Audition application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScENrxo6tHqZm-SHZrgpRBSjF_n8o8PPBFlQ_tX-6Xn1dKOsA/viewform?usp=sf_link
Audition Monologues
TORIA: I’m tryin’ to be a journalist. In real life. Not in some pretend lil’ high school basement where the most interesting thing in print is whether or not we’re having fake horsemeat on the lunch menu or who in God’s name among the popular and stuck-up is gonna win Prom King and Queen. I am not interested in whether or not the auditorium gets a fresh coat of paint before December or whether or not the football team wins a single game this year. I am not interested in these pathetic little trifles that make up our sad existence as sheltered brats this side of the Mason-Dixon line. I am interested in the true art of journalism. I want to tell the stories everybody else at this school and in this town is too afraid to cover.
JUSTIN: Folks like me…there’s no space where we really fit, y’know? No side where we really make sense on. I’ve always just existed in the cracks. So when they come askin’ me where I stand, what do I say? Whose side am I supposed to take? Black kids protestin’. White kids prankin’. What side am I supposed to be on when don’t none of them ever…when ain’t none of ‘em really…when I just seem to belong to myself. And that’s it. That’s the side I’m on. But here at Cedar High, everybody wants you on a side. Wanna know where your loyalties lie. And what I got to say about it? Who’s been loyal to me? Find me one person that can answer that question, and I’ll tell you what side I’m on.
COLIN: It all got roots. Way somebody choose not to sit next to somebody in the lunchroom – got roots. Way somebody got problems with the flag somebody else wear on they t-shirt – got roots. Way some people talk the way they talk, or hang out with who they hang out with, or love who they love, or hate who they hate – all got roots. It feel halfway comfortin’ knowin’ it ain’t just start with us. That it been this way. That somebody’s been plantin’ these awful feelins in the soil somewhere. Long before we came along and started pulling up crops. We been digestin’ this same stuff, grown in the same soil, and ain’t even know it. It got me thinkin’…what kinda crop is the folks after us gonna dig up? Is it still gonna be from this same ol’ soil? Or is we ever gonna plant somethin’ new?
RAYLYNN: This is the dirty south. Fights happen all the time. My brother been jumped ‘bout three times in his life. One time he was only thirteen and had suffered a concussion. You thank the older boys what jumped him gon’ to jail? They ain’t done nothin’ but go on ‘bout they lives and grow up eventually. Ain’t sayin’ it’s alright what happen to you. I ain’t sayin’ my brother wunn’t wrong for fightin’ you even though you called him outta his name. But what you doin’…this ain’t no temporary punishment. You press these charges and you messin’ with his life, y’heard me? With the life of my whole family. You really thank that’s justice?
ASHA: After while, Mama called fo’ me to come move with her here. I was like twelve. But I wunn’t the same no mo’. Ain’t feel as comfortable back here. Not ‘til I started hangin’ out again with… They used to call me “Black by association.” Alla my friends and play cousins in Hotlanta. But here they just call me “fake” or “wannabe” or “actin’ Black.” But you know what I thank? If actin’ Black mean findin’ family and love in places you wunn’t expectin. If it mean not bein’ angry unless you got good reason…then maybe we should all be “actin’ Black” mo’ often. That’s all I got to say ‘bout that.
JUSTIN: It’s a student paper. A STUDENT PAPER. We’re not trying to change the world or disrupt capitalism or bring down the government. We’re just giving people something interesting to read while they’re waiting on the bus or have a free period or somethin’. You know what? I’m the editor now. I’m the editor and the copier and the publisher and everything else this dyin’ paper needs, and I’m the one student who hasn’t stopped talkin’ to you. So write another article or else walk cuz I ain’t got the time to argue with you.
TORIA: I don’t want this year to be like every other one, y’know? Where folks like us get lost forever into the abyss of nobodies because we’re the only ones who know we’re alive. Still waitin’ on this place to give back, y’know? These past three years I ain’t done nothin’ but give and give and ain’t hardly reaped nothin’. But I decided this year…I can. Finally find a purpose for what I am at this school. I’m an investigator. And I can’t leave this year without fully definin’ what I am. This is the year I can etch myself into stone. Be a journalist. That’s what I want Justin. Don’t you?
RAYLYNN: Class was kinda crazy today, right? Miss Hooper and them pop quizzes. She only give ‘em when she in a bad mood. Like if she had a bad date the night befo o’ somethin’. But you can sometimes tell when she ‘bout to go out that night. She come to school wearin’ them skinny jeans that she can’t hardly fit into. You see her dressin’ that way, you know you betta study up on yo notes lata on. Almost alla her dates be bad. Don’t nobody wanna put up with alla her personality. Sound of her voice make me wanna cut my ears off most of the time. You ain’t like…you don’t seem like no football player. Ain’t meanin’ nothin’ bad. Just way we talkin’ right now. Can’t get most of ‘em to say two words to me. But you just got…ease or somethin’.