The answer depends on the nature of the quotation. If you quote dialogue from more than one speaker in a play, set the material as a block quotation, following the guidance in section 6.40 in the MLA Handbook. Then if the omitted material encompasses a change in who is speaking, use a line of ellipsis dots to show as much. Below is an example passage in a dramatic source.
JERRY. Do you know what I did before I went to the zoo today? I walked all the way up Fifth Avenue from Washington Square; all the way.
PETER. Oh; you live in Greenwich Village! (This seems to enlighten Peter.)
JERRY. No, I don’t. I took the subway down to the Village so I could walk all the way up Fifth Avenue to the zoo. It’s one of those things a person has to do; sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly.
PETER. (almost pouting.) Oh, I thought you lived in Greenwich Village.
JERRY. What were you trying to do? Make sense out of things? Bring order? The old pigeonhole bit? Well, that’s easy; I’ll tell you. I live in a four-story brownstone rooming-house on the upper West Side between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West. I live on the top floor; rear; west. It’s a laughably small room, and one of my walls is made of beaverboard; this beaverboard separates my room from another laughably small room, so I assume that the two rooms were once one room, a small room, but not necessarily laughable. (Albee 11)
This passage is excerpted below. Each line of ellipsis dots indicates an omission that includes speech from another character. Note that the second line of ellipsis dots also indicates omitted material from the speaking character. The labels identifying the speaking character have been retained, for clarity.
The character describes his movements and his housing situation in detail:
JERRY. I walked all the way up Fifth Avenue from Washington Square; all the way.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
JERRY. I took the subway down to the Village so I could walk all the way up Fifth Avenue to the zoo.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
JERRY. I live in a four-story brownstone rooming-house on the upper West Side between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West. I live on the top floor; rear; west. It’s a laughably small room, and one of my walls is made of beaverboard; this beaverboard separates my room from another laughably small room, so I assume that the two rooms were once one room, a small room, but not necessarily laughable. (Albee 11)
If you quote a single dramatic speech, then consult sections 6.34–6.35 in the MLA Handbook to determine whether to treat the quotation as a block or, as in the below example, to integrate it into your prose. Use an ellipsis to indicate that text has been omitted, as explained in sections 6.59–6.60.
Jerry gives a surprisingly detailed description of where he lives: “I live in a four-story brownstone rooming-house on the upper West Side between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West. I live on the top floor; . . . one of my walls is made of beaverboard” (Albee 11).
If your quotation of a single speech comes from a verse drama, then consult sections 6.37–6.38 in the MLA Handbook about whether the quotation should be treated as a block or integrated into your prose. If the quotation is treated as a block, then use a line of ellipsis points to indicate that one or more lines have been omitted from the speech, following the guidance in section 6.61. Below is an example passage in a verse drama.
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy
name
When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?
That villain cousin would have killed my husband.
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. (Shakespeare 3.2.106–14)
The passage is excerpted below. The line of ellipsis dots indicates that one or more lines of speech have been omitted.
Juliet articulates her conflicted emotions:
Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?
Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy
name
When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;
Your tributary drops belong to woe,
Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. (Shakespeare 3.2.106–14)
If a quotation from a verse drama is integrated into your prose, then use an ellipsis to signal that material was omitted, as shown below.
Juliet refuses to acknowledge the signs of morning: “It was the nightingale, and not the lark, / . . . / Nightly she sings on yond pomegranate tree” (Shakespeare 3.5.2–4).
Works Cited
Albee, Edward. The Zoo Story. The Zoo Story and The Sandbox, rev. ed., Dramatists Play Service, 1999, pp. 3–30.
MLA Handbook. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Shakespeare Library / Washington Square Press, 1992.