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The Children’s Book Review
One-Minute Monologues for Teens: 100 Original Monologues
Written by Mike Kimmel
Foreword by Paris Smith
Age Range: 12 and up
Paperback: 140 pages
Publisher: Ben Rose Creative Arts
ISBN-13: 978-0998151380
What to expect: Monologues and Life Lessons
One-Minute Monologues for Teens is an excellent choice for stars in the making or any teen who could do with a boost to their self-confidence and self-esteem. It is a book that deserves to be front and center in all high school and college drama classrooms.
Monologues are an actor’s tool to show industry professionals their very best sides. Whether it’s drama or comedy you’re looking for, this book has one hundred family-friendly, teen-appropriate monologues from which to choose. Specific monologues will speak directly to individual personalities with a ‘written just for you’ feel, covering a wide range of contemporary teen issues and scenarios—including cell phone usage, social media, money, friendships, relationships, driving, and hurt feelings. There is undoubtedly a monologue to match personality, temperament, and skillset, including for our techies, feelers, and deep thinkers. Tapping into a monologue that feels like your own enables personal strengths to shine but challenging yourself with a monologue that feels out of character or genre is a brilliant aspect of this book that can encourage empathy and broaden perspectives. Just reading each monologue’s title is a list of life lessons unto itself, and each one, in its way, is encouraging—empowering teens to seize the moment, aim high, and strive for success.
The foreword by Paris Smith (who began her acting career as a child) and the introduction by Mike Kimmel offer sound advice on performing and delivering the monologues, including tips on being natural and candid. It’s like a mini acting class that also points out common mistakes. In the final pages of the book, there is a recommended reading list for serious young actors, as well as Kimmel’s bio, which showcases his excellent resume and experience of being a film, television, stage, and commercial actor and acting coach. He has been in the industry for decades, is a full voting member of the National Television Academy, and a Tonight Show sketch performer.
Mike Kimmel wants your kids to succeed. With this book and its original content in their toolbox, they will genuinely have a good chance. It is an absolute no-brainer to include this outstanding collection of one-minute monologues in a young actor’s arsenal. While these well-delivered monologues would undoubtedly be worthy of a callback, the positive messages they impart provide benefits no matter the result of the audition. Teens will walk away with a backbone and integrity. Highly Recommended.
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About the Author
Mike Kimmel is a film, television, stage, and commercial actor and acting coach. He is a twenty-plus year member of SAG-AFTRA with extensive experience in both the New York and Los Angeles markets. He has worked with directors Francis Ford Coppola, Robert Townsend, Craig Shapiro, and Christopher Cain among many others. TV credits include Game of Silence, Zoo, Treme, In Plain Sight, Cold Case, Breakout Kings, Memphis Beat, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was a regular sketch comedy player on The Tonight Show, performing live on stage and in pre-taped segments with Jay Leno for eleven years. Mike has appeared in dozens of theatrical plays on both coasts, including Radio City Music Hall, Equity Library Theater, Stella Adler Theater, and Theater at the Improv. He trained with Michael Shurtleff, William Hickey, Ralph Marrero, Gloria Maddox, Harold Sylvester, Wendy Davis, Amy Hunter, Bob Collier, and Stuart Robinson. He has a B.A. from Brandeis University and an M.A. from California State University.
As an educator, Kimmel has taught at Upper Iowa University, the University of New Orleans, University of Phoenix, and in the Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and Burbank, California public school districts. He is a two-time past president of New Orleans Toastmasters, the public speaking organization, and often serves as a speech contest judge. Mike has written and collaborated on numerous scripts for stage and screen. His full-length historical drama on Presidents Lincoln and Garfield was a 2013 semi-finalist in the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. He is the 2014 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from Upper Iowa University. Mike is a full voting member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (the Emmys).
www.mikekimmelauthor.com | www.mikekimmel.com | www.imdb.me/mikekimmel
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