English Writing Challenge – Nov./Dec. 2021 Monologues

What is EWC?

English Writing Challenge_Author DRAVEN from etc- english theater cologne on Vimeo.

Character Name: Conner
Character Age: 17
3 Words to describe the character: caring, protective, outgoing
Setting: 2021, Cologne, late in the evening on a weekday, homeschooling because of COVID.

 

  

MONOLOGUE TEXT

 

Do you think I don’t want to do my homework because I’m lazy?
Because I feel like it doesn’t matter? Well you’re wrong.
I know you think I just don’t care, but I do.
Sometimes I feel like I care too much, like when I try to do my homework and I don’t understand, after a while I give up and then I have an anxiety attack. I have a break down because I’m just too dumb to understand how to solve a math problem.
 
This isn’t funny. I don’t ask for help because when I do, I just feel stupid for asking. This has gotten to be a really bad problem. I’ve been telling you this. Oh and I should study more? The only thing that studying more does for me is increase my self-doubt and disappointment. You have no idea how many tears I’ve shed because of this one stupid subject in school.
 
I try to copy everything I can when I don’t understand anything, and if I can’t get anything from my classmates? Well then, I just procrastinate until it’s too late. Onetime I even turned in a blank sheet of paper because I didn’t want to see the cause of my self-loathing.
Pathetic, isn’t it?
 
You just don’t understand anything. Leave me alone.

THE AUTHOR

 

Author Age: 16
Author Name: Draven
Author Pronouns: He / Him
Author Bio: Sophomore from the Freiherr-vom-Stein Gymnasium in Leverkusen; loves art in the forms of theater, creative writing, drawing, dancing and more.

THE ACTOR

Studied Acting / Theatre at Pennsylvania State Univeristy and with various private teachers from all over the world. She’s had leading roles in various musicals / musical revues such as Grizbella/CATS, Cosette / LES MISERABLES, Maria / WEST SIDE STORY as well as in many dramas and comedies. She wrote and performed in her own one woman show, A LOST AMERICAN IN GERMANY, for 6 years performing not only in Germany but also in PA and NYC. Kathleen has also directed events, children’s shows, comedies and dramas in Germany and the US. In Germany she has been seen on television in KUESTENWACHE, UNTER UNS, WEST OF LIBERTY and for 6 years was in a recurring role in Europe’s #1, prize winning, gay web series KUNTERGRAU as the firey, passionate, OMA MARGARETHE. When she met James Bunyon, they both knew that they had to collaborate and establish an English theater company in Cologne. That was the birth of etc-english theater cologne.

Kathleen's Full Bio

English Writing Challenge_Author - NAOMI from etc- english theater cologne on Vimeo.

Character Name: Jakob Look
Character Age: 18
3 Words to describe the character: Adventurous, brave, honest
Setting: Jakob is at home. Alone in his writer’s world…

 

 

MONOLOGUE TEXT

 

“Beware of the night”, somebody told me.
“Share your heart with the world”, you told me.
I dream of this every single night.
Listen, I want to create. I want to write more, more than just some pieces of paper, something special.
I want my writing to change people.
There will be a voice, an actress, an actor or just a person, who will take my words and they will love them and take care of them.
Future generations will speak my words and it will be part of history.
I do not want or need to be seen by anyone. They will see the play, this piece of art.
But now, I need your love, your brotherly love.
I miss your approval, your opinion, your funny laugh and shy behaviour. I miss it so much.
I wish these tears would go away.
I apologise, if it took so long my brother!
But I got it.
I got it now.

THE AUTHOR

 

Author Age: 20
Author Name: Naomi Makarov
Author Pronouns: She/Her
Author Bio: Occupational training as a kindergarten teacher.
Leisure activities and interests: Musical project “Queer thinking” music4everybody e.v. (2019/20) https://music4everybody.com/
Musical project “Mensch wie Du” (2020/21)
Musical project (2021/2022) (Now)
Hobbies: art, poetry, music, participating in musicals, technology, learning languages.

 

THE ACTOR

At the age of 16, James completed an internship with the Really Useful Group, founded by musical composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, focusing primarily on London’s West End.
In 2004, James was awarded the Gold Medal by the London Academy of Dramatic Art (LAMDA) for his recital of verse and prose. In 2005, he graduated from the Birmingham School of Acting with a degree in Acting and Musical Theatre.
Early on, James developed a desire to pass on his passion for theatre, and so he began developing comprehensive theatre education programs in schools, in the UK and beyond. His clientele included the UK’s national health service, NHS, for which he created numerous interactive theatre productions and workshops for a wide range of audiences.
In 2005, he joined the White Horse Theatre, Europe’s largest touring educational theater based in Soest, Germany, and toured with the troupe for sixteen years throughout Germany, Denmark, France, and Thailand. etc-english theater cologne marks a new chapter with new challenges, the biggest one to date being the pandemic.
James Full Bio

English Writing Challenge_Author- M.B. EASTON from etc- english theater cologne on Vimeo.

Character Name: Caleb
Character Age: 26
Character adjectives: hard-working, asexual, intelligent
Setting: the campus of an Ivy League university in the year 2024.
 
 

 

 

MONOLOGUE TEXT

 
You don’t live my life. And you don’t feel what I feel. And I am not some toy that you can play around with for your own entertainment. And I won’t date this guy just because you think we’d fit together, when in reality I don’t want to be set up with anyone.
I love being on my own.
I hate rejecting people, but I keep doing it because I hate lying to myself even more. It’s too painful and takes me back to my teenage years when I thought there was something wrong with me.
Now, when I finally have the life that I’ve always wanted, you tell me I’m wrong.
Not everybody shares the same vision of life as you do. My friends, who never had any issue with me dating guys or girls, and me being secretly miserable about it, suddenly they have a problem with me being happy on my own. Without love.
So many things in life make me happy without sexuality, and it’s not because I’m prudish.
I just wish that you would respect that I am satisfied with my life as it is, right now.
Tina you’re my best friend and I want you to know what’s going on inside me.
Maybe you don’t believe me, but think about it, have I ever been any happier in a relationship than when I was on my own?
Well I’m going home now. Alone. And I’m fine, just the way I am.
 

THE AUTHOR

 

Author Age: 16
Author Name: M. B. Easton
Author Pronouns: He/Him
Author Bio: I am currently attending my last year of school and when I graduate, I plan to study abroad. I enjoy reading, writing, listening to music and playing in an orchestra. I am currently working on a fantasy novel, which I really enjoy designing the world and characters of.

THE ACTOR

Studied Acting / Theatre at Pennsylvania State Univeristy and with various private teachers from all over the world. She’s had leading roles in various musicals / musical revues such as Grizbella/CATS, Cosette / LES MISERABLES, Maria / WEST SIDE STORY as well as in many dramas and comedies. She wrote and performed in her own one woman show, A LOST AMERICAN IN GERMANY, for 6 years performing not only in Germany but also in PA and NYC. Kathleen has also directed events, children’s shows, comedies and dramas in Germany and the US. In Germany she has been seen on television in KUESTENWACHE, UNTER UNS, WEST OF LIBERTY and for 6 years was in a recurring role in Europe’s #1, prize winning, gay web series KUNTERGRAU as the firey, passionate, OMA MARGARETHE. When she met James Bunyon, they both knew that they had to collaborate and establish an English theater company in Cologne. That was the birth of etc-english theater cologne.

Kathleen's Full Bio

English Writing Challenge_Author_EMOLEE from etc- english theater cologne on Vimeo.

Character Name: Liam
Character Age: 16
3 Words to describe the character: Overwhelmed, Trans(FtM), misunderstood.
Setting: At home, in the living room, rainy weather, around 6 pm.

 

 

MONOLOGUE TEXT

 

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! Nobody does!
Listen. Nothing is wrong with me.
I just don‘t wanna feel trapped in a body that isn‘t mine.
I did “find” myself, inside, so please stop telling me that I didn’t.
Everyone assumes my problems are to do with me being Trans, when that has nothing to do with it.
I‘mso sick of adults trying to tell me that my problems to do with me being Queer. That‘s not fair.
Trans people are normal people and we deserve to be treated like other people.
OUR problems should be treated like every other problem.
So, pleasestop telling me that my problems I have to do with my Gender. It‘s pathetic!!
I‘m at my limit right now…so… if you can… and you would be so nice, and you would be so kind, if you could just stop stressing me out even more, it would be very nice.
I just don’t think I can handle the stress anymore.“

THE AUTHOR

 

Author Age: 16
Author Name: Emolee
Author Pronouns: They / He
Author Bio: Emolee is a Junior in a Vocational training College in Leverkusen. They are very interested in dancing, acting and writing. One of Emolee’s dreamjobs is to be an actor.

 

THE ACTOR

At the age of 16, James completed an internship with the Really Useful Group, founded by musical composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, focusing primarily on London’s West End.
In 2004, James was awarded the Gold Medal by the London Academy of Dramatic Art (LAMDA) for his recital of verse and prose. In 2005, he graduated from the Birmingham School of Acting with a degree in Acting and Musical Theatre.
Early on, James developed a desire to pass on his passion for theatre, and so he began developing comprehensive theatre education programs in schools, in the UK and beyond. His clientele included the UK’s national health service, NHS, for which he created numerous interactive theatre productions and workshops for a wide range of audiences.
In 2005, he joined the White Horse Theatre, Europe’s largest touring educational theater based in Soest, Germany, and toured with the troupe for sixteen years throughout Germany, Denmark, France, and Thailand. etc-english theater cologne marks a new chapter with new challenges, the biggest one to date being the pandemic.
James Full Bio

English Writing Challenge_Author_MARTIN LEE from etc- english theater cologne on Vimeo.

Character Name: John
Character Age: 21
3 Words to describe the character: sensitive, lonely, idealistic

Setting: An autumn night in 2018, John is in a large European city, speaking on the phone with an old friend of his.

 

 

 

MONOLOGUE TEXT

 

Thanks for being willing to talk to me — I hope I’m not keeping you up… I’m not feeling very good these days…
It’s kind of hard to explain – I mean work is going great, but my social life – I feel like it’s just falling apart…
I have my circle of friends, we do things together, but I just don’t feel close to them – like, if I have something personal that I need to talk about, I don’t feel like sharing it with any of them.
A few times I thought I found someone, someone I could trust, who cares about me, but it turned out to be all just in my head, like wishful thinking.
I don’t know if you can understand. Do I sound needy and ungrateful?
I used to think it’s a privilege to travel from one place to another, leaving old things behind, but now it feels more like exile…
Oh sure. I’m really sorry. I understand. Good night to you too. Sleep well.

THE AUTHOR

 

Author Age: 23
Author Name: Martin Lee
Author Pronouns: He/ Him
Author Bio: Martin Lee was born and raised in mainland China. After completing his bachelor’s degree in Hong Kong, he moved to Germany for graduate school. In his free time, he enjoys badminton, jogging, and reading literary fiction.

 

THE ACTOR

Studied Acting / Theatre at Pennsylvania State Univeristy and with various private teachers from all over the world. She’s had leading roles in various musicals / musical revues such as Grizbella/CATS, Cosette / LES MISERABLES, Maria / WEST SIDE STORY as well as in many dramas and comedies. She wrote and performed in her own one woman show, A LOST AMERICAN IN GERMANY, for 6 years performing not only in Germany but also in PA and NYC. Kathleen has also directed events, children’s shows, comedies and dramas in Germany and the US. In Germany she has been seen on television in KUESTENWACHE, UNTER UNS, WEST OF LIBERTY and for 6 years was in a recurring role in Europe’s #1, prize winning, gay web series KUNTERGRAU as the firey, passionate, OMA MARGARETHE. When she met James Bunyon, they both knew that they had to collaborate and establish an English theater company in Cologne. That was the birth of etc-english theater cologne.
Kathleen's Full Bio
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