This exciting collection of 125 comic and serious monologues contains professional-level material appropriate for audition as well as interpretive study. All ages are represented, from teens to characters in their 50s and older. Moving, funny, offbeat, the monologues explore key moments in the lives of a diverse range of individuals—a woman who thinks someone is stealing her front lawn, a man in a loveless marriage who talks to chimpanzees, a nurse withholding treatment until she is paid what she is worth, a man who hears a scream for help on his answering machine, a prisoner whose death will make an unusual contribution to science, a woman prepared to stare at an eclipse until she is blind, a teen trying desperately to escape occupied Belgium with his girlfriend, the cost-conscious woman who dies while cutting out coupons, and dozens more. These monologues provide well-defined characterizations that will challenge the professional actor and the amateur performer alike. 6x9—320 pages.