The standard length for graduate-school auditions, classical theatre companies, and conservatory programs.
Two-minute monologues are the default ask for MFA programs (Juilliard, Yale, NYU Grad Acting), Shakespeare festivals, and most classical theatre auditions. The pieces below all fit cleanly between 130 and 280 words — long enough to show range, short enough to respect the time cap.
from As You Like It
Rosalind • William Shakespeare
from A Doll's House
Nora • Henrik Ibsen
from The Merchant of Venice
Shylock • William Shakespeare
from Othello
Othello • William Shakespeare
from Antigone
Antigone • Sophocles
from Prometheus Bound
Prometheus • Aeschylus
from Electra
Electra • Sophocles
from Othello
Iago • William Shakespeare
from The Merchant of Venice
Portia • William Shakespeare
from Uncle Vanya
Sonya • Anton Chekhov
from Henry V
Henry V • William Shakespeare
from King Lear
Edmund • William Shakespeare
from Pygmalion
Eliza Doolittle • George Bernard Shaw
from Miss Julie
Miss Julie • August Strindberg
from Pygmalion
Henry Higgins • George Bernard Shaw
from The Seagull
Nina • Anton Chekhov
from As You Like It
Jaques • William Shakespeare
from Saint Joan
Joan • George Bernard Shaw
from The Seagull
Trigorin • Anton Chekhov
from The Importance of Being Earnest
Lady Bracknell • Oscar Wilde
from The Seagull
Nina • Anton Chekhov
from Romeo and Juliet
Juliet • William Shakespeare
from The Glass Menagerie
Tom • Tennessee Williams
from Richard III
Richard III • William Shakespeare
from Hamlet
Hamlet • William Shakespeare
from Medea
Medea • Euripides
from The Glass Menagerie
Amanda • Tennessee Williams
from The Taming of the Shrew
Katherine • William Shakespeare
from Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano • Edmond Rostand
from A Doll's House
Nora • Henrik Ibsen
What you can do in two minutes that you cannot do in one: build. A one-minute piece has to start hot. A two-minute piece can earn its emotional climax. The character can begin in one state, hit a turning point in the middle, and end somewhere genuinely different — which is the strongest possible audition shape, because it shows casting directors you can take an audience on a journey.
A practical rehearsal tip for two-minute pieces: identify three beats — beginning, turn, end — and rehearse them separately. Each beat has its own want, its own obstacle, and its own outcome. When you put them together, the piece moves rather than droning.
Browse the pieces below or use filters to narrow. If you are putting together an audition book for a graduate-school audition, the standard structure is one classical + one contemporary in this length range, presented as contrasting pieces.