Recommended Contemporary Monologues
Any play written after the rise of realism 1800+ (post Anton Chekhov)
(courtesy of The Julliard School of Acting, NY, NY))
This is not a strict guide by any means.
You may also want to consider other plays by the same playwrights reflected in the list below.
A Bright Room Called Day
A Lie of the Mind
A Raisin in the Sun
A Shayna Maidel
A Streetcar Named Desire
A View From the Bridge
Alchemy of Desire, or Dead Man's Blues
All My Sons
Angels in America
Biloxi Blues
Black Eagles
Blue Window
Blues for Mr. Charlie
Boy's Life
Brighton Beach Memoirs
Brilliant Traces
Broadway Bound
Buried Child
Children of a Lesser God
Conversations With My Father
Cowboy Mouth
Dark at the Top of the Stairs
Death of a Salesman
Diary of Anne Frank
Eleemosynary
Emma' Child
Equus
Fences
Fifth of July
Fool For Love
Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune
Hurlyburly
It Had to Be You
Long Day's Journey Into Night
Lost in Yonkers
Love, Valor, Compassion
Marty
Marvin's Room
Mass Apeal
Master Harold...and the Boys
Miss Julie
Molly Sweeney
Museum
My Children, My Africa
My Left Breast
Night Luster
Of Mice and Men
Orphans
Painting Churches
Playland
Roosters
Seascape with Sharks and Dancer
Seven Guitars
Slow Dance on the Killing Ground
Streamers
Substance of Fire
SubUrbia
Summer and Smoke
Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen
Terra Nova
The Boys Next Door
The Crucible
The Diviners
The Glass Menagerie
The Kentucky Cycle
The Normal Heart
The Price
The Red Cross
The Rimers of Eldritch
The Road to Mecca
The Seagull
The Shadow Box
The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
The Sisters Rosenweig
The Three Sisters
Three Tall Women
To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday
Tracers
Tribute
Trying to Find Chinatown
Two Trains Running
Uncle Vanya
Vital Signs
Waiting for the Parade
Wake of Jamey Foster
Wall of Water