Performing an EPIC Monologue

When auditioning/performing with a monologue, you never want to spill all of your feelings at once. The smartest thing to do, is take people on a journey. For instance, in this monlogue:

Come and live with us--in the villa. You can set your swans swimming in the brook ... we can talk of old times ... you can open all that is locked up in me--as you did in our days of creation. I beg of you, Irene--give me this one chance to live my life over again. Help me undo my greatest mistake. When you left, Irene ... when you disappeared ... I cannot express to you ... I was filled with such regret. I became painfully aware of all that I had left unsaid ... all the moments I had allowed to pass ... without ... without grasping them ... without ... I had come to think of you as something sacred, you see ... something holy ... a gift from God ... a creature of innocence not to be touched save in adoring thoughts. A superstition took hold of me that if I touched you ... if I desired you with my senses ... my soul would be desecrated, and I would not be able to finish my work. I was a fool! An idealistic young fool! I should have taken you in my arms right then and there--on the floor of my studio, I should have taken you! With the clay still on my fingers! It would only have added to the beauty of the child--to the depth and complexity of her meaning--of her mystery. [Pause.] I can't lose you again, Irene--I don't think I could survive it.

Where you see the word pause at the end, is where you would change. Throughout the entire thing, you would get more and more emotional, than at the end (where pause is) you would calm down, and say that line powerfully. Otherwise, you run out of emotion and it gets boring before it ends. This way, you make the listener want to continue listening because you haven't reached the climax yet. The climax at this would be right before the pause at the end. Than the downfall would be the last line. But you always want to find a place like that. If there is no climax in the middle of the text, than have it be at the end. So that way you leave them hanging with emotion. If you need help with an audition monologue, just leave a comment. P.S. I Do not own that monologue, it came from Monologuearchive.com. From a play called When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen.