Blog Archives

monologue mania day #261 by janet s. tiger halloweenie (c) oct. 31, 2014

10/31/2014

0 Comments

monologue mania day #260 by janet s. tiger no ketchup! (c) oct 30, 2014

10/30/2014

0 Comments

monologue mania day # 259 by janet s. tiger frpzen (daughter) (c) oct. 29, 2014

10/29/2014

0 Comments

monologue mania day # 258 by janet s. tiger frozen (c) oct. 28, 2014

10/28/2014

0 Comments

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                      - for a whole year!
Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
     To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
     For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day# 258 by Janet S. Tiger   Frozen (opening) Oct. 28, 2014

                                                Frozen (opening scene)
                             A monologue by Janet S. Tiger   © all rights reserved
      [email protected]
                            (We see a young man on a hospital bed, he is not moving at all, with all types of tubes in him. The sound of machines beeping. He suddenly sits up and the tubes remain behind. He looks around, starts to smile and jumps out of bed, now starts laughing and then, skipping.   He looks at the audience,smiles.)

Pretty good for a guy in a coma, huh?
Well, watch this.

             (He does a handstand/cartwheel.)
It's amazing what you can do in your head. I realized I have to talk to someone, and since no one can hear me speak, I'll have to talk to all of you in my head.

            (Points to the back) You, Coach Richardson - I could always talk with you about anything.   And you gave me good advice.   And over there (he indicates someone in the front) Aunt Ella, I'm gonna sit and have some cookies with you and make you laugh and laugh!

   (He eats a cookie and bends over laughing)
And I can talk to you anytime I want!

   (He goes back to the hospital bed and points at it.)
I've been in there over five years now.

(Indicates the bed.)

At first, I wanted to die.   You see, I cannot move a muscle. Interesting expression. But this is the situation -

             (He illustrates while talking)

...I was 23, in good shape, just had dinner with my friends....(rubs his stomach) we had steak....I remember how delicious it was....and .I was driving home (indicates a steering wheel)   I hadn't been drinking......but the guy in the other car was wasted .....................so... BOOM!

I wake up here, and when I try to move....nothing.   But I can hear everyone talking - and worse, I can feel everything!   Every bone that was broken, every time they jab me....I can feel the pain, but no one knows.
It's kind of like being invisible...or frozen. The only one who knows I'm still in here is my mother.   She comes every day, and she talks to me, and (this is hard for him) she tries to get them to understand that I'm still in here.
But no one listens to her either.   Well, they pretend to listen. But they're humoring her, I can tell.   They feel sorry for her.   Her only son, and he's a vegetable and she's just watering him.
(Deep sigh) The first few months I wanted to die. I prayed to die.   I prayed to reach my mother to let me die. And then I realized I was like a tree, only not growing. A petrified tree. (Laughs a little)
And then I realized that since people didn't know I could hear them, they would say things and do things.
Like Nurse Gonzales......(he bends over to indicate a little nurse, imitating her voice).......Mister Bautner, I am going to change you now, please excuse me. Ooh, you have a little doody today.......I am going to clean it up and you will be all nice and fresh....
(Back to himself) In some ways I feel like an animal - people see an animal, but assume the animal doesn't understand.   (Changes) But what if the animal did understand? What if he heard something that the person figured he never would be able to act upon.....That's why I don't want to die anymore, you see....I know something.   Knowledge IS power. It is the power that is keeping me going. It is the inner strength that now has me praying to have my mother find a way to help me - rather than let me die.
You see.....someone told me a secret. Actually, many people tell me secrets - most of them are very boring. The man who cleans this room for the last year has a girlfriend in the pharmacy - and a wife in Mexico. The nurse who used to give me sponge baths is addicted to soap operas. Everyone has a secret to tell me - like I was a priest....a silent priest......it helped pass the time.....and then... (he is remembering) ...then.....someone told me a different kind of secret.   A very bad secret. They figured their secret was safe with me! That I could never repeat it, because I..... never heard it.

But the person who told me had no idea that knowing this secret has inspired me to live so that I can.....(stops to listen) They're coming back...a nurse, a doctor, a janitor...a visitor?   No, not after 5 years.   Probably just someone to check my diaper. That's always fun. So ..... I think I'll get back into my body.
              (He moves towards the bed.)

What's the secret? (Laughs loudly) Do you think you can get away with hearing it in only a few minutes? What has taken me years of being frozen to hear? (Holds up his arms) Okay, I'll give you a clue....someone died....and no one knows it was murder....except the murderer.....and me....

             (He gets into the bed as we hear voices coming. Blackout.)
------------------------------------------------------------------
Frozen has another monologue - Day # 256
------------------------------------------------------------------

Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315
www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence Swedenborg Hall 2006-8 --------------------------------------------------------

0 Comments

monologue mania day #257 by janet s. tiger dis pair (c) oct. 27, 2014

10/27/2014

0 Comments

     Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                      - for a whole year!
Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
     To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
     For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day# 257 by Janet S. Tiger Dis Pair    Oct. 27, 2014

                                             Dis Pair
                             A monologue by Janet S. Tiger   © all rights reserved
      [email protected]
               (A well-dressed black man enters, he holds a bag with a box in it. He has a slight Southern drawl.)

Son, on the wondrous event of your twentieth birthday, I am truly concerned about you....

            (Raises his hands)

No, don't try to argue. You can deny it, but 'de- nile- is not just a river in Egypt.' Sorry, you know I love these awful puns, it is a curse and a blessin'......I think it's genetic.......

Now I understand that bein' a young man in these times is not easy. And bein' a black young man is even more difficult.....

So, on this day of your birthday, early, before anyone else is up to start huggin' and handin' over gifts you really don't need, I am gonna give you a present my daddy gave to me when I was twenty, and his daddy gave to him when he was twenty, and his before him, all told, eight generations of the Mason family. Over one hundred and fifty years. An heirloom. Truly special.

It is a gift which I feel has stood our men well over these many years, held us together when times got tough, and boy, they have been tough. I only hope you can pass this along to your son when he turns twenty, because chances are good, he will need it, too.

So, without further ado, I give you.......dis pair..... And I hope dis pair will change your life forever...

           (He removes a box from the bag, which he opens to show his son)

Dis pair....get it? Dis pair....of shoes! Oh, how we love these silly puns!

          (Holds up the box)

Dis pair will help you know the truth about life, about other people, and how to be a man.....

          (Laughs)

That's right, I'm talkin' about dis pair.......of old shoes....but not just any old pair of shoes, no, this pair is THE pair of shoes that was worn by your great-great-great-great- and five more greats but you know what I mean......your truly great grandfather on the day he was freed from slavery, at the end of the Civil War.

Pretty ugly, huh, dis pair......but lemme tell you, they were even uglier when he wore them as a slave.

Now....you get to wear them. One mile you get to walk in these shoes before we put them back into the box so they stay nice and dry for your son one day. One mile so that you can feel what it felt like to be a slave.... and then free.

   (Listens, nods head)

When my daddy did this for me, I thought he was nuts, too, but I put on dis pair, and he and we walked together for one mile down by the creek. We can do the same thing if you want, or we can go into town, or take a ride on the bus or train, whatever mile you want, son, it's your choice, because you are a free man.

And these shoes are for rememberin' that we weren't always free, and that it is our job, each of us, to keep that freedom so many have died to get.

When I walked in these shoes for that mile, I was just twenty, and I had just come back to visit after I had been ....how had they put it so politely?.....asked to leave college. Kicked out. Full scholarship and I had blown it, just as you are about to do now with those friends of yours, those friends who go to college, too, but waste their time smokin' and drinkin' and playin' those stupid video games. Not that I didn't play those games back a few years ago, but these shoes are no game. Life is no game.....

And you have your whole life ahead of you, and I want you to know what life could have been....so you might re-think some of your choices. Now just like you are thinkin' right at this minute, I thought my daddy was nuttier than that cashew tree, but somethin' happens when you walk in... dis pair....

           (He walks slowly around the stage, head bowed)

....it's almost as if...as if you are back in that time, that you can feel the chains on your soul, the whip on your back........

           (He shudders as he moves)

We finished our walk and I put away the shoes, and got into my car and drove back to college and begged the dean for one last chance. I said I wanted to be outta my fraternity, away from all the temptations! I would live anywhere else, on the dean's back porch, I would wash his car, but I would cut out all the crap and finish college. And I did. And the next year was the year our team got to the Final Four...first and only time we ever did......because of ....dis pair........and because I was seen by millions on TV, I got dozens of offers of jobs, and I have had a good life, just like you can, if you take what you learn to heart. And to soul….(smiles) especially the soles of your feet!

            (He holds out the shoes)

I have faith you can do this, son......let's go, it's time for us to take a walk.

(He turns to leave, stops, looks back)

Dis pair. The best mile you will ever walk is in...dis pair.......

          (He laughs as exits...not in despair)

------------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315
www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com Member Dramatists Guild since 1983 Playwright-in-Residence Swedenborg Hall 2006-8 --------------------------------------------------------

0 Comments

monologue mania day # 256 by janet s. tiger mother's choice (c) oct. 26, 2014

10/26/2014

0 Comments

monologue mania day # 255 by janet s. tiger operation firefly (opening) (c) oct. 25, 2014

10/25/2014

0 Comments

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                      - for a whole year!
Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
     To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
     For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day# 255 by Janet S. Tiger Operation Firefly - opening scenes    Oct. 25, 2014
    Another monologue from this movie is on Day #58

   Operation Firefly (opening scenes)
                             A monologue by Janet S. Tiger   © all rights reserved
      [email protected]
             (It is dark and there is the sound of men breathing, then the sound of something...is it a person running? The visuals are fast, frightening, soldiers running, a glimpse of something, then the face of a frightened soldier, and another soldier who is in charge. Everything stops suddenly, breaths are held and there is a shot that rings out. Blackness.

            Then laughter, and we see the soldiers, all black, around a campfire, roasting a small animal, enjoying a story that will grow over the years. One of the men takes a bite off a stick, and is very happy. This is Jonah, and he is a big guy, and he waves the stick in the air)

Whoooeeee! Well, this is the best meal I've had since I been in this here army! Mmmmm.....and this is the most excitement we have had since we have joined this here army and come to this goddamned place in the middle of nowhere!

Damned rabbits! At least we get a midnight snack, well, I for one will not be here for much longer, my friends......

(The others are amazed and respond with surprise)

That's right, my friends, I am gettin' outta here, to some place better'n this! And I am gonna get to jump outta planes!

      (He illustrates by leaping to his feet and then going to a rock and jumping off)
The others laugh and point. He listens, laughs)

I heard you, Walter. (Imitates a high pitched voice, mocking) 'Drop outta planes? What the hell you talkin' about? They musta dropped you on your head when you was a baby!'

You heard me - I am gonna be a paratrooper, jump into the middle of the German lines....or the Japs, and I am gonna kill me a million of 'em. And I'm gonna write back to alla you here, on this goddamned hot desert and you are gonna wish you signed up with me!

It's a buddy of mine, from back when we were in school together, and he wrote me and told me it was a top secret mission, and they only want us. Can you believe it? Only us. So I said 'hell yeah!' anythin' to get me the hell outta this boilin' hot place with food so spicy and no decent ribs for a thousand miles! I would sign up with the devil himself to make sure I was gonna get outta this place!

And I am givin' alla you the same opportunity!    We can sign up together! They need a whole 10 platoons - 300 guys! We can do it! Come on! Are you gonna sit here and sweat out every night on this border knowin' that not one Jap is tryin' to sneak through these damn cactusus when they have perfectly good submarines!

Are you gonna wait for another damn rabbit to give you a tiny bit of excitement and a story you gonna make up for your family? Are you gonna be men....army men? Or are you gonna be......

             (He stamps his foot down and picks up a small animal by the tail)

Mice?

          (Next shot will be of Jonah and his friends in a truck, with his buddies shaking their heads. End of scene)

------------------------------------------------------------------
Based on a true story - http://triplenickle.com/history.htm
Another monologue from this movie is on Day #58

Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315
www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence Swedenborg Hall 2006-8 --------------------------------------------------------

0 Comments

monologue mania day # 254 by janet s. tiger the sad tail of lord ratburn (c) oct. 24, 2014

10/24/2014

0 Comments

Welcome to Monologue Mania- one new free monologue a day
                      - for a whole year!
Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty info.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues, please
scroll down for the previous days or go to http://www.monologuestore.com/ -click on the Monologue Mania button please scroll down.
     To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
     For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day # 254 by Janet S. Tiger  The Sad Tail of Lord Ratburn Oct. 24, 2014

The Sad Tail of Lord Ratburn
                             A monologue by Janet S. Tiger   © all rights reserved
      [email protected]
                    (A man comes on stage, dressed in gray. Very gray. All gray. Gray hair, beard too, he has on perhaps a grey grey suit and grey hat and a very gray tail that he is holding in his hand. He is smoking a cigarette.   He has a veddy British accent.)

Well hello hello my name is Lord Ratburn...that is correct... Ratburn, not with an 'h' like Rathburn, although I am filled with the grapes of wrath. (Louder) Rathburn! You see, I come from a very long and illustrious line of rats. My ancestors crawled in the castles of kings and queens!
Now, some people might think that rats are not worthy of living on this earth.
But, I remind you silly humans on this senior channel that there are more of us than there are of you ...so keep an eye open when you sleep at night! that rustling you hear may be one of us.....one of my family. Well, maybe not my descendants.
           (He is very affected now, wipes a tear away)
Why do I cry? It is simple. I am here today because I have a sadness on my family. I am the very last of my line, my other relatives- every last one of them.....(very dramatic) ....DEAD! Murdered by your delicious treats that are filled with horrible chemicals that make us dehydrate horribly - it is a terrible death!
The only reason I live is because I am for some genetic anomoly, I am immune to your poisons.
I have watched my family decimated, parents, siblings, all my wives! Yes, I tried to procreate but it seems that the same ability to resist your poison also renders me sadly.....unable to reproduce.... impotent.
Not that I haven't tried....many times. To no avail. It is a blank legacy I leave behind....andI am sure you are all happy to hear this. I am NOT.
But I hereby inform you that I will, to my very last moments on this fair planet (thinks) oh, what a fair planet! But until my last breath I will search up your yummy foods that you keep in your cupboards..... I will sleep in the clothing in your closets..... and I will poop where ever I please .....maybe even in your drawers!
And I will say that the death of my family will be avenged because you will never know where I will be seen. I have lived for many years and I will leave behind a legacy of insurrection second only to that of the colonies so many years ago. A regular rat revolution!
              (He indicates the lighter for his cigarette)

You see this?

This is a weapon as well as a warmer. One of my dear relatives was caught by a horrid little man who thought it would be very amusing to light my uncle's tail on fire and watch him burn alive. Is it any reason I am cynical? Angry? Ready to kill?

And then my uncle, who was a very smart rat, saw his tail was on fire and jumped onto the horrid man, who became very upset, and kicked my uncle onto the grass of the back lawn.

Which was very dry, and my uncle ran through the grass, lighting it afire! The horrid murderer was also screaming, as his shirt was burning through, so he could not catch my uncle when my uncle ran into the horrid man's house, and proceeded to set the entire place ablaze!

It was a feat of great daring, bravery and wisdom, as my uncle's final act was running up the tailpipe of the man's car.

The explosion finished off the house and garage - and it is a tale told often around many a cheese.

Why do I tell you this? Because it is time you humans realized that you have been vicious, and hurtful and nasty and not particularly nice to your fellow animals.....and now we want you truly understand that.... you .(says this loudly and clearly)......are...... not alone!

One day we, that is all of us! All the animals and insects will put aside their differences, and work together, and humans will not have a chance. Between the ants, and the birds and we rats, combined with the billions of other insects and animals......we are superior! We just need to take a lesson from your American Natives - we must forget our past of fighting each other, and we must stop eating each other, and focus....on eating all of you!

             (Very loud, very angry)

We will not go quiet into that good night! We will Rage, rage against the dying and my plight.....this is a rodent's story, full of sound of furry......

Think about it the next time you put out one of those horrid traps....or the dreaded poison that decimated my entire clan.......

(He takes his tail grandly and turns to leave, stops, looks back)

We are watching you.....

(He takes the lighter and goes to light his tail as he exits....end of scene, but not of ....Lord Ratburn's legacy!)

------------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315
www.JanetSTiger.weebly.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence Swedenborg Hall 2006-8 --------------------------------------------------------

0 Comments