Every major play, every famous and lesser-known speech, ready to rehearse in your browser.
Shakespeare is the closest thing acting has to a universal language — every casting director in English-speaking theatre expects you to have at least one Shakespeare piece in your book. The monologues on this page cover his major tragedies, histories, and comedies, with both the iconic speeches and the lesser-known ones that work better in audition rooms saturated with To Be or Not To Be.
from As You Like It
Jaques • William Shakespeare
from Othello
Iago • William Shakespeare
from King Lear
King Lear • William Shakespeare
from Julius Caesar
Marc Antony • William Shakespeare
from Romeo and Juliet
Juliet • William Shakespeare
from The Merchant of Venice
Shylock • William Shakespeare
from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Bottom • William Shakespeare
from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Oberon • William Shakespeare
from A Midsummer Night's Dream
Puck • William Shakespeare
from Othello
Othello • William Shakespeare
from Twelfth Night
Viola • William Shakespeare
from As You Like It
Rosalind • William Shakespeare
from Richard III
Richard III • William Shakespeare
from Hamlet
Hamlet • William Shakespeare
from Henry V
Henry V • William Shakespeare
from The Tempest
Prospero • William Shakespeare
from Romeo and Juliet
Mercutio • William Shakespeare
from Henry V
Henry V • William Shakespeare
from The Taming of the Shrew
Katherine • William Shakespeare
from The Merchant of Venice
Portia • William Shakespeare
from Macbeth
Lady Macbeth • William Shakespeare
from Hamlet
Ophelia • William Shakespeare
from King Lear
Edmund • William Shakespeare
from Hamlet
Hamlet • William Shakespeare
from Macbeth
Macbeth • William Shakespeare
A few things to know about doing Shakespeare in an audition. First, the verse does the work for you if you let it. Iambic pentameter has a built-in pulse — five stresses per line, falling on the even syllables. You do not need to bang it out like a metronome, but you do need to feel where the stresses land. Mark them in rehearsal until you stop thinking about it.
Second, the punctuation is the breathing. Shakespeare wrote for actors who needed to be heard across a noisy open-air playhouse, and the period at the end of a thought is almost always where the character finishes a unit of thought. Honor the punctuation. Do not invent your own breath points.
Third, the famous pieces are famous for a reason — but everyone knows them. If you are picking a Shakespeare audition piece, bias toward the same playwright's lesser-known speeches. A strong Cordelia from King Lear, an Edmund soliloquy, a Mercutio Queen Mab speech that is actually rehearsed — these stand out from a wall of identical Hamlet and Juliet reads.
Use the practice tool on each detail page to rehearse with other character voices in the scene. Doing Shakespeare in vacuum, without a scene partner to react to, is the single biggest reason auditions go flat. Even a recorded scene partner reading their lines back to you is enough to keep your performance in the world of the play.