The work in The Playwrights' Center Monologues for Men is finely crafted, entertaining, often poignant, and features the best playwriting in present-day American theater.

Polly Carl and Kristen Gandrow have assembled a broad range of monologues that reflect the diverse aesthetics represented by Center member playwrights.

A collection of monologues about what men are thinking in the new millennium and how they're putting those thoughts and feelings into theatrical expression.

Audition Monologues

Since 1995 The 24 Hour Plays have been responding to theatre in the moment. As the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic brought an end to live theatre in the USA and Europe, the company sprang to work to keep the arts alive. Bringing together some of America's most prolific writers for the stage and screen, this unique and contemporary book of monologues collates the responses in dramatic fashion, making for an anthology of work that is timely, moving, irreverent and at its best, transcendent. Featuring original monologues by writers such as David Lindsay-Abaire, Clare Barron, Hansol Jung, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Christoper Oscar Peña, Jesse Eisenberg and Monique Moses this is a rich collection that can be enjoyed by actors, writers and those looking for creative responses to the global COVID-19 crisis. With over 50 monologues from the first three weeks of the project, edited by Howard Sherman, this is an important collection that documents an unprecedented moment in history whilst also offering practical resource for actors and performers.

This book of contemporary monologues for women includes pieces from the best of the last three decades of contemporary playwriting, from Howard Brenton and Bryony Lavery to Charlotte Jones and Mark Ravenhill. Including extracts from plays by award-winning British playwrights, there are pieces both serious and comic providing the actor with all the challenges of performing contemporary plays. The book is an invaluable resource for auditions, acting class, competitions and rehearsals. A fuller appreciation of each monologue is provided by Chrys Salt's invaluable commentaries, giving clues as to possible direction and setting each piece in the context of the play as a whole.Praise for Chrys Salt's Make Acting Work: "A really useful book for every actor to own" Prunella Scales; "This book should be part of every resourceful actor's armoury" Annette Badland