same format as fiction writing so do not skip this step.

Completion of Assignment (10)
Elements of Drama present (characters, action, climax, resolution) (10)
Use of Scriptwriting technique/formatting (as opposed to fiction, essay, etc.) (10)
Technical (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.) (10)
Originality & Creativity (10)

Monologue Cicada Example

Example of a monologue:

Ace- I hear Momma’s late night radio talking at me through the cracks in the plaster walls.

Talking ’bout ever-lasting life… ever-lasting. I, myself never had too much of an opinion about that kind of heaven. It never quite seemed all that interesting to me. I mean gold floors would be nice and all. But after a few days who cares, really.

Radio Preacher (voice over) :… and the church said amen…

(In dim light, Lily turns the channel on the transistor radio, arriving on gentle music. The sound softly fills the air.)

Ace- Dying’s not so bad. You just don’t want to die here… not in this house. When you die inside this house you get stuck… trapped..wedged in between the floorboards like an old penny. Held up in the pinesap of it. Your soul goes to fly out the window… and it gets hung in the drapes. Hangin’ in the window there. Lookin’ out-of-doors for always… just blowin’ around in the wind. Catchin. Whatever daylight there is to catch… cold stars way away… suspended in nothing… wanting something. Seems like the more you long for out, the more you’re apt to never get there. There’s two kinds of people trapped in this house… folks too anxious to get out of their body, and the ones who had no intention of goin’ anywhere in the first place. My Grandmother was one of the anxious ones… too anxious to get out of the life she managed to glue together.

(The bedroom wall is backlit revealing the silhouette of a woman stepping onto a chair a noose hangs from the ceiling. She reaches for the noose as lights fade.)

Ace-Yep, she was ready to go. Her soul went sailin’ like a comet. Shhoom! Then, I’ll be damned if she didn’t look around and found herself all stitched up in the hem of this quilt. Layin’ there for all eternity starring up at the cracks in the ceiling.

From Cicada by Jerre Dye

student playwright examples

Example of a Students Monologue, different pictures than your class.

Monologue: Sleeping Witch

(Lights focus on a single tree that is depicted to be in the forest with vast open areas)

Witch: I have always enjoyed these blackberry apples. This tree is the only tree in the world that produces them. Unfortunately they only grow towards the top of the tree so I must climb far up to get them.

(Witch begins to climb the tree)

Witch: I am quite the climber. People think I’m some sort of freak because I can still climb this tree as if I was a little girl… . . . . . I’m 83.

(Witch stops climbing and smiles at the audience for a moment, then winks and begins to climb again)

Witch: I have always wondered why no one has discovered this tree. You know, these blackberry apples are delicious and all, by there is yet another reason I climb this tree. This is the king’s forest and he often hunts boars and other wild game. I see him. . . . . . and I like what I see. He is such a charming, handsome old man. I have watched him hunt many times. . . . . . and that’s what I plan to do now.

(After a while, horses and men are heard coming down the trail in the distance)

Witch: Here he comes. . . . . Oh, am I excited to see his handsome face with his bright white beard and his loud manly voice. He is still that apple of my eye.

(As the king and his men approach, the witch becomes nervous and accidently lets a blackberry apple slip from her fingers and hit the ground underneath the tree. The king spots an odd black object fall from the tree and wanders over to investigate.)

Witch: Oh my, I must remain quiet! If he discovers me he might capture me and . . . . . I would be his queen and massage his manly shoulders and we would take long walks together and I would feed him grapes and . . . . . . .

(Just then the branch snaps beneath the witch’s feet and she falls to the ground by the king’s feet)