Episode 206: Monologue Competitions: How to compete confidently

How can you encourage your students to compete with confidence? Learn from the source! Student Kelsey Gilmore was chosen as critics choice for monologues and best in show in her district for her monologue performance. What did she do? How did she prepare?

Show Notes

• All things monologue at theatrefolk.com


• Stressed


• Have You Heard


• Puzzle Pieces


• Myth-o-logues


• A Box of Puppies

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Drama Teacher Podcast brought to you by Theatrefolk – the Drama Teacher Resource Company.

I’m Lindsay Price.

Hello! I hope you’re well. Thanks for listening!

This is Episode 206. You can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode206.

Today, we’re talking monologues and, more specifically, monologue competitions.

Do you take your students to monologue competitions? Do you have your students perform monologues in the classroom? How is it going for you? Going okay? Want to do better? How can you encourage your students to compete with confidence?

Well, I think the best way is to learn from the source.

We’re going to talk today to a student who has had great success this year in competition.

If you are looking for monologues for your students, if you just can’t listen to the same monologues over and over and over again, we can help. We can help! We can help!

All you’ve got to do is look in the show notes which are at Theatrefolk.com/episode206.

I’ve put a link in there to Theatrefolk’s monologue collections, monologue plays. We have a few! In our monologue books, all the monologues come from published plays, and it’s a one-stop shop to find those plays! Theatrefolk.com!

Okay. I will see you on the other side!

LINDSAY: Hello everyone!

I am here with Kelsey Gilmore.

Hello, Kelsey!

KELSEY: Hello!

LINDSAY: First off, tell everybody where in the world you are right now.

KELSEY: I am in Tallahassee, Florida.

LINDSAY: Awesome!

You are a senior, right?

KELSEY: Yes, ma’am!

LINDSAY: Excellent.

The reason you are talking is that you did something very exciting last weekend at your district thespian festival. Not only were you chosen for critic’s choice for monologues, but you also won best in show.

KELSEY: I did!

LINDSAY: Congratulations!

KELSEY: Thank you so much!

LINDSAY: We’re just going to kind of talk to you about what you did to prepare for districts and what it’s like to compete and maybe some advice for some folks who are listening – our listeners, our teachers, and drama students. I know a lot of them have students who go into competition and are frustrated sometimes with competition.

Let’s start off with some background.

Have you competed at districts every year?

KELSEY: I competed my sophomore and junior year. I didn’t do it in freshman year, though.

LINDSAY: Do you remember what your first competition was like? I know it was a long time ago.

KELSEY: It was very nerve-racking. There were so many people and so much talent. I was like, “Oh! Oh, wow! Wow! Okay… This is new! So many thespians in one place! That’s very cool!”

LINDSAY: District run is pretty huge, too. So, I can imagine it was overwhelming.

KELSEY: I actually won critic’s choice my first year, but that was for a large group musical. We didn’t win best in show, but it was a big feat for me to win critic’s choice with that musical number.

LINDSAY: Did it change your perspective a little? You know, going into it and you see all the people and you see all the talent and you’re like, “I could never do that,” and then to be awarded. Did you go, “Maybe I can do this?”

KELSEY: My freshman year or this year when I won best in show?

LINDSAY: That first time.

KELSEY: Oh, the first time, it still is like, “Wow! This is something completely far away!” But I’m doing it with a group of people. I’m not alone. It’s not something that’s so far away that can never be reached, but it’s still something that’s still a little bit hard to get to.

LINDSAY: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

This year, what process did you go through to decide what monologue you were going to do?

KELSEY: I wanted something that just completely contrasted – in the way that I spoke, in my body language, and how I held myself. I wanted something that was a complete 180 from one another.

I went about looking at abstract things and very serious pieces that could really connect to an audience. I wanted to make the judges feel – not even the judges, but the people in the audience, after I was finished, to be like, “Wow!” I felt it in the first one and – wow! – did I feel it in the second one.

LINDSAY: Would you suggest that that’s something that is really important for students when they’re thinking about monologues? Like, what’s your objective with these monologues?

KELSEY: Yes. What do you want people to think after you’re done? What do you want the impression to be after you walk off that stage?

LINDSAY: I think that’s a really interesting point, particularly when it comes to competition because, when we think of theatre, the audience is an important part. I always tell students – and this is with playwriting, too – your audience I kind of your scene partner.

Theatre doesn’t happen without an audience. I think sometimes that gets missed in competition. Students kind of get inside themselves as opposed to connecting and reacting to an audience. At thespians, there’s always an audience, isn’t there?

KELSEY: I think that you feed off the audience. I don’t know if you know this – oh, you probably do, I’m so sorry! – when you’re standing and you’re doing a serious piece, you can feel in the audience, the people watching you, and they’re solely on you. They’re not wandering somewhere else, and there’s an air of “oh, my goodness!” When you’re doing a comedic piece, they’re looking at you, wanting you to do something funny, wanting you to make them laugh.

It’s just you bounce off your audience. Whatever the feeling the audience is giving you, you work harder to get it.

LINDSAY: Excellent. Yeah, I think that’s an excellent point.

“How are you going to connect with an audience when you’re doing your competition piece?”

So, what are the two pieces that you chose?

KELSEY: I chose It Had to Be You by Renee Taylor and August Wilson’s Fences.

LINDSAY: I know which one the drama is!

What sparked