Heading West by Philip Goulding

1-Sentence Summary: Aboard a boat bound for Albany, NY, Eliza, a southern actress, barges into a storage room occupied by a family of English immigrants, introduces herself, performs a Shakespeare monologue melodramatically, and then exits quickly insulting the "powerful aroma" in their cabin.

Appreciated: The physical comedy of Eliza as she exacts a scene of grieving from Shakespeare's Cymbeline on the father of the English family, who she has cast in the role of headless corpse. She manhandles the father as if he is a corpse during the scene. The total innaproprateness and intrusiveness of her behavior is awesome. She is the epitome of self-involved. Her insult to the family who she surmises "must be farmers" because their cabin smells like "a beast of the field which has sadly passed away."

​Character's Age is 20's but could be any age really for purpose of audition.
​Character's gender is female.
Character's name is Eliza
Character's dialect is southern.
Monologue genre is comedic
​Monologue is potentially hilarious if played right.
Monologue is from the play "Heading West" by Phillip Goulding
Find this monologue on page 49 of "Audition Book Vol 4: 222 Comedy Monologues 2 Minutes and Under"

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

1. ​Strong Want - 1. To convince the family she is an important and talented actress and show she is above them and better than them.
2. ​High Stakes - 1. Protecting her actually fragile ego.
3. Tactical Variety - 1. To demonstrate her acting ability, to speak as if she's very refined, to put the family down.
4. Hook Opener - 0
5. Button Finish - 1. The "beast of field which has sadly passed away" insult mentioned above.
6. Sensory - 1. Reference to smell, glare of sun, Shakespeare text full of sensory descriptors.
7. Internal Obstacles - 0.
8. Past/Present Balance - 0.
9. Discovery - 1. Monologue contains reactions to her environment, plus the Shakespeare piece is literally about the discovery of a headless corpse.
10. Restraint - 0. No this character is the opposite of restrained.

TOTAL "ELEMENT USAGE WEIGHT": 6