The Triangle Factory Fire Project
Audition Materials
Important:
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If you have a monologue you have prepared from either “She Kills Monsters” or “LagniappePotpourri,” please feel free to use it in your audition, provided it is under one minute.
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All are encouraged to use monologues of either gender.
Edna, Waiting for Lefty
Don't yell. I just put the kids to bed so they won't know they missed a meal. If I don't have Emmy's shoes
soled tomorrow, she can't go to school. The second month's rent is due tomorrow. I'm looking through you,
not at you! You're a four-star-bust! If you think I'm standing for it much longer, you're crazy as a bedbug. You
got two kids sleeping in the next room. They need food and clothes. I'm not mentioning anything else - For
God's sake, do something, Joe, get wise. Maybe get your buddies together, maybe go on strike for better
money. Poppa did it during the war and they won out. I know this - your boss is making suckers outta you
boys every minute. Yes, and suckers out of all the wives and the poor innocent kids who'll grow up with
crooked spines and sick bones. My God, Joe - the world is supposed to be for all of us.
Joe, Waiting for Lefty
You boys know me. I ain't a red boy one bit! Here I'm carryin' a shrapnel that big I picked up in the war. And
maybe I don't know it when it rains! Don't tell me red! You know what we are? The black and blue boys! We
been kicked around so long we're black and blue from head to toes. But I guess anyone who says straight out
he don't like it, he's a red boy to the leaders of the union. What's this crap about goin' home to hot suppers?
I'm asking to your faces how many got hot suppers to go home to? Anyone who's sure of his next meal, raise
your hand! A certain gent sitting behind me can raise them both. But not in front here! And that's why we're
talking strike - to get a living wage!
Rose of Sharon, The Grapes of Wrath
Me and Connie don’t want to live in the country no more. We got it all planned up what we gonna do. We
talked about it, me and Connie. Ma, we wanna live in a town. Connie gonna get a job in a store or maybe a
factory. And he’s gonna study at home, maybe radios, so he can get to be a expert an’ maybe later have his
own store. And we’ll go to pictures whenever. And Connie says I’m gonna have a doctor when the baby’s
born; an’ he says we’ll see how times is, an’ maybe I’ll go to a hospital. And we’ll have a car, little car. And
when he gets done studying at night, why – it’ll be nice, and he tore a page outa Western Love Stories, he’s
gonna send off for a course…’cause it don’t cost nothin’ to send off. Says right on that clipping. I seen it. And
we’ll live in town and go to pictures whenever, an – well. I’m gonna have a ‘lectric iron!
Tom Joad, The Grapes of Wrath
Ma, I been thinkin’ a hell of a lot, thinkin’ about our people livin’ like pigs, and the good rich land layin’ fellow, or
maybe one fella with a million acres, while a hundred thousand good farmers is starvin’. And I been wonderin’
if all our folks got together and yelled, like them fellas yelled? Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a
soul of his own, but only a piece of a big one- and then- Then it don’t matter. Then I’ll be all around in the dark.
I’ll be everywhere- wherever you look. Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there.
Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the
houses they build- why, I’ll be there. See? God, I’m talking like Casy.
Jimmy, Everett Beekin
We should lower our voices. Your mother doesn’t know I’ve proposed yet, and well, she doesn’t like me.
Okay, hate. She hates me. I know your brother/sister doesn’t have a cold. I think (s)he’s being kept from me.
Your mother does that. She’s a very powerful woman. She does this. She’s done it before. When your
mother knows I’m coming, she keeps him/her from seeing me. She finds ways. I want to make your
sister/brother happy. That’s all I want. Since I met him/her. I-I’m going to do very well in the world. I’m going
to thrive. It’s so obvious, I don’t feel the need of modesty. Look at the country now. Look at me. There won’t
be a problem. I want a future. Now I’m going to get those aspirin. I’ll be back in a little while. Please don’t try
to keep me out. Really, you can’t.