| I am writing a full length (3 act) play for a scholarship competition. Though the play has much dialogue, a good portion of the play is in monologues. Below are three or four of them, tell me what you think. :)
CARLINO. There is this boy in town, before I ever inherited this opera house his father and one of his fathers lady friends robbed it. The boy, the robbers son, lives on the streets now with his mother. Anyways he had this dog, Agusta I think it’s name was, a little dog. And it barked every day at noon in the town circle, just outside the opera house, only a few streets from my house. It is quite a walk from our house to the circle because you have to go around the old factory to get there. But the actual distance from my house to the opera house is very short. But that dog, barking in the circle… my wife always told me it woke her from her morning nap. And so one day I am in the Opera having a rehearsal and I hear the dog barking. I look down at my pocket watch and see its twelve o’clock on the spot. The dog was never late. The dog usually barked for about ten minutes and then went back to wherever he came from, the boy’s junkyard I suppose. Well that day after about five minutes I heard a loud popping sound outside and the dog had stopped barking. People were screaming, we could hear them from inside the opera house. So I, and a few of the cast, went outside to see what was happening. In the center of the town circle this poor dog was dragging itself around on its front legs. Someone had shot its back legs, and it was bleeding badly everywhere. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were staring. And I noticed my wife there, and she came up to me and said ‘the pistol is jammed, I can’t shoot anymore, and the damn dog is still yelping, quick unclog it.’ So I did and then she walked, with the gun, right up to the dog and shot it in the head. The young boy was standing there and he cried out ‘Agusta my friend, what has happened to you’, and I could see his face looked sad. And my wife walked over to me, handed me the gun, and said ‘Now I can sleep’, and then she walked back home, right past the boy. She is not heartless, she just lacks a certain perception of how her actions will effect other people. I should have known right then that any pet could not survive in our house. I should have known then and there. I should never have gotten so attached to Chelli.
OCTAVIA. It’s almost four o’clock. Yes business dies down around two, but you never know who you will catch at the last minute. So every night, I say to myself, I will stay one hour more. And then after that hour, no one comes, and then again I say to myself ‘one hour more’. And sometimes I play games with myself, like ‘I will count to ten and if I receive no customers then I will quit this disgusting profession.’ Then I count to ten, and no one comes. Then I realize I can’t quit. I love what I do. One more hour I tell myself. Just one. But its strange how quickly one hour becomes two, becomes three, even four or five. And now the sun is up, and what have I got to show for a night of work? This. (She holds up a silver coin.) I found it on the ground.
LEO. You got a problem? You come to me. You got something you’re afraid to do, come to me! That, is what I am for. I’ve got more connections that you can believe. I know the embezzlers in brazil, Thailand, rome, London, and france. I can hire a hit in Moscow, Berlin, Leningrad, Stalingrad, you name it, I can do it. No. Don’t make judgements. ‘What is this Italian criminal god doing in some tiny town?” it’s the center if Italy! Where else would I choose to be? And there’s a lovely girl who walks the streets here at night, have you met her? You can believe it or not, but she is part of the reason why I am here. She is one of the many reasons this little village is so romantic. She is Octavia, Octavia the eighth child born in her family. Strange name, strange woman. Do you like her? Cause if you don’t I could get rid of her. I wont give you a price up front though. You tell me what you think is fair, and then I’ll tell you higher or lower. |
