Realism & Naturalism (6) - Character Profile & Monologue

In today's lesson we discussed how to do a successful monologue. Our main focus was how to begin a monologue - you need to capture the audience's attention from the beginning and make them believe in your character from the very start. To be able to do this, you should take as much time as you need to ensure that you are in character from the beginning. You should also use eye contact (if appropriate) and really consider your body language. Most importantly, you need to know your character inside out. Even if you are only doing a tiny monologue, it is important to know what has previously happened to your character, what situation they are in now and what they are like. Therefore, we spent a long time today doing character profiles...

• Appearance & Body language:
  • In her late teens - 18/19
  • Short
  • Mild pregnancy bump
  • Dark hair worn down, framing her face
• Backstory:
  • Abused by her father when she was six
  • Mother takes all doors off of the house in an attempt to protect Mona
  • "Raised" by her mother
  • Her home is filled by random men thanks to her mum
• Relationships (MUM):
  
  • Strong, wild laugh
  • Spoilt, young, beautiful, honest, trying
  • Loves her daughter but finds her strange
• Relationships ("HIM"):
  
  • Powerful, strong, scars, broad, unusual
  • Exciting and sexual
  • Mysterious, generous, welcoming
  • Left her on a cold stone
• Personality & Other notes:
  • Has many secrets
  • Vulnerable, excitable, childish and pregnant
  • Gone through a lot
  • Doesn't blame "him"
  • Disgusted / angered by her mother
  • Very confused and messed up mind set

After doing our character profiles, we quickly learned the first line or two of our monologues. As we understood our characters a lot better, we could then begin characterising them. We only focussed on the first couple of lines of our monologues as our aim this lesson was to create an engaging beginning. I wanted to do mine sitting down at the beginning and quite inwards, as I think Mona is reflecting at this point - she is trying to put everything into perspective and get things straight in her messed up and confused mind. My first two lines are "This is the house that my mother built. This is the house that lets the outside in and keeps the inside out". When I first did this I sat perfectly still and just said the lines. I took a little pause between the two sentences to show my character thinking and giving herself time to get everything straight in her head. The fact that she begins both sentences the same way shows that she is having to take her time and really go over every detail so she can make it make sense to herself. Also, the first time I did this, I kind of jumped straight into it - I didn't give myself that long to prepare. At first I thought I wanted to show my character's honesty and willingness to share her story, but I decided against it as I wanted to give myself more time before.

The second time I performed these two lines was completely different. I still sat with my legs crossed on a chair (like a child in an assembly, to show my characters innocence and to emphasise the fact that she has been through a lot although she is still quite young), but this time I didn't sit still. I took about ten seconds before I started speaking just to fiddle with a hairband. The purpose of this was not only to give me more time to get into character, but to draw the audience in to what I was doing. I said both of my lines in a similar manner but I didn't look at the audience at all. I wanted to keep it quite internal to suggest that my character is preparing herself before openly sharing her life story. On the next line I was going to look up, as Mona then goes into detail about what her house is like. This would be an ideal time to look up, as it fits well with the character's confidence and willingness to share, and also avoids me looking down for too long.

By next lesson, we have to read through the monologue several times and really familiarise ourselves with it.