Audition monologues become performance pieces

Actors and Auditions: Monologues to Inspire All

Port Jervis... For a fifth year, the Presby Players Community Theater will perform an evening of “Talking Heads”, in which actors will perform monologues appropriate for auditions. Artistic Director Jeffrey Stocker says this year, the audience will get an inside look into the way his students train.

“The performance will be presented as a class, beginning with breathing exercises in which the audience can participate,” Stocker said. “Each actor will introduce themselves the way they would at an audition.”

Most of the cast will perform contrasting monologues to demonstrate their range: one comedic and one dramatic. The actors include four teens from the young adult class as well as eight from the adult class. Among the adults is Christopher VanHouten, who will perform a comedic monologue from “Creature Features (Modern Day Mutants)” by Christian Kiley. VanHouten said that acting techniques will help him incorporate drama therapy in his job.

“My passion is to work in the mental health field. I have a bachelors in psychology and I’m entering a nursing program ... acting rounds me off; I want to continue to do this as I continue my studies,” he said.

DeBorah Green-Mattar is new to the class. Her monologues will be taken from the play “Walter” by Murray Schisgal and from Neil Simon’s “The Gingerbread Lady”, one monologue being funny and another serious.

“I’ve never done comedy before,” said Green-Mattar.

She’s up for the challenge though: before moving to Pike County, Green-Mattar was a creative arts music therapist and was active in commercials and independent films.

Joe Rudy, an actor and President of Presby Players, also will be performing, in his words, “two diametrically opposed monologues.” One is a dramatic piece from Simon’s “I Ought to be in Pictures” and a comedic monologue, delivered by Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding.

As Rudy explains, “If you know the Marx Brothers, you know what happens... it’s where the line ‘I shot an elephant in my pajamas’ comes from!”

Stocker explained that the title “Talking Heads” comes from the British TV series in which monologues were filmed up close. He says actors are expected to “perform word perfect—exactly how it’s written. It’s part of the challenge.”