My Audition Monologue

Some of you may remember that I used to be an actor. In many cases when one auditioned for a theater company, they needed to prepare a dramatic and comedic monologue. My dramatic monologue came from Act 4 Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. I played Brutus admonishing Cassius.

Since the monologue begins with an admonishment to remember their acts on the Ides of March, and today is March 15th I cant help but share the monologue with you.  So please indulge the below, but consider yourself lucky, this morning I woke up my son by reciting this monologe.

 As the say in my home country of Brooklyn, the words and video below are from "Shakespear, Boid of Avon."

    Remember March, the ides of March remember:

    Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake?

    What villain touch'd his body, that did stab,

    And not for justice? What, shall one of us

    That struck the foremost man of all this world

    But for supporting robbers, shall we now

    Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,

    And sell the mighty space of our large honours

    For so much trash as may be grasped thus?

    I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon,

    Than such a Roman.

    ..Hear me, for I will speak.

    Must I give way and room to your rash choler?

    Shall I be frighted when a madman stares?

    ...All this! ay, more: fret till your proud heart break;

    Go show your slaves how choleric you are,

    And make your bondmen tremble. Must I budge?

    Must I observe you? must I stand and crouch

    Under your testy humour? By the gods

    You shall digest the venom of your spleen,

    Though it do split you; for, from this day forth,

    I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter,

    When you are waspish.

    ...You have done that you should be sorry for.

    There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats,

    For I am arm'd so strong in honesty

    That they pass by me as the idle wind,

    Which I respect not. I did send to you

    For certain sums of gold, which you denied me:

    For I can raise no money by vile means:

    By heaven, I had rather coin my heart,

    And drop my blood for drachmas, than to wring

    From the hard hands of peasants their vile trash

    By any indirection: I did send

    To you for gold to pay my legions,

    Which you denied me: was that done like Cassius?

    Should I have answer'd Caius Cassius so?

    When Marcus Brutus grows so covetous,

    To lock such rascal counters from his friends,

    Be ready, gods, with all your thunderbolts;

    Dash him to pieces!

Of course the liberal media of the day, blamed Caesar's murder on the previous emperor and the Tea Party, but lets forget about that for today.

Below is a video of someone else doing the monologue (but I did it better) If you cannot see the video below Click here





And enjoy your Ides of March