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…to my acting students at the Atlantic Theater Company who wanted to know how to apply Atlantic's acting technique (Practical Aesthetics) to monologues and auditions. In structuring the monologue classes, I ended up recognizing that directing technique and audition technique (showmanship) are equally important to acting skills in auditions. As a result my approach teaches you how to Direct, Act and Audition effectively with monologues.

Let's look at why monologues are so often a miserable experience for actors:

• Few actors feel they have an effective way to rehearse their monologues

• Many are tortured about choosing their material, and choose at the last minute

• Or, they do the same 1 or 2 pieces until they are completely sick of them

• Or, they avoid the auditions that ask for monologues and they're miserable about that

• Many actors have no staging for their monologues – so they wing their movement choices while auditioning, turning the audition into a nerve wracking rehearsal instead of a confident performance

• Many actors are completely baffled about how to act effectively without a partner

• Many actors have not been taught good audition technique, and therefore look unsure, strained, apologetic, angry or just plain unhappy in their entrances, hello's, and exits

This list should also make clear why monologues are so often a miserable experience for the people who watch them – just multiply the above by many hundreds (as might be seen in a typical Equity Principal Audition). When we interviewed Amanda Charlton of the Williamstown Theater Festival for the The Monologue Audition Video she said “about 10% of the actors I see look like they're having a good time performing – and those are the ones we take.”

So how can you have a good time? The good news is that learning all of the skills involved in creating a well-rehearsed, well-performed monologue audition are in your control, and it is completely possible to turn the whole process into a creative experience. You can:

• Learn to create the right amount of staging for your monologue that is enjoyable to do, and consistent so that you can tell your story even when you are nervous – in fact, having good staging is the best way to decrease your nerves

• Learn to make your staging choices work for ANY “sized” audition – theater, agent's office, on-camera

• Very easily learn to act just as truthfully off of ‘no one' as you can off of a live partner – it is a very simple adjustment

• Rehearse correctly, and enough, so that you can really act and tell your story

• Become an expert at coming in and out of the room, and chatting an appropriate amount with your auditors, with a relaxed, professional and positive manner

• Have a clear way of evaluating each audition that sets you up for the next one and makes you eager to audition again

These are the skills featured in my classes, my book The Monologue Audition: A Practical Guide for Actors, and DVD, The Monologue Audition Video. I invite you to read more about them, and watch the video trailer on the home page of this site. The educational package includes an extensive teacher's manual with additional guidelines, goals, exercises, and lesson plans for high school and college programs.

Once an actor has a foundation, I believe in practical experience as the best teacher. The best way to get it is to go out and audition as much as possible once new monologues are fully rehearsed. My classes are short (only 5 sessions) for this reason. Actors are encouraged to keep supporting their rehearsal partners long after the class is over, and often many do. The video and book both encourage actors to work on monologues with their friends and empower themselves; the goal is to give actors tools so that they don't need a coach or director for every audition.

I was lucky enough in my theater training, along with other Atlantic founders, to become empowered and inspired to create opportunities and make my own work. I want the website to be a resource for actors who are designing and maintaining their own approaches to auditioning for and working on the roles they most want to do. The articles on the site are there to

• Make actors aware of basic audition do's and don'ts

• Inspire actors to build a whole repertoire of monologues, and use this practical work to improve and try new skills

• Show actors how to find and tailor unique monologues from interesting sources

• Offer actors tools to build good working relationships with themselves

• Excite actors to take complete control of their auditioning experience, and turn auditioning into an adventure instead of an ordeal!

Please also check out the links pages, which include links from the writers and artists in The Monologue Audition Video, recommended NYC teachers and classes, wonderful resource web pages for actors, sites of alumni from my and Atlantic's classes, and more.

If you have been having any kind of difficulty with monologues or auditioning, I hope this site is valuable to you, and that it helps make monologues an enjoyable, creative part of your auditioning life.

Karen Kohlhaas

KAREN'S BIO
Karen Kohlhaas is a founding member of New York 's Off-Broadway Atlantic Theater Company and a senior teacher at the Atlantic Acting School . She recently directed comedienne Judy Gold in the 2006 Drama Desk Award nominated one woman show 25 Questions for a Jewish Mother by Kate Moira Ryan (written with and for Ms. Gold), which sold out its extended runs in New York and Montreal. Off-Broadway and regional productions include Harold Pinter's The Hothouse (Atlantic), Keith Reddin's Synergy (Alley Theatre, world premiere) and Frame 312 (Atlantic, NY premiere); David Mamet's Boston Marriage (Public Theater, NY premiere) and The Water Engine (Atlantic); three productions of An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein in New York and Sydney and Kate Moira Ryan's OTMA (Atlantic, U.S. premiere). She has also directed at Naked Angels, Atlantic Stage 2, New Dramatists, the 4th Street Theatre , New York University's mainstage, and other New York theaters. In addition to teaching at Atlantic, she teaches her own monologue and directing workshops in New York , and has guest taught in Vancouver and Sydney. She is the author of The Monologue Audition: A Practical Guide for Actors (foreword by David Mamet), and the director, writer and co-producer of The Monologue Audition Video.