If Music Be the Food of Love
- Performer
- Audition / event
- Title
- If Music Be the Food of Love
- Attribution
- by William Shakespeare
- Source
- Public domain
- Length
- ~1 min (114 words, whole piece)
- Cut
- Full monologue (1 beat).
"If Music Be the Food of Love", by William Shakespeare, hosted by Monologue.Network via FreeSchoolPlays.com. Free to perform; attribution required.
If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.
That strain again, it had a dying fall;
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour. Enough; no more;
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou,
That notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soever,
But falls into abatement and low price
Even in a minute! So full of shapes is fancy,
That it alone is high fantastical.
"If Music Be the Food of Love", by William Shakespeare, hosted by Monologue.Network via FreeSchoolPlays.com. Free to perform; attribution required.
Audition prep notes
Full piece: 1 beat, ~114 words -- very short (Under 2 minutes), about 1 min at a natural pace.
Start with the objective
Before you run it, name your character's objective in one sentence: what do they want in this moment, and what is in the way of getting it easily? Pace, volume, and movement all follow from that one sentence, not the other way around.
Map the beats
The current text renders as a single continuous block, with no internal paragraph breaks to key off of. Build your own beat map instead: mark every point where the character's tactic or target shifts -- a new argument, a new realization, a change in who or what they are speaking to -- and treat each as its own beat.
Pacing for this length -- very short
Economy is everything at this length: cut any preparatory movement before your first line, and land the final beat cleanly rather than adding a button. Under 2 minutes, this often plays as one unbroken thought.
Delivery approach -- Verse / Poetic
Honor the line, not just the sentence: breathe at the end of a verse line even when the punctuation runs on, and let the meter carry the emotional pulse instead of fighting it with naturalistic pauses.
Framing for All ages
This piece is written to read across age groups. Start from the plainest version of the objective -- what the character wants, and why now -- before layering in the nuance your own age and experience bring to it.
Forensics eligibility -- Poetry Interpretation
This piece reads as Poetry Interpretation. That classification is illustrative only -- not official, not an NSDA, NCFL, or UIL certification. Always verify current eligibility with your event's own published rules before entering it in competition.
Generic coaching guidance for actors preparing this piece -- not a substitute for your director's or coach's notes.
Free to read, print, and perform. No royalty, no performance fee. The credit line above is required and is placed automatically on this packet; keep it in your program and audition materials.