Auditions (32) - Performance Evaluation

This lesson was our performance lesson. We all had to perform our monologues and film them. Below is how I think my monologues went.

Contemporary Monologue:

• Voice:   I think that my accent suited my character. Although, in context of the play, she should have had a Yorkshire accent, as my monologue was a stand-alone performance I felt that the accent I chose was appropriate. I managed to maintain this voice throughout as well. I used a slightly higher pitch to how I normally talk to make my character appear younger.  However, on reflection, I think that I could have made my character a bit more ditsy to appear more innocence and therefore younger. 
• Use of prop:   I am glad that I used a cigarette for this performance as it not only made my slow down my dialogue more, but I think it suited my character, as it adds more comedy to the monologue, as the audience would assume that she stole some cigarettes. However, I feel like I should have taken longer with the cigarette when it was in my mouth. It would have been more shocking for a 14 year old to know how to smoke properly, but on the other hand, it could emphasise her naivety by her not knowing how to smoke.
• Movement:   My hand gestures showed my character's common nature and laid back attitude. I changed my body language when I imitated Carl, by leaning forward and pointing. Although I used a lot of hand gestures throughout this monologue, I perhaps could have used the space a bit - however, I did use the space a lot for my classical monologue, so by not using much space for this monologue, I created another contrast between my two pieces.

Classical Monologue:

• Voice:   I think that I had good diction and articulated well throughout this monologue. By using a lower pitch when speaking I presented my character as being older and more mature. I have done this monologue better before in terms of creating contrasts between thoughts. I should have made a larger contrast between my thought patterns by going on more of an emotional roller-coaster by changing my tone. 
• Facial expression:   Although my contrast of thought patterns wasn't as clear as I had hoped, in terms of voice, I did vary my facial expression throughout. 
• Movement:   My use of pacing was appropriate at showing my character's frustration with her father. I felt that my use of hand gestures worked quite well. By keeping my hands very close to me and inwards, it presented my character as being refined - however, the tension I put behind my hand gestures presented Goneril as being unpredictable and unreliable. The only thing I wasn't happy about in terms of movement, was at one point I sat into one of my hips a little bit - this made my character appear a bit common and casual, but she is supposed to be very authoritative and upper-class.

Auditions (31) - "Spacewang" monologue

I spent almost all of this lesson simply trying to learn my monologue. However, I did perform it once at the end, just to get some feedback on it to know what I should do with it next. My feedback was the following:

• "Slow down. Vary pace" - I spoke my monologue at a very fast pace, as my character is very common and I felt she would speak quite fast. However, I did speak a bit too fast, meaning that some of my lines were lost at times. I need to speak slower to give the audience more time for what I have to say to sink in.
• "Have a fag?" - It was suggested that I smoke a cigarette during this monologue to present my character as trying to be older than what she is, but she is still immature. By smoking a cigarette, it would give me something to do with my hands (as I have only done the monologue with a script in one hand) as well as slowing my pace down.
• "Vary tone" - I maintained my common accent throughout the piece, but I need to vary my tone more so the piece isn't too repetitive and to bring out more of the comedy aspect of the monologue.

Auditions (30) - Contrasting Monologues & Movement

Classical Monologue:   I spent the first part of this lesson learning my classical monologue off by heart. By not needing to hold the script, I could then work more on my movement. I have now decided what I am going to do in this monologue. James and Rob agreed that I need to keep a strong posture throughout, with my shoulders back and a long neck, to portray my character as being from a higher class and in a position of authority. They told me that I should keep the walk in that I did on the first line, instead of beginning centre, as it helps me get into character, as well as showing the audience that my character owns the place and can do what she wants. For this reason, I shall also pace now and again, when appropriate. I shall be using minimal hand gestures throughout, but keeping my elbows in to show that my character is quite refined. I shall put a lot of tension behind my hand gestures to present my character as being unpredictable. After walking in on the line "by day and night he wrongs me", I stand in one place, until that line "his knights grow riotous" when I pace to the left and back to the centre. This was to present my frustration with my father as well as my struggling to come up with a way to describe his knights. On the line "let him to our sister" I look away whilst throwing the back of my hand upwards to show that I don't care what happens to my father, and that I am willing to push him away. On the line "that still would manage those authorities", I pace to the right and back to the centre to present my anger.

Contemporary Monologue:   I didn't spend much time on my contemporary monologue this lesson, as my focus was on my classical monologue (as I hadn't done it for a long time). Therefore I spent the majority of this lesson trying to learn the "Spacewang" monologue off by heart. Although this monologue is set in Withernsea, I am going to speak this monologue as if I were really common (as I would prefer to perform the monologue to the best of my ability with an accent I am more comfortable with, rather than get stuck behind the accent). However, I have decided what movement I shall be using for this. I shall use my hands a lot in this monologue and sit into either one of my hips (to show how casual she is and to form a contrast to the strong posture of Goneril). I shall work on this monologue next lesson as I am confident with my classical monologue now.

Auditions (29) - "Spacewang" research

The http://www.dramaonlinelibrary.com/plays/spacewang-iid-153450 website said the following about my monologue and the play:

"A short monologue in which a teenage girl roams the streets of Withernsea in search of aliens. Nora may seem your stereotypical fourteen-year-old girl: playing truancy and nicking vodka to neck behind the wheelie bins, but looks can be deceiving. Today is a special day for Nora and her homemade alien radar kit. She’s sure all the signs are pointing to a possible contact, tonight, and she wants to make sure she doesn’t miss it. Though Wells’ monologue has many comedic highlights, it is also tinged with melancholy too as the audience slowly realises who Nora is really trying to reach. Spacewang was first performed at Hull Truck Theatre in 2011."

The monologue is as follows:

"Shoplifting is a piece of piss. You just, you basically just: nick it. And then you get caught. And the security man goes: ‘What you doing?’ and you just have to say really loud: ‘NO, CARL’ or whatever his badge says. And if there’s any old ladies near- by, or nuns and that, and there always is, they look over and Carl gets well con- fused. Starts steering you by your shoulders to his little office. And you hang on till you’re just in the doorway then shout: ‘COS I DON’T WANT TO SHOW YOU MY FANNY. AGAIN.’ He panics and you just run off. Next time you nick something though he remembers what happened and you can see him thinking ‘not worth it’, just lets you get away with it. So you can get quite a lot of vodka really, it’s no trouble. And actually I’m quite good mates with Carl now. He gives me this little nod near exotic fruit then in about five minutes he’s out the back on his break. We get pissed between the wheelie bins. And I did show him my fanny in the end but. Just to say thanks but. He wasn’t fussed."

 My character is 14 and appears to be quite lonely, as she has a fascination with aliens and doesn't seem to have any other interaction with people (apart from Carl). I assume she doesn't have supportive and caring parents as she often shoplifts and gets drunk.

Auditions (28) - "Spacewang" monologue by Tom Wells

Last night, a teacher from my theatre school emailed me a few monologues for audition practice. One of the three monologues was a comedy one starting with the line "shoplifting is a piece of piss". I decided that I wanted to try this one as I didn't think that the "divorce papers" one suited me. As I received it last night I hadn't done any research on it at all so was reading it cold.

Therefore before performing it in class today I was told that I wasn't get any feedback for the first attempt as I needed to do research into my character and the actual play itself. Also before performing, I had to cut down my monologue to an appropriate length as it was over a page and a half long.

Although this was just a cold read, the reactions from those watching were very positive. However, I need to make my voice sound more common. I also need to do more with my hands - I was speaking with my hand out but my palm was facing up; this works for a lot of it, but it would be more engaging to have my palm facing downwards.

We then split into pairs and helped each other with our monologues. Rob said that this attempt was a big improvement. I took the note about my hands and tried to work with them, however, I still feel like I need to add more movement in to the piece. I also changed the way I said the line "I DON'T WANT TO SHOW YOU MY FANNY AGAIN". In this attempt, I really exaggerated it and went over the top with it - making it as melodramatic as I could. I also imitated the security guard, Carl, to show a contrast in my voice (in terms of pitch and tone).

My next step will be to do research on my character and the play itself.

Auditions (27) - "Goodbye Charles" monologue

For the first half of this lesson we split into a pair and a three and were told to give each other help on our monologues. Ollie, James and I split the time we had up into three and allowed each person to perform their monologue twice with feedback in between. Once we had all helped each other, we had to perform our monologue to the class.

• First attempt to group:   I was told that my use of volume was good as I varied it throughout. However, I could have done more with my pace and pauses. I was told that I could take more time on my laugh before the line "I'm not crying". James then said that it was too naturalistic - although it was believable he said that I could be more hysterical. I should go on more of an emotional roller-coaster.
• Second attempt to group:   The boys told me that this was a lot better than my first attempt, but I could still afford to be more of a mess. On my first attempt, I had forgotten the whole tipsy idea. We discussed me having a glass of wine and being a little bit tipsy to make me more over-the-top on the sarcastic parts and just more vulnerable in general.
• Performance to class:   My feedback from the class was that it was believable and very promising. My group said that it was a lot better than I had rehearsed it, but they still think that I could contrast the emotions more, I was also told that I need to start working with the props to make it become more natural. What I need to do now, if I decide to do this monologue, is to work with props and to do so character development work (such as writing in role) to get into the mind-set of the character.

Auditions (26) - "Look Back in Anger" & "Goodbye Charles"

In the first half of this lesson (02/12/16) I performed my "Look Back in Anger" monologue, but for the second half, I started work on a new monologue.

LBIA (1)
My positive feedback from this monologue was that it was very emotional and believable. However, I was told not to make it too defiant and rooted - although it was believable it doesn't completely work for the monologue. I performed this role in a similar way to how I performed Nora from "A Doll's House", but what I had to remember was that Nora does stand up for herself in the end and leaves, whereas Alison remains with her husband. Although I like this monologue and believe that if I continue my work it could be quite strong, it is still a bit too similar to my classical monologue, as both are very serious. Therefore I got out the "I ate the divorce papers" monologue from "Goodbye Charles".

GC (1)
I hadn't done any research on this monologue and had only read it a couple of times before, so I basically performed this monologue with no preparation. I was told that I could experiment more with this monologue - there are lots of opportunities to show contrasts, thus making the character seem more unpredictable and funnier. Although the monologue is supposed to be funny, I still can add a lot of emotion as the character is deeply hurt as she doesn't want to lose her husband. To show that she is hurt inside and to make it more comedic, I was recommended to try the monologue as if I were a little bit tipsy and smoking a cigarette.

GC (2)
This attempt was a lot more successful than the first. It was better in terms of emotion, as I began to explore the range of emotions that this character can go through. It definitely worked being a bit tipsy and smoking, however, I need to watch how I hold the cigarette - at times I was so focussed on getting the right sort of emotion for each line that I would've burned my fingers if it were a real cigarette I was holding! My next step to working on this monologue will be to annotate it on where I shall take a drag on my cigarette or take a sip of wine, for example. Another priority for me to improve my monologue is to make pauses and use them in certain place.

Auditions (25) - Elements & "Look Back in Anger"

This lesson was a workshop run by Tom, entitled "Elements". He said that to add more depth to a character, or even just to develop a role, you should consider the elements. The four elements are earth, air, fire and water. Tom didn't explain how to add the idea of elements to your character, or how to assign an element to a character, but instead made us walk round the room as all of them - all apart from fire. For fire he made us "imitate" the flame.

• Walking as Earth:   Initially we had to walk round as ourselves, but then start walking as someone that made us think of Earth. I found this quite challenging as I wanted more information on what he meant, but I wasn't allowed anymore as it was a case of experimenting. I decided to walk with a slight bend to my knees and pressing my feet more into the ground. My thought process behind this was the "earthy people" are more comfortable and what you see with them is what you get. Therefore I wanted to show that I'm more relaxed by having bent knees but confident by having a stronger connection to the ground. When walking around as "earth" we were told to increase the intensity of what we were doing by 10. This was to ensure we weren't walking as ourselves. It was supposed to look silly and feel unnatural.
• Walking as Water:   I found this one a lot harder as I couldn't think of anyone that was like water. I really didn't know what to do for this so I just thought that the person would be less confident and bold, and so may be quite indirect with their movements.
• House on Fire:   For this exercise, we told that the curtains in a house had a little flame at the bottom of them. We then had to imitate this flame and become this flame as it grew and spread. We then had to be it when it came close to a gas canister and blew up. I found this exercise the most difficult as I didn't understand the task. I wanted a clearer instruction but was told just to do it. Therefore, I was really confused but tried my best at becoming this element in terms of emotion more than movement. I thought about being quite cunning at first, and then proud as I got bigger and then angry and pleased as I then exploded.
• Walking as Air:   I found this task a bit easier as we had done this task for two other elements prior to Air. I thought that someone who could be described as air would be quite free and full of energy. I thought quite literally about this one, and imagined someone whose energy and personality filled the room. However, I was told that an "airy" person would be more "air-headed" than bubbly. 

We were told that these elements can be assigned to different people's characteristics, though some people can be more than one. We were also told that people may have different opinions or views on what certain people would be. I could accept that people could be more than one element, but struggled to connect these elements to people without labelling the elements. I can't deal with things if they are not orderly or fit into categories, therefore I initially found this whole concept of elements very difficult to accept.

Assigning elements to characters & people:   To help me understand the idea of elements more, we discussed different characters and people and what element we thought they would be. We began by taking the characters from the musical "Rent" and discussed what we thought. We said that Maureen and Angel would be air as they are both very free characters. We said that Roger would be fire as he is quite unpredictable. We also thought that Collins and Mark would be water as they both tend to follow the crowd. However, two characters that we felt would be more than one element are Mimi and Joanne. We said that Mimi would be water but with an element of fire too - this is because she can be someone who's easy to get on with and quite mellow and vulnerable, but can be quite destructive too - she is self-destructive. Joanne would be water in the fact that she is submissive but earth as well because she stands her ground at time as well. To ensure I understood the idea of elements I wanted to know what element people thought I was. I was told that I would be earth as I stand up for what I believe, I am grounded and am genuine.

Tom then stated that you should "ALWAYS SHOW THE GENERAL ELEMENT OF THE CHARACTER. VISITING OTHER ELEMENTS IS FINE, BUT SHOW THEIR TRUE ELEMENT THROUGHOUT". This means that characters are almost always one element more than another, but they may become other elements at various points, however, you should always show the true them.

We were then told to do our monologues but with the idea of elements in our minds. We all performed our monologues twice this lesson, once as the element that we thought suited our character the best, and then as the element given to us by Tom:

1. Air trying to be Earth:   I thought that my character is very much air as she is upper-middle class and is very much under her husband's thumb. She is very submissive and gets pushed around a lot by her husband - her husband would be fire. In this monologue, she tries to build up the courage to tell her husband how she feels and that how he has treated her is wrong. However, because I was air, I really tried to show her vulnerability. I think this way definitiely worked better for my character than the next way. However, when I do this monologue again next lesson, I shall show that although she is really trying to be earth, she still is and always will be air. I feel like I got to earthy during this attempt thus losing her vulnerability and how weak she is.
2. Earth dealing with fire:   I was asked to do the monologue again but this time as if I was earth trying to deal with fire. Having this direction in mind, my body language altered. This time, my feet were flat on the floor and my elbows were digging in to my thighs. I found this quite challenging as I had to look stronger than before, but still look weak enough for the monologue to make sense. I was doing okay with this until I ended up moving my feet. It would have been okay if I dragged my feet up on to the balls, but instead I just slid them - this made me look more like water than earth. 

Tom came up with the following quote to summarise what we had just felt: "EXPLORING OTHER ELEMENTS THAT ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR CHARACTER MAKES YOU MORE AWARE OF WHAT IS". This means that it is good to be re-directed and experiment with other elements as by doing this, you learn what element suits your character best. 

Auditions (24) - Struggling to find a monologue

As Tom, Mr McKay and Miss Cordell were in this lesson, we were asked to perform our classical monologues. Unfortunately, where we didn't expect to be asked to do this, all of our monologues were a little rusty. Below was the feedback I received from my classical monologue:

• Movement   -   "Don't be afraid to move" // "T-Rex arms"   -   I was quite static during this performance (apart from the walk in). I barely moved from the spot I walked to and the only real movement I did was moving my arms and hands. I've been told not to be afraid to move. Before performing this again, I shall annotate my monologue and work out where I want to move in the monologue and where and how I shall move. 
• Address   -   "Don't direct the first line to anyone"   -   Tom suggested that I should say the first line as if I am saying it to myself. Although they liked the way I addressed them, I didn't have to address them for the entire time.
• Class   -   "Lost the teenager element" // "Be annoyingly upper class"   -   I was told that by lowering the pitch of my monologue I did lose the teenager element, but I could still afford to be a lot more upper class. 
• Energy   -   "More energy needed" // "Be more sharp"   -   The last time I performed this monologue I had the right level of energy as there was a "fire in [my] belly" and all of my words had a bite to them. However, the energy slipped a bit this time, thus making my character seem not as high-class as before. 
• Diction   -   "Diction on first line" // "Nice through teeth but be clear"   -   I have a tendency to speak quite quickly during this monologue as my character is angry, thus making all of the words merge together a little bit. I had the right intention, as I spoke my words through my teeth when I was really angry. However, I still need to watch my diction when doing this to ensure that every word is heard.

After performing our classical monologues we spoke about our contemporary monologues. I got too nervous to perform the comedic contemporary monologue I had chosen ("I ate the divorce papers") as I didn't think it would suit me. I asked if I had to do comedy or can it just be contrasting in terms of character, situation and emotion. I was told this was okay so decided to do some research in to contemporary monologues that would contrast with my "King Lear" monologue. I would have liked to have done the monologue I looked at before from "A Doll's House" but it is too similar to my classical monologue and might not even be considered as contemporary (as it was written in 1879). I was suggested a monologue from "Look Back in Anger" spoken by the character "Alison". Below is the research I have done on this monologue, and another monologue I am considering:

• ((John Osbourne -- Look Back In Anger -- Alison))
  
  • https://www.scribd.com/doc/149549335/Acting-for-Singers-Monologues
  • This monologue was recommended to me by my teacher, as she could tell I was getting stressed out not being able to find a good monologue for me. She knows that I like dramatic monologues with something I can really get my teeth into. 
  • In this monologue, the character Alison explains to her husband about her miscarriage.
• ((Claire Dowie -- Why is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt?))
  
  • https://alwaysworkingartists.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/why-is-john-lennon-wearing-a-skirt.pdf
  • This monologue is one that I picked but then discarded a long time ago before coming up with my "Assassins" monologue. Originally I thought it just had themes of anger, confusion and oppression, but having read it again, I can see there are a lot of opportunities to change my tone and possibly make it quite comical. I would have to do the latter, rather than taking the angry approach, to avoid it being similar to my classical monologue. If I do take the opportunities and make it a bit comical then it would be contrasting.
  • In this monologue, the character explains why she hates being a woman and would rather be a man.

I am hoping to try both monologues next lesson to see which one I prefer out of the two. I know a little bit of background information on both of the characters, but I am purposely not doing too much research into either of them yet so I can see what I can do with just the text alone before I add the extra dimension formed with context. I am quite annoyed at myself for not pushing and challenging myself to do the "I ate the divorce papers" monologue, so I might come back to this one another time.

Auditions (23) - Finding a contemporary monologue

We are now moving on to contrasting contemporary monologues, but will return to our classical ones before our performance. For my contrasting contemporary monologue I am hoping to do a comical monologue. I say "hoping" as I am not 100% sure if I will yet, as I am much more confident with serious / dramatic monologues than comical ones. However, I want to try a comedy one to challenge myself. Below are the two monologues I was deciding between for tomorrow's lesson:

• It's Terrible Being Nice   -   Goodbye Charles   -   Gabriel Davis
  
  • http://www.monologuegenie.com/its-terrible-being-nice-monologue.html
• I Ate the Divorce Papers   -   Goodbye Charles   -   Gabriel Davis
  
  • http://www.monologuegenie.com/ate-divorce-papers-monologue.html

I decided that I will use the second monologue as it forms more of a contrast to my classical monologue. The first monologue starts with her being quite angry and she is very matter-of-fact and therefore too similar to the character Goneril. Therefore I will try the second monologue as it is more comical and the character is actually laughing throughout it as well.

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.

Auditions (21) - King Lear Vocal Only

The first thing I did in this lesson was work on my opening line of my monologue. I was told previously that I should be less angry with the monologue and try being more frustrated instead. I was anxious about this opening line as I didn't know how I was going to say it in a way that I would capture the audience's attention instantly but not be too angry with it. Below is how my line changed over this workshop section:

1. Rather angry - how I had rehearsed it before just to get back in to the swing of this monologue
2. More frustrated - attempted to be more frustrated but still struggling with it
3. Walking in - said the line in a similar way as before but whist walking in to get the right sort of feeling
4. Emphasise "d" of "day" - same as number three but articulated the plosive sound of "d" to sound more frustrated
5. On the spot - exact same as number four but without walking in at the same time

After working on the first line I performed my entire monologue to Miss McSherry and Mr McKay. They both said that this was a lot better than I have done it before but I needed to consider where my character has a change of thought. This monologue should be like an emotional roller-coaster. I therefore went and annotated my monologue:

I performed this monologue again, and my feedback was that it was a lot better than before, but I need to watch my diction at times (especially on my "l's"). Next lesson I shall go over mainly the vocal side of the monologue again to engrave it in my mind, but I shall also begin including some movement.

Auditions (20) - King Lear Monologue

In this lesson we had Tom in to watch our classical monologues. I was told that I really captured the essence of the monologue as I wasn't just saying it - I knew what my monologue was about. However, I was told to think more about my character's age and status, as I was coming across like a teenager rather than a powerful woman. It was then suggested to me that I should try being more frustrated rather than being angry on the first line. I have to keep quite measured and really work on my movement.

To enable myself to work more on my movement, I am trying to learn my monologue off by heart as soon as possible. However, when I say movement, this doesn't mean moving about the stage - what I am planning to do is use a lot of hand gestures but with a lot of tension.

Tom suggested that we watched some clips of Jeremy Iron as he performs Shakespeare really naturally. Below is the clip that I watched. I agree with what Tom was saying - that Iron performs Shakespeare as if it were a modern text.

Auditions (19) - King Lear Monologue

Today we all performed our monologues to the rest of the class. The feedback I got after performing mine was the following:

• "Really impressive"
• Clearly worked on it as I got the correct meaning across. 
• Slow down in places. As it is Shakespeare, I need to slow down so that each word is heard.
• Remember that I am an upper class lady, so perhaps compose myself at times.

I have now annotated my monologue with where I shall be really angry and where I shall compose myself slightly.

Auditions (18) - First Attempt of Classical Monologue & Research

To begin this lesson, we got into pairs to tell each other about our chosen monologues and to them perform them to each other. Ollie and I formed a pair and the feedback he gave me from my first attempt was that I used my pauses nicely, but I needed to do more research to find out the relationship between my character and the man she refers to as "him".

Between performing this monologue to Ollie, and performing it to the class, I managed to do a little bit research. Through this research, I learned that my character, Goneril, is one of three sisters, and is actually referring to her father in this monologue. I knew that I needed to do more research on this, but wanted to try out the monologue first before doing a lot of research into it. As I have decided that I like this monologue, I shall do a lot more research on it. My feedback from performing it to the class was as follows:

1. Doesn't have to be perfectly read. Think about how you would speak when you're actually angry - you might pause in strange places.
2. Be more ruthless! She is extremely angry and is at the end of her tether. She is livid.

Brief synopsis of the play:   (Notes taken and condensed from the following site - http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/kinglear/kinglearps.html)

•  Set in ancient Britain. Elderly King Lear is deciding to "give up his power and divide his realm amongst his three daughters (Goneril, Regan and Cordelia).
• He planned to give the largest piece of his kingdom to his daughter that "professes to love him the most" - certain his favourite, Cordelia, will win.
• Goneril and Regan play along (constantly being deceitful), whilst Cordelia refuses to participate. 
• Lear is angered and disowns Cordelia. Lear banishes Earl of Kent (his friend) for trying to speak on her behalf.
• Meanwhile, the King of France and Cordelia marry. Cordelia "reluctantly leaves Lear with her two cunning sisters". 
• Kent disguises himself and becomes Lear's servant to try to protect him from his deceitful daughters.
• Lear, a fool, some knights and the disguised Kent move in with Goneril. She treats Lear with no respect and like an old man.
• Lear sends Kent to Regan with a letter to say that he will stay with her. Regan puts Kent in stocks. Lear arrives and is horrified. Kent is let free. Lear tries to find out who did this, when Goneril arrives. He realises that Regan and Goneril are working together. 
• Regan and Goneril plot to kill Lear. Gloucester finds out and warns Kent to send Lear to Dover. They leave immediately but Edgar remains behind. Regan and Goneril find out. 
• Cornwall (Regan's husband) "gouges out Gloucester's eyes. A servant tries to help Gloucester and attacks Cornwall with a sword - a blow later to prove fatal."
• Cordelia sends French troops to Dover. Regan and Goneril send their own troops to fight the French in Dover. Gloucester also tries to go to Dover and finds his son, Edgar.
• Kent sets off with Lear to reunite him with Cordelia. Lear sleeps through the battle and awakes to be told Cordelia is defeated. He hopes to be imprisoned with her to avoid his evil daughters. However, Cordelia is sentenced to death, not imprisoned.
• Regan and Goneril are both in love with Edmund (Gloucester's "conniving" son who ordered Cordelia to be executed). Goneril poisons Regan. Edgar fatally wounds Edmund. Goneril finds out and commits suicide.
• Edmund repents before he dies and "the order to execute Cordelia is reversed". He is too late - Cordelia is hanged. Lear carries his the dead Cordelia. Lear goes mad with grief and dies. "Kent declares that he will follow his master into the afterlife". Edgar becomes the ruler of Britain.

Auditions (17) - Classic monologue

Today we worked on our classic monologues. I attempted the monologue spoken by Emila in "Othello". I was told that I performed the monologue okay but I should get one that is ore "gutsy". As this monologue is basically just a chat, it is a little bit bland. Therefore I won't be using this monologue and shall find another. I was recommended "King Lear", "Merchant of Venice" and "Much Ado About Nothing".

Potential monologues:

• King Lear -- Goneril -- "By day and night...".
  http://www.shakespeare-monologues.org/women/plays/32I like this monologue because the character that speaks it seems quite gutsy. This monologue also allows me to show a range of different emotions.
• Merchant of Venice -- Portia -- "Away then!"
  http://www.shakespeare-monologues.org/women/plays/5I don't completely understand all of the monologue, but it looks really interesting due to the potential range of emotions and the questions at the end.
• Merchant of Venice -- Portia -- "I pray you, tarry..."
  http://www.shakespeare-monologues.org/women/plays/5I really like the beginning of this monologue as it is quite captivating.

I have decided that I shall use the "By day and night" monologue for next lesson. I am not certain that I shall use this monologue, but I definitely prefer it to my "Othello" monologue as I can get my teeth into it.

Auditions (16) - Finding Contrasting Monologues

For our contrasting monologues, we have to have one classic monologue and one contemporary monologue.

Classic monologues:
The monologue I shall use for my classic monologue is Emilia's monologue from "Othello". I have already done a lot of research on this monologue on previous blog posts - http://lornaclarkra.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/auditions-5-monologue-research.html. I can connect with this monologue because, although I am not the character's age, I share similar views to her - as I believe that men and women should be treated equally.

Contemporary monologue:
Below are the monologues I considered for my first monologue which I could potentially use as my contrasting contemporary monologue:

• One man two guvnors
  

  • I have decided against this monologue as it is very similar to my classic monologue in terms of the character's views on men and the general feel of monologue.
• Power of the dog
  

  • I like this monologue because it is comedic and the character is my age. It would also be quite funny to do alongside a classic monologue, as the character (Lisa) is moaning about a classic play she had just seen ("Midsummer Night's Dream"). However, there isn't much room for emotional development in this monologue, thus making the monologues quite similar.
• William Shatner man crush
  

  • I have decided against this monologue as although it does form a contrast to my classic monologue, I can't really connect to the monologue at all. The monologue is comedic and the character is about my age, but I don't have anything in common with the character and so don't think I would be able to play the character convincingly.
• Why is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt?
  

  • Although I really like this monologue and could connect with it, yet again, I think it is far too similar to my classic monologue as it also focusses on the difference between men and women. 
• A Doll's House
  

  • This monologue forms a massive contrast to the classic monologue. It is contrasting because the emotions vary throughout, it is very serious and the emotions are contrasting in themselves to the "Othello" monologue. In this monologue, the character (Nora) is leaving her husband (which was not the done thing when the play was set). However, I don't think this monologue counts as contemporary as it premiered in 1879. If I did count then this would be one of my preferred monologues.

I have found another monologue this evening that is contemporary, comical and contrasting compared to my classic monologue. This monologue is called "It's Terrible Being Nice" and is from the play "Goodbye Charles" by Gabriel Davis. In this monologue, the character (Jill) is asking her partner not to marry her because since being with him she has been made "nice" and she wants to go back to being "a bitch". A short synopsis of the play is found on the following website: https://www.coursehero.com/file/9580445/Play-Reflection/. To summarise further, the play is basically a broken up conversation between friends Barb and Jill about their partners, David and Charles.

For next lesson, all we had to do was find two monologues we were thinking of doing and be vaguely familiar with them. I will bring my "Othello" monologue and the monologue from "Goodbye Charles".

Auditions (15) - First Monologue Performance

Audition how I had rehearsed it:

• I managed to maintain my accent throughout
• I stayed in role throughout
• I think I used pauses quite effectively
• I included the movement on the line "how could he have done?" as suggested. However, I don't think this looked very natural as it didn't feel natural as I am so used to how I used to act it 
• I don't think I was as convincing as I have been at being high due to my tone of voice

Conversation:

• I showed that I knew what the entire play involves (rather than just my monologue)
• I stumbled on my words saying why I chose my monologue. I should have thought about my answer to this previously so I knew how to phrase it

Re-direction   -   As if I was angry at who I was speaking to. Talking to the camera:

• I wasn't sure whether to do this in the accent or not, but I decided to challenge myself and go for it. If I performed this in my normal voice I think I would have done better as I could have focussed more on my face, tone and movement, rather than worrying about my accent.
• I also wasn't sure if I should play it as if I was high or not still. I decided that I wouldn't be high as when taking marijuana you are more chilled out, and as my character was angry, I guessed she wouldn't have been high at this point. I should have considered this monologue with different emotions as to make these decisions earlier rather than getting flustered in the moment.
• I could have done more with my facial expressions, bearing in mind that this was for camera and not stage. I think I should have filmed myself in rehearsal, zoomed in to my upper body more, as to make myself focus on my facial expressions more, rather than just my body language as a whole. 
• Although I didn't maintain my accent very well throughout, I think that I portrayed my character's anger through my use of tone and volume. I had a lower tone and emphasised certain words more.

Auditions (14) - Assassins Monologue & Taking Direction

In this lesson we all performed our monologue that we will be performing on Friday. I have definitely decided that I shall do my monologue from "Assassins". After performing our actual monologues how we have rehearsed, we were told to perform them in certain ways without preparation. The reason we did this was because we may have to do this in an actual audition. This tests our ability to take and follow direction, to improvise and to see how versatile we are.

Feedback after doing my monologue:

• Take care with accent as it wasn't always consistent. I know that I lost my accent on the line "like the whole world was dividing into two parts. Me, and everybody else". To ensure that I don't slip out of the accent, I shall keep repeating this line, and if I am still struggling, I shall find a clip of someone else doing this monologue to see how the line should sound.
• Maybe lean forward on the line "who told him". This would make the piece seem even more conversational and would avoid me sitting in one position for so long. 
• I was told that I was engaging from the very start and managed to keep the audience engaged the whole time.
• James said that he really liked how I mimed playing with the knife at the end. 

First Re-Direction:   -   Upper-class British Woman talking to the Royal Family over dinner

• Apparently this was very comical - especially the line "piece of shit". 
• They said that I had a good use of tone and pace
• I maintained my accent throughout. 

Second Re-Direction:   -   In an interrogation with someone pointing a gun at my head

• Good use of pauses
• Maybe vary tone a little bit more? Perhaps get a bit aggressive then bring it back down again.
• Maybe vary volume throughout?
• Convincing

Third Re-Direction:   -   Miss America doing a speech

• Comical as I playedto the stereotypes
• Vary pace more
• Perhaps use pauses more
• Good tone of voice and body language

Auditions (13) - Improvisation

This lesson was split into three sections (apart from the physical warm up at the beginning): character profiles, improvising situations and improvising with a chair.

Character profiles: 
Name: Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme
Age: 27
Upbringing: Middle-class
Setting: Los Angeles, 1970s.
What's happened: Been arrested. Talking to councillor
Situation: High on drugs. Been kicked out by father. Feels alone unless with Charlie.

Improvising situations:
As our characters, we were given a scenario and had to improvise. Ollie and I were paired up. Ollie was Eddie from "Blood Brothers" - so was a seven year old from Liverpool. Our scenario was that we were the last ones at the baggage claim at an airport. However, our bag contained illegal drugs and it still hasn't turned up. Have we been caught? I think that we worked quite well together as we didn't block each other, and went with what the other person was saying. Our feedback was that we both clearly understood our characters and our dialogue was good - I was complimented for my line "you go talk to him, you're... smart" as I acted this specifically well. Although we didn't pause too much, I could have done more with his age - for example, tell him that we can't tell anybody about what's in the suitcase and make him promise he wouldn't.

Improvising with a chair:
For this, I was paired with James. He was playing a soldier from "Private Peaceful". James' intention in this scenario was to get me to leave instantly as there was a terrorist attack. My scenario was that I was waiting for my drug dealer, but if I left my chair I would never have drugs ever again. For this exercise, we were told that we clearly understood our characters and remained in role the whole time. However, I could have been more defensive or threatening as my character is dependent on drugs. Also, we possibly could have played on the fact that he is British and I was American.

Review:
I have never been a fan of improvising as I find it really difficult, but I actually really enjoyed it today. I enjoyed the challenge and am starting to get the hang of it. I found it really useful as it makes you forget about set dialogue, allowing you to think more about your character in terms of movement, voice and how they would act in different scenarios.