Audition Speeches - BA Acting courses

Audition Speeches - BA Acting courses

Those attending auditions for BA (Hons) Acting courses – Acting - Acting, Acting (Collaborative and Devised Theatre) or Acting (Musical Theatre) – are required to prepare one memorised classical speech from Elizabethan or Jacobean plays or a foreign play written before 1700. Below is an indicative list showing speeches that candidates have prepared in the past – you do not need to select speeches from these lists but you may find them useful for guidance.

These speeches are listed by the gender of the character as originally written. When selecting a speech, all candidates should feel free to choose speeches for either male or female characters. We would always recommend that candidates select speeches which best demonstrate their strengths and abilities, choose characters with whom they feel a real connection, and speeches in which the situation is made clear even to those who don’t know the play. Speeches with a clear character ‘journey’ and an issue to be resolved can be a good choice.

Speeches for male characters

  • Proteus: ‘Even as one heat… use my skill’. Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 2 Sc 4)
  • Proteus: ‘To leave my Julia… plot this drift!’ Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 2 Sc 6)
  • Sebastian: ‘This is the air…here the lady comes’ Twelfth Night (Act 4 Sc 3)
  • Benedick: ‘This can be no trick…marks of love in her.’ Much Ado about Nothing (Act 2 Sc 3)
  • Romeo: ‘But soft what light……cheek!’ Romeo and Juliet (Act 2 Sc 2)
  • Macbeth: ‘To be thus is nothing……utterance!’ Macbeth (Act 3 Sc 1)
  • Angelo: ‘What’s this? What’s this? ……I smiled and wondered how.’ Measure for Measure (Act 2 Sc 2)
  • Prince Henry: ‘Do not think so…this vow’ King Henry IV Part 1 (Act 3 Sc 2)
  • Hamlet: ‘Look here upon this picture……where is they blush?’ Hamlet (Act 3 Sc 4)
  • Edmund: ‘Thou, nature…bastards!’ King Lear (Act 1 Sc 2)
  • Edgar: ‘I heard myself…..Edgar I nothing am’ King Lear (Act 2 Sc 3)
  • Ferdinand: ‘Let me see her face again……thou hast done much ill well.’ The Duchess of Malfi – Webster (Act 4 Sc 2)

Speeches for Female Characters

  • Silvia: ‘O Eglamour….depart alone’ Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 4 Sc 3)
  • Julia: ‘And she…love with thee!’ Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act 4 Sc 4)
  • Viola: ‘I left no ring with her……knot for me to untie!’ Twelfth Night (Act 2 Sc 2)
  • Helena: ‘How happy some…back again’ Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 1 Sc 1)
  • Helena: ‘Lo, she is one…the injury’ Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 3 Sc 2)
  • Portia: ‘I pray you tarry……you from election.’ The Merchant of Venice (Act 3 Sc 2)
  • Katharina: ‘Fie, fie…husband’s foot’ The Taming of the Shrew (Act 5 Sc 2)
  • Adriana: ‘Ay, ay…undishonoured’ The Comedy of Errors (Act 2 Sc 2)
  • Queen Margaret: ‘Enforced thee……we’ll after them.’ King Henry VI part III (Act 1 Sc 1)
  • Queen Margaret: ‘Brave warriors……to make thee mad do mock thee thus.’ King Henry VI part III (Act 1 Sc 4)
  • Portia: ‘You’ve ungently, Brutus……with your cause of grief.’ Julius Caesar (Act 2 Sc 1)
  • Portia: ‘Is Brutus sick?…from darkness’ Julius Caesar (Act 2 Sc 1)
  • Juliet: ‘Thou knowst….so discovered’ Romeo and Juliet (Act 2 Sc 2)
  • Juliet: ‘Shall I speak ill…words can that woe sound’ Romeo and Juliet (Act 3 Sc 2)
  • Juliet: ‘Farewell!…..I drink to thee’ Romeo and Juliet (Act 4 Sc 3)
  • Cressida: ‘Hard to seem won……stop my mouth.’ Troilus and Cressida (Act 3 Sc 2)
  • Goneril: ‘By day and night he wrongs me……prepare for dinner.’ (omit Oswald’s lines) King Lear (Act 1 Sc 3)
  • Phoebe: ‘I would not be thy executioner……that can do hurt.’ As You Like It (Act 3 Sc 5)
  • Rosalind: ‘And why, I pray you? ……fare you well.’ As You Like It (Act 3 Sc 5)