How many speeches?
You may have gathered together more speeches than you need for any particular audition requirment, and you will probably favour one or two of them above the others. However, if you have the time, I would advise that you have at least four memorised and ‘ready to go’ – 2 modern and 2 classical. If you’re lucky enough to be offered a recall audition you may be asked to present some totally new monologues. Quite often recalls are sent out with not much more than two or three weeks notice, so it’s good to have something in reserve that you can pull out with the minimum of stress and preparation. Also, you never know when you may want to change what you’re doing at the last minute – For instance, you’re waiting with other auditionees and you overhear that someone is doing the same speech as you, or you’ve had some upsetting news a day before the audition and feel that you would find another speech easier to cope with than the upbeat energetic one you were going to use.
