Sweet Bird Of Youth

Roles

• Chance Wayne - Young Adult (20-35), Adult (36-50), Male

About this piece

Chance tells his story of how he left home to become an actor

Summary

Chance's always been able to make ends meet in one way - using his looks. His dream is to become an actor - someone famous, someone people will remember, someone his old friends we'll one day say "I knew him." But it hasn't been easy, and although seducing women's never been a problem, he feels he's wasted most of his time doing it. And, he's getting older, and his looks, which is what's kept him alive for so long, are vanishing, and the dream seems further away now than ever. At the top of the monologue, Chance is in a hotel room, back in the small town where he grew up. He's there with a much older woman, who's a famous actress he's managed to seduce, and whom he tells the story to. The monologue is about what fueled him to want to leave this one horse town he grew up in - and how he felt during his time in the war and when he came back to town, always in relation to his dream of being an actor. The actress wants to leave, and Chance's goal is to convince her to stay for the day, so his friends will recognize her and they'll think he's famous too, that he's made it. More importantly, she'd promised him a studio contract and he needs to hold her to it - this is his one and only and last chance.

Tone

Use cases