Auditioners can choose from one of the three provided monologes to audition with. If none of the monologues come from your preferred character, choose the one that is closest to the role you want! For example, if you are interested in Crutchie, you could use Jack's monologue because they are both newsies.
Please choose one (1) of the following monologues to use for your audition.
The World newspaper owner and mogul, JOSEPH PULITZER, speaks to his staff about how he plans to increase profits.
Gentlemen, the World is in trouble. Our circulation is down for the third quarter in a row. Whoever said “war is hell” wasn’t trying to sell newspapers. “How are we supposed to sell more papers?” you ask. There’s an answer right before your eyes. You’re not thinking this through. People, just a modest adjustment can fatten the bottom line. Right now we charge the newsies fifty cents for a hundred peppers. But if we raised their price to sixty cents per hundred…every single newsie would have to sell 25 more papers just to earn the same amount as always. It’s genius. And to those who think it may be rough on those children, I say NONSENSE. I’m giving them a real life lesson in economics. I couldn’t offer them a better education if they were my own.
Newsie leader, JACK KELLY, pleads with the scabs who are threatening to work during the newsie strike.
Listen fellas…I know somebody put yis up to this. Probably paid ya some extra money too. Yeah? Well, it ain’t right. Pulitzer thinks we’re gutter rats with no respect for nothin’ includin’ each other. Is that who we are? Well, we stab each other in the back and, yeah, that’s who we are. But if we stand together, we can change the whole game. And it ain’t just about us. All across this city there are boys and girls who ought to be playin’ or going to school. Instead they’re slavin’ to support themselves and their folks. Ain’t no crime to bein’ poor, and not a one of us complains if the work we do is hard. All we ask is a square deal. Fellas…for the sake of all the kids in every sweatshop, factory, and slaughter house in this town, I beg you…throw down your papers and join the strike.
Ambitious young reporter and daughter of Pulitzer, KATHERINE PLUMBER, tries to convince Jack how to win the war on her father.
Really Jack? Really? Only you can have a good idea? Being boss doesn’t mean you have all the answers, just the brains to recognize the right one when you hear it. The strike was your idea. The rally was Davey’s. And now my plan will take us to the finish line. Deal with it. (Holds up a paper) “The Children’s Crusade: For the sake of all of the kids in every sweatshop, factory, and slaughter house in New York, I beg you…join us.” With those words, the strike stopped being just about the newsies. You challenged your whole generation to stand up and demand a place at the table. Think, jack, if we publish this- my words with one of your drawings- and if every worker under twenty-on read it and stayed home from work… or better yet, came to Newsie Square- a general city-wide strike! Even my father couldn’t ignore that.