Auditions (22) - King Lear

We spent the majority of this lesson in pairs, performing our monologues to each other and giving each other feedback. At the end of the lesson, we performed our monologues to the rest of the class. Below is the feedback I was given after every performance:

First performance to James:

• +ive:   Good facial expressions // Good tone of voice
• -ive:   Poor eye contact // Needs movement  // Pause more before "Idle old man"

Second performance to James:

• +ive:   Got attention from the start // Like the walking in // Change in thought
• -ive:   Eye contact could be stronger // Know the character's purpose in the entire play
• James advised me to focus on one person and pretend that they are the only servant I am talking to (Oswald, as this character is in the play), rather than imagining a group of servants. This would also prevent me from making the monologue more of a performance instead of a believable section of speech. 
• My character's purpose in the play is to be evil and manipulative and to cause trouble.

Third performance to James:

• This time, I performed the monologue in the same way but with all of James' notes in mind. He was impressed with the performance, but I wanted to work on my character's voice. I thought I played Goneril in a fairly vulnerable way, so I wanted to make her seem older and bolder. To do this I would lower my pitch and have a harsher tone with more depth to it.

Fourth performance to James:

• This was my favourite version of my monologue. I lowered my pitch and added a Lady Macbeth element, thus making my character seem older and more authoritative. James said that this was also his favourite version. He said that he knew he had to hate my character because I'm he knew that I was the baddie, as it were, and what I was planning, but he still really liked my character.

First performance to the class:

• This performance didn't go as well as I had planned. It was kind of a mix between the third and fourth version. As I had only done the deeper version once, I kept slipping into my older version. I explained this to the class and then performed it again the way I intended.

Second performance to the class:

• +ive:   Good eye contact // Tone was much better // "More fire in belly" // More upper-class and mature // This version really worked for my character
• -ive:   Work on movement. Know why I am moving if and when I am going to. Have a purpose to everything.