Any idea on word count for an hour monologue for the stage?

clouddog

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I flicked through a monologue produced by Soho Theatre London. Found differing word counts depending how generous I was but found it to be at least 4900 words spoken by the character. This play had lots of physical movement based bits.

I'm at 4418 for my piece and I'm wondering if there is some kind of consensus that 5000 would be an hour? or more?

I'd like it to be an hour - for a stand alone.

There are not really that many actions. It's physical but it really is just how the actor moves on stage while speaking, there is no time taken in just physical alone.

I am worried that I will get more stretched, but I think with time taken i can get it right.
 
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Scriptissima

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One way to get an idea is to time yourself reciting your work and see where you land. That should give you a good idea.

For what it's worth, The Santaland Diaries by Joe Mantello (adapted from the David Sedaris essay) is a one-man stage play of one-hour length (give or take; the theatre I used to work for produced this annually). It's not just a monologue, though, but as you say, your actor will *do* things as well as speak, so it might be a good reference. Maybe you can find a copy of that script to use as a word count reference? I can't find my script right now, so I can't look, but you should be able to find the info online or maybe pick up a copy in your local library. http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3089
 
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Maryn

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Like plays for the stage, a properly formatted monologue which includes actions by the speaker tends to average about one minute per page. This only works if the format is done like a stage play or screenplay, in Courier 12-point.

The margins are as follows (from the left side of the paper):


ACTION ELEMENT: Between 1.5" and 7.25"
SLUGLINES: Same as Action Element
CHARACTER NAME: Between 4.0" and 6.5"
DIALOGUE: Between 2.5" and 6.5"
PARENTHETICAL: Between 3.5" and 6.0"
TRANSITION: Between 5.0" and 7.25"
 
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