Five More Minutes (A Masterclass)
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A pajama-clad tactical genius walks us through the ancient art of not going to bed: water, one more story, and a mysterious noise.
Filter the library · five dimensions · free to perform
Filter the monologue library
Narrow the library by age band, genre, length, gender flexibility, and forensics eligibility. Every piece is free to read, print, and perform; attribution is the only requirement. Filters return only pieces that actually match -- no algorithmic guesses.
Browse all 48 monologues
The People Versus Broccoli
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid rises at the dinner table to deliver a full courtroom closing argument prosecuting the broccoli on their plate.
Pick Me For The Hamster
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid makes a full, impassioned campaign speech to the teacher for the right to take the class hamster home for the weekend.
Backpack Buddy
- Elementary (K–5)
- Drama
- Very short
- Dramatic Interpretation
On the morning of the first day of school, a nervous kid whispers a pep talk down into their backpack -- to the stuffed animal they smuggled in, and really to themselves.
This Is Gary
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid proudly introduces their imaginary friend Gary to a skeptical grown-up -- and defends him with total conviction and increasingly specific details.
It Is Just A Game
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid who just lost the board game tries, out loud and against all odds, to be a good sport about it.
The Ballad Of The Missing Mitten
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid narrates the epic, tragic, heroic quest to find one lost mitten as if it were the greatest adventure ever undertaken.
The Negotiation
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid with a very wiggly tooth is thrilled, terrified, and ready to make a deal -- with the Tooth Fairy, tonight, on their terms.
The New One
- Elementary (K–5)
- Drama
- Very short
- Dramatic Interpretation
A big sibling sorts through the tangled-up feelings about a new baby who gets held all day while nobody claps for THEM anymore.
The Presentation
- Elementary (K–5)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid delivers a fully-prepared, airtight, slightly desperate presentation to a parent explaining why the family NEEDS a puppy immediately.
The Water Fountain
- High school (9–12)
- Comedy
- Short
- Humorous Interpretation
A teen paces the hallway, coaching themselves to finally say one normal sentence to the person they like by the water fountain.
A Series of Learning Experiences
- High school (9–12)
- Comedy
- Short
- Humorous Interpretation
A teen recaps a catastrophic first job interview at a frozen yogurt shop, reframing every disaster as valuable personal growth.
Last Shift at Delgado's
- High school (9–12)
- Drama
- Short
- Dramatic Interpretation
On her final night at the hardware store where she has worked since sophomore year, an eighteen-year-old hands off the keys and tries to explain to the new kid why a small place can be a big thing to leave.
A-Minus
- High school (9–12)
- Comedy
- Short
- Humorous Interpretation
A straight-A perfectionist cheerfully insists she is completely fine about her first A-minus, one twitch at a time.
The Last Lane
- High school (9–12)
- Drama
- Short
- Dramatic Interpretation
Outside the coach's office, a sixteen-year-old swimmer rehearses the hardest sentence he owns -- that he is quitting the sport he loves, because somewhere in the winning it stopped belonging to him.
Totally Fine
- High school (9–12)
- Comedy
- Short
- Humorous Interpretation
A graduating senior gives a cheerful tour of why leaving high school does not affect them at all, right up until it does.
The Long Way to Say It
- High school (9–12)
- Drama
- Short
- Dramatic Interpretation
At the kitchen table, a seventeen-year-old finally tells the parent who has planned his whole future that he does not want to be a doctor -- he wants to teach -- and asks to be seen instead of steered.
For the Record
- High school (9–12)
- Comedy
- Short
- Humorous Interpretation
Three days too late, a teen re-litigates a debate they lost, armed with all the devastating comebacks they only just thought of.
Her Chair
- High school (9–12)
- Drama
- Short
- Dramatic Interpretation
At the first family dinner since her grandmother died, a fifteen-year-old stands to say the blessing no one else can manage -- and finds a way to keep the empty chair full.
The One I Wanted
- High school (9–12)
- Drama
- Short
- Dramatic Interpretation
Alone in her room, a senior reads aloud the rejection from the one school she built her whole plan around -- and, somewhere between the shock and the shame, starts figuring out how to stand back up.
The Bench
- Middle school (6–8)
- Drama
- Very short
- Dramatic Interpretation
A starter who got benched for the biggest game of the season fights the urge to sulk and figures out what kind of teammate to be.
The Map
- Middle school (6–8)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A middle schooler gives a brand-new kid a deadly-serious guided tour of the entire unwritten social geography of the cafeteria before they sit in the wrong place.
Vote For Me
- Middle school (6–8)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A middle schooler delivers a wildly over-the-top class-president campaign speech built entirely on promises they have no power to keep.
Chaperone
- Middle school (6–8)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A middle schooler recaps, in horror, the school dance their parent volunteered to chaperone -- and then treated like a personal concert.
The Group Project
- Middle school (6–8)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A kid who did the entire group project alone presents to the class while smiling so hard it hurts, refusing to throw their teammates under the bus out loud.
The Negotiation
- Middle school (6–8)
- Comedy
- Very short
- Humorous Interpretation
A middle schooler whose phone was confiscated conducts a full hostage negotiation with the teacher who is holding it in a desk drawer.
Thirty Seconds to Places
- Middle school (6–8)
- Drama
- Very short
- Dramatic Interpretation
Frozen in the wings and shaking, a kid about to go on stage for the first time argues themselves out of running and into the light.
Saved You a Seat
- Middle school (6–8)
- Drama
- Very short
- Dramatic Interpretation
A kid whose best friend has drifted into a cooler new group works up the nerve to say the friendship still matters, even if it is ending.
Table Twelve
- Middle school (6–8)
- Drama
- Very short
- Dramatic Interpretation
A student who has switched schools too many times stands with a lunch tray, deciding whether it is worth trying to make friends one more time.
The Kitchen Voices
- Middle school (6–8)
- Drama
- Very short
- Dramatic Interpretation
A kid who has been quietly overhearing tense grown-up conversations at home tries to sort out worry from hope, and decides to stop pretending everything is fine.
All the World's a Stage
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Jaques, a melancholy nobleman in the Forest of Arden, sizes up the whole of human life as a play in seven acts -- from squalling infant to toothless old age.
Bottom's Dream
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Bottom the weaver wakes from a very strange night, still half-asleep, and tries -- hilariously -- to describe a dream too wonderful for words.
Friends, Romans, Countrymen
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
At Caesar's funeral, Mark Antony works a hostile crowd with cunning, turning them against the assassins while pretending to praise them.
How Happy Some O'er Other Some Can Be
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Helena, left alone and heartsick, puzzles over why the boy she loves prefers her friend -- and decides love is blind.
If Music Be the Food of Love
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Duke Orsino, lovesick and dramatic, calls for more music -- then tires of it in the same breath, showing how quickly a mood can change.
Once More Unto the Breach
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
King Henry rallies his exhausted soldiers at the broken wall of a besieged town, calling on them to charge one more time.
Our Revels Now Are Ended
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Prospero stops a magic show mid-scene and, shaken, reflects that all the world -- towers, temples, life itself -- is as fleeting as a dream.
If We Shadows Have Offended (Puck's Epilogue)
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Left alone on the empty stage, the mischievous sprite Puck asks the audience to forgive the play and think of it as nothing more than a dream.
The Quality of Mercy
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Disguised as a young lawyer, Portia stands in a Venice courtroom and pleads with a man to choose mercy over the harsh letter of the law.
Rosalind's Epilogue
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Rosalind steps out of the play to charm the audience directly, teasing them into loving the show and sending them home with a smile.
We Few, We Happy Few (St. Crispin's Day)
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Badly outnumbered on the morning of battle, King Henry turns fear into pride, promising his soldiers they will be remembered forever as a band of brothers.
To Be, or Not to Be
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Hamlet, alone and weighed down, thinks aloud about why people endure hard times instead of giving up -- and why fear of the unknown keeps us going.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Told his wife is dead, Macbeth answers not with grief but with a bleak, exhausted vision of life as a brief, meaningless candle.
I Left No Ring With Her
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Very short
- Poetry Interpretation
Viola, disguised as a boy, realizes the lady she was sent to woo has fallen for her instead -- and untangles the impossible knot she is caught in.
Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent
- All ages
- Verse / Poetic
- Short
- Poetry Interpretation
Richard opens the play alone on stage, turning from talk of peace to a cold confession that he means to make trouble.
The Red Monologue
- All ages
- Comedy
- Standard
- Humorous Interpretation
Little Red tells her mother about a very strange walk to Grandmama's -- the huffy wolf, the three little pigs, a huntsman with a dented axe, and a surprise waiting at the end. A comic solo monologue for one performer.
The Red Monologue 2.0
- All ages
- Comedy
- Standard
- Humorous Interpretation
The same story from the Big Bad Wolf's side: brunch plans, a nap in Grandmama's bed, the huntsman's axe, and a very warm place to wake up. A punchy comic monologue that pairs with The Red Monologue.
Voice Warm-ups for Actors
- All ages
- Comedy
- Extended
- Humorous Interpretation
A director's set of vocal and diction warm-ups -- tongue twisters, vowel drills, and rhythm exercises to run with your cast before a read-through or a show. A rehearsal resource, free to use.
Forensics eligibility classifications are illustrative only -- not official NSDA, NCFL, or UIL certifications. Always verify with your event's published rules before competing. Length is estimated at roughly 150 words per minute from the source text; actual performance time varies with pace and blocking.
The five filter dimensions
What each filter means
Age band
Elementary (K–5), middle school (6–8), high school (9–12), or all-ages. Every piece carries an age recommendation from the FSP editorial review.
Genre
Comedy, drama, dramatic comedy, verse, classical adaptation, contemporary, or warm-up exercise. Genre tags come from the structured script metadata, not from algorithmic inference.
Length
Under 2 minutes, 2–4 minutes (audition-standard), 4–7 minutes (full), or 7+. Estimated at roughly 150 words per minute from the source text — actual performance time varies with pace and blocking.
Gender flexibility
Fully gender-flexible (works for any performer without rewriting), gender-specific as written, or either (the text specifies gender but adapts cleanly without changing meaning).
Forensics eligibility
Classified for Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Prose, Poetry, Platform, and related events. These classifications are illustrative only and are not official NSDA, NCFL, or UIL certifications. Always verify with your event's published rules before competing.