Two Minutes To Shine Monologue Book Series

Published and distributed, since 1989, by Samuel French, New York. 

Additional TMTS excerpts on this site through YouTube are here.

Author statement:

I was born with that theatre gene. Like my gram’s renowned vaudevillian cousin, theatre is truly in my blood. And in equal measure, streaming right alongside, is the legacy of veiled communication. These cultural components--and my need to understand them--captivated and compelled me to dive deep into the mesmerizing melange of language, emotion and artistic forms as a writer from age seventeen.

At a pivotal, relatively early point in my quest, a commission to create an audition monologue popped up, quite by surprise, then another and another.

The call for dynamic, distinguishing, interpretation-friendly, subtextually-potent, stand-alone, time-sensitive material became a delight to answer. Never before had employment criteria been so clearly drawn. I was thrilled, actors needs were fulfilled and, before long, I was smack-dab in the middle of a model resource for demonstrating the difference between spoken language that conveys emotion and the unspeakable language of feeling.

Herein lies the secret I have been known to leap monolithic buildings to tell: language, emotion and artistic forms have been married for years and still find ways to undermine each other!

Perhaps you already know this? Call me. We'll talk!

I am grateful to Samuel French--Abbott and Charles in those initial years--for inviting Two Minutes To Shine into the fold and for encouraging the series.

With love,

Pamela Sackett

P.S. I dearly appreciate hearing the news that something from a TMTS book helped an actor win a role. I am also elated when actors award themselves the knowledge that their own inner life plays the main, most note-worthy role of all. And, by the way, please do call!

Theatre artists share their experience:

Pamela Sackett’s monologues are a playground for an actor! With comedic twists and emotional turns, it’s pure fun to sink your teeth into any one of them!

Freddy Molitch, actor, playwright

There is no one better than Pamela Sackett writing custom-made monologues for actors. It is enervating as a director to have to sit through the same tired material day after day. Do yourself a favor, audition with something written by Pamela that is off the beaten track...you may get the job.

Ted Sod, director, playwright, actor

How can a two minute monologue reach inside your soul and shine a light on the deepest most inaccessible part you’ve been hoping to not expose? It probably can’t--unless it’s one Pamela Sackett has written for you. She has this uncanny way of seeing things you think are hidden and yet those very private things are just what’s needed to make the monologue touch the souls of those who are listening to its delivery.

Sue Ellen Katz, performing artist

Pamela’s monologues open a window for me to a character’s world--the sights, sounds, emotions--the audience better hang on tight!

Michael J. Loggins, actor, director, accent/dialect/acting coach

Pamela Sackett’s creations are always incredibly fun, wonderfully interesting and just a little bit quirky which makes them perfect for auditioning! As a director in the theater, I rarely see actors truly joyful about their auditions and Pamela’s monologues can enable them to be just that. The pieces in Two Minutes To Shine always have ingredients that I find compelling to see in auditions: character changes and actor choices. It is impossible to do a Pamela Sackett piece effectively without discovering those two delicious ingredients. Having worked with her pieces in my own auditions, with students preparing for their auditions and in workshops with actors for whom Pamela has designed monologues, I have great familiarity with how actors can joyfully play in their two minutes to shine.

Molly Lyons Anderson, actor, director, teacher

Pamela Sackett is a comedic treasure of a playwright. Her quirky and hilarious monologues (each individually wrapped and sized) make auditioning a joy!

Julie Daniels, actress, playwright, voice/dialect/acting coach