How to Choose and Prepare Your First Monologue — A Guide for Every Genre
The monologue is where it begins.
Before the audition room. Before the camera. Before the role. There is the monologue — a single actor, a single voice, and the full weight of a character's inner world on display. It is one of the most exposed things an actor can do. And it is one of the most powerful. And it is a great place to start — you will learn to rely on your own capacity and gain strength as you rehearse to perfection a monologue that you always have ready in case you are asked to perform something on the spot. Rather than doing a cold read that will not do complete justice to what you are capable of when a rehearsed monolouge, with the right words and expression for your qualities highlighted will show that you are indeed an Actor Artist..
At The Actor Studio, I approach monologue work differently. I write around you and sometimes I pick Film Characters or characters from Threatrical Plays.
I start with you — your personality, your natural strengths, the qualities that make you special as a performer — and together we build from there.
Start With Who You Are
The most common mistake actors make when choosing a monologue is picking something they admire rather than something that fits. They choose the speech that moved them in a film, or the one their favourite actor performed, or the one that sounds impressive on paper. And then they spend weeks trying to become someone they are not.
The better approach is to start with your own personality and strengths. What do you naturally bring into a room?
At The Actor Studio, I use The Van Kamp Method, as I take you through certain Acting Techniques simontainously, I begin by writing or selecting a monologue specifically around you — one that lets you lead with your strengths rather than fight against your instincts. This is not about playing it safe. It is about giving you the best possible foundation from which to take risks.
Once you are confident in that foundation, we expand. We move into characters from classic and contemporary texts. We explore different genres. We push your range — deliberately, progressively, and always in service of the work.
Drama — The Foundation of Everything
Dramatic monologues are where most actors begin, and for good reason. Drama demands the full range of the actor's instrument — emotional truth, physical presence, vocal control, and the ability to sustain a complex inner life through language.
In sessions at The Actor Studio, dramatic monologue work draws on Method Acting and Stella Adler technique to help you find the emotional and imaginative truth of the character.
Horror — The Genre Most Actors Underestimate
Horror is one of the most technically demanding genres for an actor — and one of the most misunderstood. The instinct is to play fear. To scream, to flinch, to perform the external signs of terror.
The Chubbuck approach cuts through that instinct entirely. Rather than performing fear, you locate a personal traumatic event — something real, something that still lives in your body — and you apply it through the 12 Steps. The result is not a performance of terror. It is terror. The audience feels the difference immediately, even if they cannot name it.
It is also, unexpectedly, some of the most freeing work an actor can do. The genre gives you permission to go to extreme places — and learning to inhabit those places truthfully, without losing control of your instrument, is one of the most demanding and rewarding things you can do as a performer. Horror teaches you to commit completely — to the fear, the dread, the disbelief — and to find the human truth inside the extreme. When you can do that, every other genre becomes easier.
Thriller — Precision Under Pressure
Thriller demands a different kind of control. Where horror works with fear, thriller works with tension — the sense that something is at stake, that information is being withheld, that every word carries a subtext the audience can feel but not quite name.
Monologue work in the thriller genre is an exercise in subtext. What does the character know that they are not saying? What are they trying to achieve, and what are they willing to do to achieve it? The Van Kamp Method — with its focus on the character's overriding goal and how to overcome the obstacles in their way — is particularly powerful here.
Comedy — The Hardest Genre to Teach
There is a saying in the industry: dying is easy, comedy is hard. It is true. Comic timing is one of the most elusive skills in acting — and one of the most valuable.
Comedy monologue work at The Actor Studio focuses on two things: truth and timing. The truth first — because comedy that doesn't come from a real place isn't funny, it's just noise. The character must believe completely in what they are saying, even when what they are saying is absurd. Especially then.
Timing second — because comedy lives in the space between the setup and the release, and learning to feel that space, to hold it just long enough, is something that can be developed with practice. It is not a gift you either have or don't. It is a skill.
Improvisation — The Skill Beneath All Skills
Improvisation is not a genre in the traditional sense. It is a practice — and it underpins everything else. The ability to be fully present, to listen and respond in the moment, to make strong choices without a script to fall back on: these are the qualities that separate technically competent actors from genuinely compelling ones.
It makes you able to express yourself with confidence at any given time. I had a particularly hard time with improvisation — it took me personally years to master. But it is freeing for the actor's instrument. A powerful skill needed inside the actor's invisible toolbox. When you bring that quality of freedom to scripted work, the preparation becomes an adventure into the unknown that then becomes known.
How We Work Together
Every actor who comes to The Actor Studio begins in the same place: with themselves. We identify your natural strengths, your instinctive qualities, the things you do without thinking that are already working. We build your first monologue around those qualities — so that your first experience of performing is one of confidence, not struggle.
From there, we move through the genres. We find characters from classic and contemporary texts that challenge you in specific ways. We work on Drama, Horror, Thriller, Comedy, and Improvisation — not as separate boxes, but as a connected exploration of your range as a performer.
Sessions are one-on-one, conducted online, available globally, and led personally by Actress, Coach, Screenwriter, Director, and Designer Merete Van Kamp in Danish, German, French, Spanish, or English.
The work is serious. The environment is safe. And the goal is always the same: to help you become the most fully realised version of yourself as an actor.
→ Book your first Actor Studio session here.
Le Van Kamp Studio — tools, art, and coaching for the actor's life. Based in Paris. Available worldwide.