Firstly, I read the Murder on the Orient Express play to understand what monologue would fit the show well. The monologue I chose for my audition was a spliced version of Wadsworth’s monologue from CLUE:
Ladies and gentlemen, my instructions are clear. It seems the six of you have one thing in common. You are all being blackmailed. For some considerable time all of you have been paying what you can afford—and, in some cases, more than you can afford—to someone who threatens to expose you. Until tonight, none of you knew who was blackmailing you. I hope I’m correct that the more deductive among you have reasoned in the last several moments that it was, of course, Mr. Boddy himself—and that the less discerning members of our cadre are experiencing that particular revelation right about…now. Six suspects. Six murders. Mr. Boddy in the Billiard Room. The Cook in the Kitchen. The Motorist in the Lounge. The Cop in the Library. Yvette in the Ballroom. And the Singing Telegram Girl in the Hall. Not to mention one “confidential” envelope of missing, damning evidence. Our evening’s guests may be gifted at breaking the law, but they clearly need work on breaking a case. So, who is the killer you may ask? I’m sure you have your suspicions. But, we’ve no time to discuss that now. (Looks at his watch.) The police are nearly here.
Preparing a monologue is interesting because it’s about converting a text into a display of your skills. It has to make sense within the ~60 seconds you’re allotted. Preparation for this can rival the preparation you do for a character in a real production, though in my case I had one week to do it. Thus, I followed my usual strategy detailed in Early Explorations. Specifically, I use chunking-the-text and Hagen’s Six Steps. These are the basic blocks for understanding what is happening in the text and what I’m doing.
This is similar to what I did for my callback, only there is no expectation to be memorized. It is a challenge to look your partner in the eyes while you need to look at the script, let alone react actively and act at all. There has to be a balance between being in the moment and recognizing that you need to look down at the page every once in a while.