Book excerpt: First published in 2003. The Theatre Arts Audition Books offer one hundred speeches from plays of the past twenty-five years, fifty in a volume for men, fifty in a volume for women. Each excerpt is preceded by a note situating the play and the selection. Speeches come from a wide range of plays, including David Mamet's Oleanna, Caryl Churchill's Serious Money, Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Jim Cartwright's Road, and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good, as well as plays by Anthony Minghella, Mark Ravenhill, Sue Townsend, Alan Ayckbourn, and others. Annika Bluhm has assembled two sparkling collections of monologues that will challenge and inspire the actor