Thursday 27th, Lesson 4

Monologues

At the start of the lesson we were asked to think about our favorite character that we have been given to play so far during our work on East End Tales. We were then asked to write a monologue by ourselves based on that character, and we were allowed to talk about the character in a different way then how they are portrayed in the tale. I chose to write a monologue on the woman "Michelle" from Tale 8. In my monologue I go into detail about Michelle's past as I wanted to give a background about her life that would then lead on to explain why she had turned out to be the way she was currently. 

Here is my monologue. It is not very clear to see so here it is typed up:

The corner of the alleyway is where I come most days. I guess it's because I have nowhere else to go, and I never get caught here. I know the police will probably find this spot soon, I will have to find somewhere else to go. But for now i'll stay.
Sometimes, i like it when it's really early- i like it when the sun has barely made its way over the horizon so the sky is a kind of canvas of deep oranges that slowly fade into cyan's and blues. Yeah. Sometimes i like it here.
The drugs often make it hard for me to concentrate- my hands start to twitch uncontrollably and everything is one big blur but i'm just... standing here. Looking at the sky. 
Maybe it reminds me of home. I don't remember much- I left when i was 16, which was 5 years ago now. Never once heard from my mum since. Bitch.
My dad was alright though- he used to take me to this park and we would lie down on the soaking wet grass (which would soak through our clothes, but we didn't care). Anyway, we would lie down and cloud gaze- you know, when you make pictures out of the.. yeah. You know. After that we would just close our eyes, as if we were trying to savor that perfect moment.
He died of lung cancer a few years later. 
Yeah, that's when my mum turned into a real stone-cold bitch. Probably why I've turned out to be such a fuck up. 
I don't know.
I'm not certain of anything anymore.

Staging

When staging my monologue I decided to start off sitting down on the chair as I started off. The start of my monologue is my character talking about the alleyway- her frequent spot to visit. In my chair I often made gestures to the corner of the room which I suggested was where the alleyway was meant to be. I tried to start off with my movements to be subtle, slow and precise. I made this decision so that I could build tension throughout the scene, rather than starting with my movements frantic and bold. Once I started to talk about the drugs that my character took, I stood up suddenly, and stared at the ceiling when I talked about the sky, as if I could actually see what I was talking about. When talking about my family and my father, I moved further downstage and looked out, past the audience and out of the window to try and in-vision the memories my character was recalling on. As the scene progressed, I sat back down in defeat on the finishing line:

"I'm not really certain of anything anymore"

Voice

When i started my monologue i tried to keep my voice at a monotone, so that i seemed somewhat un-interested in what i was talking about. However, as the scene progresses and once i start to talk about my family, my father and my mum i added a note of hysteria to my voice so that I could subconsciously portray how it had effected me. Once again, with my final line i tried to sound defeat and both mentally and physically tired. 

How did the monologue task help you understand the play further?

The monologue helped me to understand the play further as it allowed me to think about the characters past- although this wasn't mentioned in the tale. By thinking about the characters past, it allowed me to think of why she had certain characteristics and what had led her to become the person she currently was. This was very helpful and also allowed me to look at the character in different lights and helped me understand why she had made certain choices throughout the scene.

What monologue performed by a peer worked well and why? What had they written about? Who performed their monologue successfully and why?

A monologue that I felt was incredibly well written and performed was Roseby's.

Her monologue was about the landlord, a character that before the monologue had been performed, did not hold vast importance to me. However i thoroughly enjoyed Roseby's as she went into extreme detail about her past, which extremely intriguing. When staging her piece she began standing, but as the scene progressed she sat down, and took off her shoes, which was a subtle but bold choice at the same time. Throughout Roseby's scene I was thoroughly captivated, and her bold decision to use an accent was a fantastic risk that she took.

TASK 2

Unfortunately we did not get on to this part of the lesson so I cannot do this task.

I think that I worked at a  high merit level for this particular task. When writing my monologue I was constantly reading and going over my script to help the accuracy and research of my piece. I made bold choices with movement and voice, which I personally think helped the energy of the piece. To improve I could incorporate more elements of physical theatre which I personally find very bold and risk taking, but results brilliantly visually.