Trista asks her best friend from 8th grade to be her maid of honor. Problem is, they haven't been friends since 8th grade.

Great comedic premise and well executed. Stakes are beautifully high with Trista desperate to have a friend be there for her as her maid of honor. Trista is socially clueless, unintentionally offending her 8th grade bestie at every turn.

​Find this monologue for women in "105 Five-Minute Plays" within the play "Favor" by Christina Luzarraga.

Start the monologue on page 188 with the line "Anyway I invited you here because there's something I wanted to ask you." Cut interjection lines and finish on pg 189 with "...it was like you had an extra hand. Get it?"

The small progress we have made after 4 or 5 weeks with each other - our different sentiments on almost every question, producing as many noes as ayes, is proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding.

In this situation, groping in the dark to find political truth, how has it happened that we have not once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understanding?

In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, we had daily prayer in this room. Our prayers were heard, they were answered. To that we owe this opportunity of establishing our future nation. Have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? Do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?

I have lived a long time, and the longer I live, the more proof I see of this truth - that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?

Without his aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest. I therefore beg that prayer imploring the assistance of Heaven be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business.

I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.


Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. Every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.


In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics. This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. Law alone cannot make men see right. We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.


The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. This Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.


We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free; that we have no second-class citizens; that we have no class or caste system?


Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city. Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.


We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives. It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.

Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides. A restriction on the right to travel, the will of a totalitarian state. It is here where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news and television have imprinted this brutal division upon the mind of the world. As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, the question that remains, the question of freedom for all mankind.


Yet, I do not come here to lament. For I find a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall. Just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom.


From devastation, from utter ruin, you have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth. A free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.


We welcome openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity: Come here to this gate. Open this gate. Tear down this wall!


To be sure, we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides. But we must remember a crucial fact: we do not mistrust each other because we are armed; we are armed because we mistrust each other. And our differences are not about weapons but about liberty. This city stands secure in its liberty. And freedom itself is transforming the globe.


Today represents a moment of hope. We stand ready to cooperate to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safer, freer world.


Free people: Let us work to bring the city closer together. It would be only fitting to serve as the site of world conferences on issues that call for international cooperation.


You have built a great city. You've done so in spite of threats. The city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there's something deeper. Something that has seen the difficulties of life but chose to continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence, that refuses to release human energies or aspirations, something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says "yes" to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you is "love." Love both profound and abiding.


Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.


Like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed. This wall will fall, for it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. All the traditions of our past, all the lessons of our heritage, all the promises of our future point to another path -- the path of common purpose and the restoration of American values. That path leads to true freedom for our nation and ourselves. For the sake of our nation, it is time for us to join hands in America. Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit.

1-Sentence Summary: After the Liberty Bell 7 Capsule is lost at sea, Al Harrison, head of the NASA space task group, has to defend his program at a Senate Hearing.

Monologue starts with: "Let me say first ... discovery is never just for the sake of discovery, gentlemen ... but for the sake of human survival."
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​Time and Place: April 1961, NASA campus Virginia. Monologue is a fictionalized account of what leadership at NASA might have said to the NASA Space Task Group after the Russians beat the US to put the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961.
Character's age is 40's-50's.
​Character's gender is male.
Character's name is Al Harrison (played by Kevin Costner) a fictionalized character created as a composite of various leaders at NASA at the time including Robert C. Gilruth, the head of the Space Task Group at Langley Research Center
Monologue genre is dramatic, historic.
Find this monologue 1 hour 16 minutes into Oscar nominated movie "Hidden Figures"
​2-Minute monologue

​Monologue Writing 101 Elements (0 = Not Used. 1 = Used. 2 = Strong Usage)

1. ​Strong Want - 2. To win the Space Race.
2. ​High Stakes - 2. Survival of the country.
3. Tactical Variety - 1. Defend, inspire, win confidence.
4. Hook Opener - 1. Thesis/arguement type.
5. Button Finish - 1. Inspiring close.
6. Sensory - 0
7. Internal Obstacles - 1. Could be hiding his own doubts to project confidence.
8. Past/Present Balance - 0.
9. Discovery - 1. This is Al's monent, he digs deep into himself and speaks. Not rehearsed but strong and passionate and level headed.
10. Restraint - 1. Al may be holding back anger, hiding a crisis of confidence, or containing his passion for space exploration in order to make his points clearly to the senators and come off level headed.

TOTAL "ELEMENT USAGE WEIGHT": 10

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