Kids Monologue of the Month

Tips for preparing a monologue:

Imagine the person you're speaking to. If you're supposed to be speaking to the audience, imagine who they are--friends? enemies? the doorman?
Imagine where you are and the things that are around you.

Create a set by using real objects that are handy--chairs, benches, fake tree, etc.
You can use real objects for props, too--book, wallet, football, etc.
Be expressive--get mad or happy or sad or just have some attitude as you perform your monologue.
Movement & Gestures--use them. Don't just stand still while doing a monologue.

If there are stage directions—in parenthesis—in the monologue below, use them or come up with your own. They're just suggestions. If a monologue has ellipses (three dots in a row), act as if you’re listening to someone else responding or speaking to you. But those ellipses might also just mean there's a slight pause. Read through the monologue and see if you're listening to someone or just pausing for effect.
Break a leg! (That's theater talk for "good luck." It's bad luck to say "good luck" in the theater so you say "Break a leg!")

Here two monologues for the last half of Nov & Dec:

Happy Birthday to Me

I got to have my favorite breakfast this morning – pancakes! For dinner, we’re all going out to a buffet. It’s my birthday, and I’m so happy… except for one minor detail. I’m in school right now. I should be able to skip school on my birthday. There’s no school for Washington’s, Lincoln’s and Martin Luther King’s birthdays. I want that same right. Where are my rights to skip school on my birthday? What about my friends’ birthdays? Shouldn’t we all get everybody’s birthdays off? Wow! I think I’m on to something. I could create a campaign of "Kids for Birthday Vacations." We, kids, should have a voice about school vacations! That would be so fun. I could call grandma on my vacation, (pretending to talk on the phone) “Hi, Grandma. Guess what. I have five vacation days this week…Sure I’d love to come spend those days with you in Florida going to Disney World.” Or I could call Uncle Joe, “Hey, Uncle Joe, I’m off this week…Sammy is too? That’s great. Mom said she can drop me off today and pick me up on Sunday. I’ll bring my sleeping bag and we can go camping.” Summer vacation! Fall vacation! Winter vacation! And Spring vacation! My parents are going to love this idea! I bet they help me change this country for the better. I’ll go tell them. (exits)

Gifts

(a phone is on a small table or floor; a chair is in the center; throughout the monologue the character paces and sits, carrying a calculator) Five dollars and 16 cents. I have to get a present for Mom, Dad, and Cynthia which would be $1.72 each. If I combine Mom and Dad’s into one gift, I can get something for $3.44. I could get a card game for them. Except that’s what I did last year. No good. Hey, I can get a package of candy for about $1.50 and wrap up two candies for each of them. Then I’ll have $3.66.

(into phone) Okay, Ty, I’ve got enough to go to Burger Town with you. Let me ask my mom. (calls) Mom, can I go with Ty to Burger Town? I have my own money… Mom?... Where’d they go, Cynthia? … Gift shopping? … They’re going to be gone that long? (into phone) Ty, I better not go. My folks just went major gift shopping and I have to save my money for gifts. Talk to you later. Bye.

Five dollars and 16 cents. Five dollars and 16 cents. What can I get for five dollars and 16 cents? Hey, Cynthia, let’s get Mom and Dad a present together. How much do you have? (exits)