Monster in a Box is a monologue

Monologue

In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...

 originally performed live on stage by the writer Spalding Gray

Spalding Gray

Spalding Rockwell Gray was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist and monologuist...

 then subsequently made into a 1992 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 starring Gray and directed by Nick Broomfield

Nick Broomfield

Nicholas "Nick" Broomfield is an English documentary film-maker. He is the son of Maurice Broomfield, a photographer.Broomfield works with a minimal crew, recording sound himself and using one or two camera operators...

.

A follow-up to Gray's earlier work, Swimming to Cambodia

Swimming to Cambodia

Spalding Gray's Swimming to Cambodia is a 1987 Jonathan Demme-directed performance film. The film is a performance of Spalding Gray's monologue which centered around such themes as his trip to Southeast Asia to create the role of the U.S. Ambassador's aide in The Killing Fields, the Cold War,...

, the work consists of a long-form monologue by Gray detailing the trials and tribulations he encountered while writing his first novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

, Impossible Vacation. The soundtrack for the film was composed by Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson

Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson is an American experimental performance artist, composer and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s...

.

An extended version of the monologue was published in book form prior to the release of the film.

Parody

This monologue — or at least its title — was parodied on Sesame Street

Sesame Street

Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...

in an installment of "Monsterpiece Theater

Monsterpiece Theater

Monsterpiece Theater is a recurring segment on the American version of the popular children's tv series Sesame Street portrayed as a children's educational parody of Masterpiece Theatre.-Format:...

." The main actor (and writer) for the parody was a monster aptly called Spalding Monster in homage to Gray.