LibGuides: Theatre Arts: Finding Works (Monologues, Scripts, etc.)

Plays

Browse works

Browse all plays (Drama Online)
Full text plays from 500s BCE to 2000s. Partial content available (you might find a lock icon on unavailable content).
All Full Text Drama (Literature Online Database)
Browse all drama texts. Does not offer much at all after 1900.
Browse Videos of Plays (Theatre in Video)
Browse by type or search by title. Each video has a transcript that can be copied for short pieces.

Search by Title of Work

Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Subjects: Theatre Arts, Film Television and Media Studies
Description: Primary source collection containing full text plays, film and audio adaptations, and image collections. LMU has access to selected content in this database.
Contents: Primary Sources
LitFinder This link opens in a new window
Subjects: English, Irish Studies,Jewish Studies, African American Studies, Asian Pacific and Asian American Studies, Chicano Studies
Description: Primary source collection from Gale Cengage Learning containing full text. Includes materials from 1800-present. Contains literary works and secondary-source materials covering world literature and authors throughout history.
Contents: Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journal Articles; Primary Sources; Primary texts in translation
Theatre and Drama Online Premium This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
The Drama Texts Collection within Theatre and Drama Online Premium offers over 13,000 plays from 1700-present. Most of the scripts are from the 20th century. The 18th century plays include several examples by women authors.

Title & Subject has Monologues
Find here the results of an Advanced Search that combines a title search with "Monologues" and a subject search with "Monologues"

You can search for plays in OneSearch catalog using subject, keywords, or author.

If you know the title of the work:

Open OneSearch Catalog
Open the "Any Field" drop-down, select "Title"
Enter the title of the work
Click Search

Do the same for author by selecting "Author" at step 2. Last name first, though! Here are some suggested playwrights:

Paula Vogel, Sarah Kane, Alan Bennnet, Agatha Christie, Eve Ensler, Larissa Fasthorse, David Harrower, Mike Bartlett, Danai Gurira, Arlene Hutton, Diane Glancy, Arthur Miller, Yazmina Reza, Nilo Cruz, Sarah Schulman, Stephen Karam, Linda Hogan,Tom Stoppard, Simon Stephens, Jim Northrup, David Auburn, Lorraine Hansberry, Julia Cho, John Logan, Maria Irene Fornez, Marsha Norman, Lisa Loomer, Amiri Baraka, Lynn Nottage, Ayad Aktar, Megan Terry, Jane Chambers, Joyce Carol Oates, Eugene O’Neill, Lanford Wilson, Susan Miller, Sarah Ruhl, Ntozake Shange

If you want to browse select works, try these options:

All Works Tagged under Drama
Titles in LINUS catalog tagged with Drama as a genre. Click further topics for individual plays.
Titles Tagged under 21st Century Drama
Titles in the OneSearch catalog tagged with the subject "American drama -- 21st century"
Author Search: Dramatists Play Service (New York, N.Y.)
Titles in OneSearch catalog with Dramatists Play Service (New York, N.Y.) as Author. Should include published plays.
Plays Published by Samuel French
Titles in OneSearch Catalog published by Samuel French, a larger acting publisher.

Twenty-five short plays : selected works from the University of North Carolina Long Story Shorts festival, 2011-2015 by Dana Coen
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2017
Marking the first five years of the festival, this anthology showcases works written to be performed in ten minutes with a small production budget.
Plays for Two by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780345804556
Publication Date: 2014
Plays for Two is a unique anthology of twenty-eight terrific plays for two actors, by a mix of celebrated playwrights and cutting-edge new voices. These four full-length and twenty-four short plays feature pairs of every sort offer the kind of meaty, challenging roles actors love, while providing readers and audiences with the pleasures of watching the complex give-and-take dynamics of two keenly matched characters.
Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940 by James V. Hatch (Editor); Leo Hamalian (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780814338339
This compilation of sixteen plays written during the Harlem Renaissance brings together for the first time the works of Langston Hughes, George S. Schuyler, Francis Hall Johnson, Shirley Graham, and others.
Contemporary Scenes for Actors, Women by Michael Earley; Philippa Keil
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2013-09-13
Collection of scenes two women or one woman and one man.

Small-Cast One-Act Guide Online
This site describes 5518 one-act plays using four or fewer actors. It names unpublished and published scripts in multiple languages and various media by worldwide playwrights.
That Unforgettable Link: Contemporary Play Advisory
The purpose of this blog is to introduce students to playwrights and plays they might not be aware of, and to suggest monologues and scenes that might be appropriate for class work.
Project Gutenberg One-Act plays
Victorian Plays
Shakespeare's Plays
One-Act Plays.com
Plays in the open domain (published before 1922).
Dramatists.com
Browse plays by title and read synopsis then find play in the library catalog.
SimplyScripts
Browse full text scripts.
Inter-Play
Listings of plays but not full-text. Search for plays by author name, title, or source title. Not updated since 2013.

Monologues

Monologues in OneSearch catalog can be tagged using subjects, keywords, and authors.

If you know the title of the work:

Open OneSearch Catalog
On the "Any Field" drop-down, select "Title"
Enter the title of the work
Click Search

If you want to browse select works, try these options:

Advanced Search: Monologues
These results are from an Advanced Search combining a title search with "Monologues" and a subject search with "Monologues"
All Library Items for Monologues -- Drama
Links to all the items in our library tagged with Monologues (Drama) as a form/genre. Includes collections of monologues from films and plays.
All Library Items Tagged with Acting
Link to all OneSearch catalog items tagged with Acting including monologues, audition pieces, and acting guides.
Titles from the Monologues Audition Series
All titles in the OneSearch catalog tagged with the Monologue Audition Series.

Award Monologues for Women by Patrick Tucker (Editor); Christine Ozanne (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781136023668
Publication Date: 2012-11-12
Award Monologues for Women is a collection of fifty-four monologues taken from plays written since 1980 that have been nominated for the Pullitzer Prize, the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards in New York, and The Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Awards in London. The book provides an excellent range of up-to-date audition pieces, usefully arranged in age groups, and is supplemented with audition tips to improve your acting, and to ensure the best possible performance.
Award Monologues for Men by Patrick Tucker (Editor); Christine Ozanne (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2012-11-12
Award Monologues for Men is a collection of fifty monologues taken from plays written since 1980 that have been nominated for the Pullitzer Prize, the Tony and the Drama Desk Awards in New York, and The Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier Awards in London. The book provides an excellent range of up-to-date audition pieces, usefully arranged in age groups, and is supplemented with audition tips to improve your acting, and to ensure you give your best possible performance.
Monologues for actors of color : women by Roberta Uno
Call Number: eBook
Actors of colour need the best speeches to demonstrate their skills and hone their craft. Roberta Uno has carefully selected monologues that represent African-American, Native American, Latino, and Asian-American identities. Each monologue comes with an introduction and notes on the characters and stage directions to set the scene for the actor.
The Kilroys' List by Paula Vogel (Introduction by); The Kilroys Staff
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2017-07-04
The collection is comprised of ninety-nine monologues, each from a different play off "The List" from 2014 and 2015, featuring the most unproduced (or under-produced), yet highest-recommended, plays by women in the United States. T

Monologues - Advanced Search (Drama Online)
Search monologues by keyword or use filters to browse by type. Results are full-text plays.

Theatre and Drama Online Premium This link opens in a new window
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Search within a Collection of Plays (Drama Texts Collection, Asian-Americam Drama, North American Women's Women's Drama, etc.)

Monologue Archive
Copyright free monologues for men, women, children, and seniors
Non-Binary Monologues
Monologues for Non-Binary Actors.
Audition Monologues
These monologues have COPYRIGHT and should be used only for educational purposes.
Charles Mee the (re)making project
Texts of plays adapted from or inspired by earlier plays, creating fresh originals. Within The Plays tab, includes a link to Love Sonnets (Monologues)
Ace Your Audition Monologues
Select monologues categorized by gender and age. Includes some COPYRIGHT films and other works.
Shakespeare's Monologues
A complete database of Shakespeare's Monologues. All of them. The monologues are organized by play, then categorized by comedy, history and tragedy. You can browse and/or search by keyword.