In Bed with the Bard

I have a pretty big audition coming up for a pretty prominent Shakespeare Festival in Canada (though I won't go into details, it rhymes with Ratford).

For this audition, I have to prepare two contrasting speeches from Shakespeare. Now one speech is not a problem. I have a monologue I have been using for a few years now from Comedy of Errors.

When it came to choosing a second monologue, I have been soliciting advice from people I know who are familiar with the works of the bard. This little activity has made me realize one thing: I am not one who is very familiar with the works of the Bard.

You see, the important thing when doing a monologue is to be well-versed in the play itself so that you may more adequately capture the necessary nuances. That said, when I started going thorugh the list of Shakespearian plays (there are 37 in total... arguably) I had actually seen or read, the list was quite small:

Tragedies
Romeo and Juliet
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Othello
King Lear

Histories
King John
Richard III

Comedies
The Comedy of Errors
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Measure for Measure
Twelfth Night

Damn! I haven't even read half of his plays...

Needless to say, my second monologue is coming from this short list.