Michael Stuhlbarg, Michael Shannon, Sam Rockwell, and Dylan Baker take on Bogosian’s memorable characters
 
From the 1970s through the 1990s, if not longer, the two reigning titans of whatever you chose to call it, “spoken word,” “performance art,” at any rate the self-generated monologue form, were Spalding Gray and Eric Bogosian. They couldn’t have been more different, Gray was measured, confessional, usually quiet, and literate, Bogosian volatile, chameleonic, electrifying. As I was growing up in the 1980s, Gray and Bogosian, more than any other two people, represented a pinnacle of an intelligent, probing, “downtown” performance that on their own made New York City seem a worthwhile place to live. (I ended up seeing Gray three times, Bogosian upward of a dozen.)

To be glib about it, Gray was the better writer; Bogosian the better actor. (For Gray, the acting didn’t matter so much, because he was always up there representing himself.) Bogosian’s art depended on an uncanny ability to inhabit a wide range of “types” who generally weren’t represented onstage all that often. Freed of the requirements of the sturdy, well-crafted drama, Bogosian’s pieces, usually only a few minutes long, allowed him to bring on stage (and savagely mock) Wall Street bankers, backyard barbecue mavens, homeless addicts, rock and roll warriors, religious gurus, Hollywood celebrities, and on and on. Bogosian’s loser’s gallery certainly qualify as satires, but that classification need not preclude understanding or finely observed detail. He could make each (preponderantly male) bully, con artist, or pot smoker as individuated as his acting ability (which is profound) could muster. 
 

100 Monologues (front and back cover)
 
It’s been a few decades since Bogosian has been at the monologue game, and they have piled up over the years, which have appeared in collections with titles like Drinking in America; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead; and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. To celebrate his majestic career of actorly impersonation, Theatre Communications Group has published 100 Monologues, a book that is destined to become a prime resource for aspiring actors all across the United States and most probably elsewhere as well. For a few weeks last autumn, Bogosian performed a handful of the monologues each night (the specific monologues changed each night). I was lucky to catch two of those memorable performances. 

There’s a website dedicated to the book that features a good number of filmed recordings of the monologues, but the twist is, the monologues, so closely associated with their writer and performer, are now being essayed by other actors. (Bogosian is directing the short movies.) The videos are being produced under the auspices of the Labyrinth Theater, whose most prominent member was Philip Seymour Hoffman, and a new video will appear on the site every week. (Right now 18 of them are up.)
 

Eric Bogosian directing Dylan Baker
 
The array of actors the project has attracted is impressive, including Sam Rockwell (Moon, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Galaxy Quest), Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire, Man of Steel, Revolutionary Road), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, Seven Psychopaths, Hugo), Dylan Baker (Kinsey, Road to Perdition, Happiness), Jessica Hecht (Sideways, Breaking Bad), and Stephen Lang (The Men Who Stare at Goats, Avatar).

Here are four of the new Bogosian-penned monologues. Enjoy!
 
“26. Journal,” Sam Rockwell:

 
“32. No Problems,” Dylan Baker:

 
“33. Godhead,” Michael Shannon:

 
“89. The Quiet Man,” Michael Stuhlbarg: