5 Best Alcott Monologues – Opening Monologue

Alcott (Jessie)

Category: Play Role: Jessie From: Alcott

Jessie says

Why not?! Because you write about me over and over except it’s not me. I’m funnier than that. I’m smarter than that. And then after you dumb me down, you expect me to keep playing this paler version of myself . And then the point of the play is always that you aren’t in love with me. So night after night I have to go in front of an audience and be rejected you in every dumb play you write about me. And like an idiot, I keep coming back for more. I think, “artistic license.” I think, “fiction.” But I’m just lying to myself. You’re obsessed with how in love with me you aren’t. And maybe you don’t even see it. But I’ve seen it in a thousand different moments over the last several years. So I’m just going to quit. I’m not going to be in your play.

Alcott (Lucy)

Category: Play Role: Lucy From: Alcott

Lucy says

Welcome. Welcome. Come in. There’s seats down in the front. Everybody here? Great. So this is, “Finding Your Voice.” My name is Lucy and I am here to tell you that you are valuable. Your thoughts are valuable. Your feelings, your ideas. The patriarchy spends a lot of time telling women in subtle and not so subtle ways that what they think or feel or believe is wrong. I am here to tell you they are all full of shit. You have a lot to contribute to our community and I am here to help you find and free your voice. This will be an era in your life of freedom, an end to the oppression of denying your true self. There will be no more writer’s block. No more insecurity. No more second guessing or self censoring. You ready to get started, you future leaders of tomorrow?

Alcott (Marisa)

Category: Play Role: Marisa From: Alcott

Marisa says

Okay so I don’t know if there are stragglers, but I’m just going to start the tour. Hi, I’m Marissa. Hi. Welcome to Alcott College for Women founded in eighteen ninety five. You are here because we are the best. You know the saying. Smith to bed, Mount Holyoke to wed and Alcott to run your company. But our grads are not all CEOs. We have novelists, painters, journalists, lawyers, doctors, philanthropists, architects and professors. (as if responding to someone on the tour.) Yes, right and mothers. But you already know all this. That’s why you’re here. . . . No, Gloria Steinem didn’t go here.

… Amelia Earhart? No. … Helen Gurley Brown? No. … Well, scores of amazing women, just not those three. … No Aphra Behn died a hundred years before the college was founded. … No, not Gertrude Stein. No. … No. … No. … No. … No. … No… We’re getting sidetracked here. Let me show you the campus. Designed Stanford White after an exploratory trip to Italy and Greece it’s a neoclassical … yes, that’s right. Imposing, isn’t it? It gives a weight to our studies. We aren’t f- fooling around at Alcott. We are the future leaders of the arts, business and– No, not her, either. Stop! Hold on! I know you! You’re the tour guide from Wellesley. You’ve been warned before. Don’t let me see you on this campus again! I don’t care if your girlfriend’s here or not. This is my work study job. I won’t have it! I simply won’t! We’re not continuing until you leave. … Go! Just go! GO! GO! GO!

… Is she gone? Behind me, the cafeteria. You’ll spend a lot of time there. And the library of course. The intricate structure to my left is the cathedral, mostly used for–GET OUT OF HERE! GO! GO! Okay, I think she’s finally . . . This way to the STEM wing. That’s new. Then the Theater. But you probably want to see the dorms, don’t you? I SAID GET OUT OF HERE!!

Alcott (Violet)

Category: Play Role: Violet From: Alcott

Violet says

My name’s not Violet. My name has never been Violet. I always introduce myself as Elizabeth. It’s my name. It’s always been my name. Meredith called me Shrinking Violet once during my freshman year and ever since then, everyone thinks my name is Violet. My name is not Violet. It’s been fourteen years. Stop fucking calling me Violet!

(PRAGUE: Relax, Honey.)

I will not relax. You know, I’ve expended so much energy over the years trying to get you to notice me. All of you. Why do I care what you think? How is it I think about you when you aren’t there? Still. All the time. All of you? You’re not that special. You never were. No one cares about you. No one knows who you are. You’ve built this wind tunnel around you that celebrates your cult. It’s not a real thing. Theater isn’t even a real thing. My mother thinks I open curtains during Lion King. And you! All the things you do are insignificant. You are selfish and you are oblivious and you are all terrible people.

Alcott (Violet)

Category: Play Role: Violet From: Alcott

Violet says

Your instincts are right. I can’t wait for when you fall on your face. I hate you so much. So so much. So so so much. I’ve done everything. I cut my hair. She doesn’t notice. I dye my hair, I dye it back, shave it off, grow it back. Nothing. Change my eye shadow. Change my lipstick. I put on my good bra and the tight dress and glitter but nothing. Nothing. You wear that and have that face and don’t write a fucking word and she’s all over you drooling like Prague shouldn’t drool.