Whether auditioning for a comedy, drama or musical, an actor arrives at an audition equipped with a head shot, resume and a couple of monologues. Cultural Park Theatre Artistic Director Robin Murray says the monologue plays a crucial role in her decision about whether or not to use an actor in a show she is casting.
“I consider a monologue the first handshake that you're giving a director,” said Murray. “It kind of shows what your abilities are without having somebody to rely on, another castmate to rely on or a set or a prop. And we can see what your range is, if you are able to move your body and your voice along with the words without relying on other things on a set.”
According to Murray, the best monologues don’t just showcase an actor’s talent and versatility, they tell a story with a beginning, middle and end.
“I like to see like the seasons in a monologue when somebody gives it,” Murray added. “I want to see them start as them and then I want to see an arc and then I want to see almost a resolution and then an ending.”
Local actor, director and theatre instructor Gerrie Benzing has just published a new book of monologues. She knows exactly what casting directors such as Murray want.
“Since a monologue is a chance to show a director what you can do. I try to put more than one emotion in any monologue I write, so that there's a bit of an arc in it, so that you can show you can play different emotions,” Benzing said.
Benzing’s experiences auditioning for roles, performing in a wide variety of shows and teaching theater to children and teens informs the way she crafts each monologue. But it was happenstance that led her to publish three compilations of the monologues she’s been writing since 2006.
“My monologue started, of course, with my own son, who was performing at the time, and we could not find a monologue anywhere that was different, that was new,” Benzing explained. “So, I wrote him one. And he entered the Young Artist Competition, and he was only 10. And it was a competition that went all the way up to college. And he won the whole thing. And so, everybody said please write me a monologue.”
Since then, actors using her monologues have enjoyed considerable success winning roles and competitions around the globe.
“I have had a student text me from South Africa. He entered a worldwide monologue competition and he won his category. He's since been cast in all kinds of films,” Benzing noted. “I had a boy who auditioned for a Broadway show and used one of my monologues and he was cast. But my biggest success story was Michael Fatica, who I started teaching in summer camps here at the Cultural Park. And he has become a successful star on Broadway.”
But it’s everyday kids having success on a local level that really touches Benzing’s heartstrings.
“The thing that makes me the most proud are the kids that text me and say, ‘Hey, I won my student talent show.’ ‘I got second place. I almost won.’” Benzing added. “And they are so happy. And the fact that I could give them something that they love to do and that they did well with and they were happy with, I think that's the thing that makes me the most happy.”
Cultural Park Theatre will be hosting a book signing for Benzing’s latest book, “Character Monologues for Kids: Own the Moment,” following the 7 p.m. performance of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” on Sept. 19.
The event marks a milestone in Benzing’s career as an author.
“This is my absolute first one and I’m super excited about it.” Benzing noted.
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About Robin Murray
A Chicago native, Robin Murray caught the acting bug in fourth grade. Now living in Southwest Florida, Murray is the producing artistic director of Cultural Park Theatre.
“Cultural Park Theatre is one of the longest running community theaters in Lee County,” Murray noted. “We are now entering into our 64th season. We produce adult plays, children’s plays, comedies, dramas, rom-cons and musicals as well. And our musicals are usually on the lighter side and include children.”
Every theater has its own way of announcing auditions.
“At Cultural Park, we put out a call usually on social media and then we will give the breakdown of what each character is and whether or not you need to come in with a 16-bar song, 60 seconds, 90 seconds,” Murray said. “For our regular plays, we will also have the breakdown and we will ask you either to come in with a monologue, be very familiar with the show, and then we will have you read sides.”
The term “sides” refers to excerpts from the script that actors are given to learn for an audition. This excerpt could be an entire scene, or just part of one. Depending on the project, sides can also include more than one section of the script for an actor to learn.
The term dates back to Shakespeare, when actors were only given their lines for rehearsals since scripts had to be written longhand.
Theaters often provide the sides in advance of the audition so that actors can familiarize themselves with the lines prior to arriving.
While a side will give the casting director a rough idea about how an actor will potentially handle the role they’re auditioning for and fit in with the rest of the cast, sides do not reflect the actor’s overall skill set. That’s the purpose of a well-chosen monologue, Murray said.
“Based on the monologue, we know whether or not you're versatile, and that's the biggest thing we need in an actor, to be versatile,” Murray said. The monologue is going to show us an actor’s range where the sides are going to show us if they can carry a character, the specific character.”
To gauge an actor’s versatility, the casting director will often have ask the auditioner to switch up the tenor of the reading.
“If you are saying a line that’s very comedic, the director might ask you to read it in a more serious tone,” Murray pointed out.
While monologues are important in all genres, Murray noted that for musical auditions, “the voice is weighted the most because, depending on the part the person is auditioning for, if they cannot hit the note ….”
In addition to directing, Murray is an accomplished actor. Her stage credits include the evil nurse Pat Jones in “Four Old Broads” for The Belle Theatre and Mary Jane McMann in “Inspecting Carol.” She also appeared in “Marvin’s Room,” “I Remember Mama,” “Anton in Show Business,” “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” “Picasso at the Lapin Agile,” “On Golden Pond,” “Five Kinds of Silence” and “Calendar Girls.”
About Gerrie Benzing
As the creative director of Monologues4kids.com, Gerrie Benzing has written numerous children’s plays and over 500 monologues for clients worldwide. Dozens of children have used Benzing’s monologues to win movie roles, theater auditions, talent shows and pageants and to secure professional representation.
Her new book is “Character Monologues for Kids: Own the Moment.”
“I have a lot of monologues,” noted Benzing, who has been writing monologues for more than 20 years. “A lot of them are straight comedic monologues, but many are character monologues as well, like Goldilocks talking about how she's not a criminal. When I directed kid shows, I loved seeing characters in the monologue selection. So that's what this [latest book] is, a book of character monologues.”
She included nearly 100 for “Character Monologues for Kids.”
Her previous books are “Duet Acting Scenes for Teens,” “Duet Acting Scenes for Kids,” “Monologues4kids Theater Camp Plays: Broadway Version” and “Commercials for Kids.” She has also contributed original monologues to the book “Active Listening,” by Michael Rost and J.J. Wilson.
“I have lots more monologues,” Benzing added. “So there are more books coming. Lots of them.”
A local stage and film actor, director and musical theatre instructor, Benzing has directed six mainstage productions at Cultural Park Theater, including “Chicago” (2019), “Sister Act” in 2018 (for which she won a Cultural Park Theatre Best Director Marquee Award), “Boeing, Boeing” in 2016 (for which she won as Cultural Park Theatre Best Director Marquee Award) and “Peter Pan” (for which she garnered a Cultural Park Best Director of a Musical Marquee Award in 2014).
She has also appeared in more than a dozen shows at Cultural Park Theatre, including the iconic role of Ethel Thayer in “On Golden Pond,” “Harvey” (for which she won a Cultural Park Theatre Best Actress Marquee Award for her portrayal of Veta), “The Glass Menagerie” (in which she was cast as Amanda), “Dixie Swim Club” (Sharee), Bella Manningham in “Angel Street” (Gaslight) , “Bad Seed” (Christine) and Jack Neary’s “The Porch.”
“We asked Gerrie to do a book signing following Saturday night’s performance of ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ because she’s been an important staple here at the theater,” Murray noted. “A lot of the kids that are directing shows and working here have worked with Gerrie since they were 5 years old. So, it just is a natural thing to bring her back and have her showcase those monologues that the kids use to start their careers.”
Benzing’s other stage credits include Frau Blucher in “Young Frankenstein” at The Belle Theatre, a Pigeon sister in “The Odd Couple” at Fort Myers Theatre, swing for Mary Meeker in “Unnecessary Farce” at Off Broadway Palm, cigarette-smoking, whiskey-swilling sexpot Elaine Navazio in Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers” for The Belle Theatre, Julia Budder in “It’s Only a Play” at The Studio Players, Caprice in “A Doublewide, Texas Christmas” at Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, Mother Superior in “Drinking Habits” (The Belle Theatre), Gertrude in “Save Hamlet” (for Lab Theater), Raven in “Trouble (at the Vista View Mobile Home Estates)” for Florida Rep, Brooke in “Other Desert Cities” for The Studio Players, Florence Ungar in “The Odd Couple: Female Version” (Belle Theatre, 2022), Madame de Volanges in “Dangerous Liaisons” (Lab Theater, 2022), Lee in Charles Busch’s “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife” for New Phoenix Theatre (2022), Jinx in The Naples Players’ production of “The Savannah Sipping Society” and Ruth in TNP’s production of “Calendar Girls” (2021), Edith Frank in “The Diary of Anne Frank” for Fort Myers Theatre (2021), Theresa in “Circle Mirror Transformation” for The Studio Players(2021), the ensemble in the cult classic musical “Young Frankenstein” for New Phoenix Theatre (2021), various roles in “The Full Monty” for New Phoenix Theatre (2020) and Lucy and Tommy of No Consequence in Adam Szymkowics’s “Marian, or the True Story of Robin Hood” (2019).
For The Lab, she appeared as Zippy in “Clown Bar Christmas” for Theatre Conspiracy, the lead in the world premiere of playwright Zalman Velvel’s farce “D.M.V.,” in Rick Abbot’s “Play On!” (where she depicted a maddeningly meddlesome playwright), The Best Man (in which she played Mabel Cantwell) and “Miss Witherspoon” (where she played the part of Maryamma).
Her film credits include Curtis Collins’ locally filmed indie “Fallaway,” in which she appeared as an extra.
Benzing has also taught the class Broadway Babies (for students 4-7 years of age) and Musical Theater (for aspiring actors 8 years old and up) at Cultural Park Theatre. Broadway actor Michael Fatica started out as one of Benzing’s summer camp pupils, and Cultural Park Theatre Director of Education Shaelyn Crabtree evolved from Broadway Babies.
“She started in the Broadway Babies class singing ‘I Want to Be a Rockette,” Benzing recalled. “And she has grown up to be such an amazing success story, a true superstar.”
[Fatica has been seen onstage in the 2024 revival of “Spamalot,” understudying Ethan Slater and SNL”s Taran Killam; covering Olaf and Juke Weselton in Disney’s “Frozen;” as well as understudying Sonny Bono in “The Cher Show.” He was a striking Newsboy in Disney's “Newsies the Musical,” a revolting maggot in RSC's “Matilda the Musical,” Jonathan in the 2017 Olivier-winning Best Musical “Groundhog Day” and a doo-wop singing teen in “A Bronx Tale.” Fatica is also currently the associate choreographer of ‘Beetlejuice” productions worldwide and the U.S. associate choreographer of “Paddington.”]
Benzing is also the co-author of the indie film” Perfect Pucker Lipstick” and serves as a judge for District 6 thespian competitions and the Youth Theater Awards.
While her experience directing, performing and teaching theater principles informs her monologue writing, Benzing concedes that writing monologues for children and teens is radically different than crafting monologues for adults.
“As an adult, you're looking for things that will make you stand out from the crowd,” Benzing explained. “Where children are concerned, there’s an innocence when you’re writing for a certain age and then you’re pushing the boundaries a little when I’m writing for teens.”
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
