Monologues for the Young Actor [Monologue Collection]

13. Just Relax (C)

someone tries to convince an overly-stressed coworker to go on vacation  

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Est. Run Time: 1:00.00-1:30.00 (depending on how long you pause to "listen" to the other person on the phone)

Suggested Props: cell phone

Suggested Costuming: none

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*on the phone with a friend* You know what, friend, you need to relax. Like, majorly. You've been all *fakes being stiff* tense and stuff lately. *pauses*

Yes, I'm serious! Don't deny it—you know you do! You haven't had an actual vacation for...what, fifteen years now? Yeesh. And trust me, you can tell. B-but it's not a bad thing!

Don't you have, like, twenty vacation days or something saved up from the past few years? Just use some of them—it's doesn't have to be all of them, of course. Save five or ten for emergencies. Yeah. I know you're paranoid. *pauses*

Where to go? Don't tell me you don't know where to go. Is there someplace on TV or something that you looked at and wanted to visit, maybe? *pauses*

You don't watch TV?! Oh my god, what century do you live in?

Well, just try Hawaii or New York or England or something. *pauses* Don't worry abut airplanes. It's actually safer to fly in an airplane than to drive in a car. *pauses* Nope, I don't feel any regret for just making you terrified of cars. If you sell it, at least you can get money for this vacation.

*pauses* Yeesh, you're paranoid. If you really don't want to worry about passports, just don't go out of the country. And if you're that terrified of planes, just drive somewhere or something. And if you're really that terrified of cars now, gosh, just stay at home and relax and go suntan at a pool or something.

*pauses* You're scared of public pools, too? How am I notsurprised. This is harder than I thought. You know, I'm beginning to see whyyou haven't vacationed in fifteen years....

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This is actually based off of the first musical-style song I wrote, which sadly did not work out so well as the monologue has. This is a good one to show off your ability to react to and act off of nothing, seen in how the performer will not actually be speaking with anyone else on the other end of the phone. This reveals the actor's ability to listen to (or, at least, pretend to listen to) their fellow actors. A similar phone call-type monologue was how I actually got called back to my first real role in a more professional show. Additionally, if you forget your lines, you can pretend to still be "listening " to the person on the phone as you try and remember them, as I also found out at that audition....