Dinner With Friends

With my acting class approaching fast I had to choose which monologue I was going to perform. As I said in the last post my last monologue was a little too hard for someone with no acting experience. With this class I wanted pick something that was more on the comedic side, but with a little drama mixed in.

I chose a monologue from the play Dinner With Friends by Donald Margulies. The monologue goes as followed:

I don’t know about you, but I’m at the point in my life where I want to enjoy myself. I don’t want to go through life hoping I’m gonna get lucky with my own wife. You know? You go to bed and you think you’re gonna have sex and then you say something, some kind of offhanded remark of no consequence whatsoever, and it pisses her off and the mood is gone and it’s lights out and that’s it. I must’ve masturbated more then any married man in history.

I’m not asking for it twenty-four hours a day, all I’m asking for is a little affection.

No, Gabe, there were no other women. There were opportunities, though. I mean, when you’re out of town as much as I am… You’re lonely, you’re far from home, it doesn’t seem like you’re living in real time. I’d be in a hotel bar and strike up a conversation with a female colleague, or some divorcee with big hair, and I’d make them laugh and they’d look pretty and I’d feel competent again, you know?, and think, gee maybe I am still clever and attractive after all. There’d be that electricity in the air, that kind of buzz I hadn’t felt since college, remember?, when a single move, and move at all, and there’d be sex? But I’d get scared and say goodnight and go back to my room and call Beth out of guilt, or hope, and get some shit about something I neglected to do or did badly. Well, by the time I met Nancy --- she made me feel good from the first time I talked to her on the phone --- I hadn’t even laid eyes on her yet --- she booked all my travel.

She had this great laugh and this flirty sense of humor, and she said, “We’ve been talking for weeks, I want to meet you already!” And I began to think, Why the hell not? What am I saving myself for? This hypercritical woman waiting for me back home? Who looks at me with withering disappointment. All the time. This accusatory, how-could-you-be-so-thoughtless look. So, on one hand, there’s this delightful women who makes me feel worthwhile and there’s this other women, my wife, who makes me feel like shit. Who would you choose?

Nothing to hard but challenging enough. The class starts on Tuesday Nov. 15th. I'll update on the Wednesday after. Wish me luck!