Dennis Bush

32 pages

Monologue Collection

Step out of your comfort zone and take a creative risk with these 20 monologues. With a rich variety of strong characters, these short monologues were specifically written to challenge and inspire actors. Playwright Dennis Bush says many of them are based on remarks overheard at parties, in waiting rooms or while shopping. While each is titled after the speaker's name, most can be adapted to the opposite gender. Some subjects include losing a father to cancer, telling a boyfriend to take a hike forever, speaking to a sister on her wedding day, and knowing fam...

4 pages

By Dennis Bush

A successful businessman in his 30s, Elliot describes his new girlfriend Kim, a hipper, edgier younger woman into underground rappers. Being with her, he explains, is like traveling in a foreign country where the language and customs can be strange. But after all, life is an adventure. (drama)

4 pages

By Dennis Bush

Trevor, a teenager, speaks to his sister on her wedding day, telling her how much she's meant to him-how she's laughed at his jokes, encouraged him, and always seen the best in him. He feels like she's leaving him to start her real life. Once she moves away, their family will never quite be the same. (drama)

3 pages

By Dennis Bush

Neil is an intense young man, yet not unnervingly so. He's gotten some great advice from his bedroom poster of Mick Jagger, such as quitting basketball and dropping a girlfriend. But lately, the poster has been silent. Neil wishes "Poster Mick" would say something, anything, to him. (drama)

56 pages

Resource Book

Your actors will delve into these pieces with relish and your audiences will identify with all the characters, humorous and heartbreaking alike. All of the material has been workshopped and performed by high school-age actors as well as by professional performers.

 

The collection features 16 monologues and 5 scenes for 2 characters. Of the monologues, 9 are for females and 7 for males, though some gender switching is workable.

 

The material runs the gamut from quirky c...

3 pages

By Dennis Bush

Wendy, a teenager, always wanted to be a surgeon. She used to operate on her little sister's teddy bears. After a while that lost its appeal. Now she's started cutting on other things, even herself. (drama)

3 pages

By Dennis Bush

Paige, in her late teens, reflects on riding in the car with her grandmother. Even though her grandma was a safe driver, Paige often seemed to foresee a terrible accident. When her grandmother does die in a car accident, Paige feels her visions are the cause. (drama)

3 pages

By Dennis Bush

Young Melanie is carefully showing a friend the newspaper article. It was Take Your Daughter to Work Day and Melanie's father had taken her to his office. A man who had recently been fired-though not by her dad-returned waving a gun, pointing it at her. She recalls everything happened in slow motion as her dad jumped over his desk to shield her from the shot. The newspaper called him an innocent victim. She calls him a hero. (drama)

2 pages

By Dennis Bush

Cassie, in her late teens, is fiercely intelligent and very impulsive. She is planning her revenge on a nurse, revenge which includes biting a Barbie, because she doesn't have a needle or voodoo doll in her present residential location. (drama)

2 pages

By Dennis Bush