For this blog entry, I will be listing the 3 monologues I have chosen to perform for this assignment, also giving my contextual research and any other background information towards my characterisation in these monologues. The 3 monologues I have chosen/been given to perform are:
- Skin-Lad's monologue from the play 'Road' by Jim Cartwright
- Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" monologue from the play 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare
- Sam's monologue from the play 'Not Safe for Work' by Emma Hart
I have a bunch of preparation to do for these monologues, ranging from understanding the play as a whole whilst also adding my own characterisation to each of the people that I will be performing as. In order to become more familiar with my character, I will be adding profiles for each of the characters that I will be performing as.
Skin-Lad from 'Road' by Jim Cartwright
I will firstly be talking about my characterisation with Skin-Lad, as I had already done the contextual research for the play and back story/profile for him in the previous year. I will simply list below the information that I had for the character when I was performing in that play: http://sdcperformancens.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/road-by-jim-cartwright-full-blog-entry_60.html
How I've Developed the Monologue for this Assignment (Feedback on the Voice)
My skills as an actor have definitely improved since I had performed this play last year, so much to the point that I have much more confidence and physical presence whilst on stage. With this advantage, I was able to take the character of Skin-Lad to the next level. I felt like that with my recent performance of Skin-Lad that I was able to portray a much more menacing presence.
When I performed as this character last year for the play 'Road' by Jim Cartwright, I'd been given feedback that I had more characterisation, my voice had much more clarity as well. I'd projected the words quite well also. I feel that it's been much more developed since then through feedback from my voice lecturer. The notes she gave me were:
- Excellent Clarity in the voice.
- My overall diction was good, but was lost a certain points.
- She said it's the best she has seen of the monologue, which makes me very proud to hear.
- My accent was changing throughout the performance, ranging from northern, Scottish, and southern.
- The pace of the piece was excellent, it was very engaging, and dynamic.
- The facial expressions I had, along with how I was using my mouth and eyes to exaggerate words was very good.
- Very strong characterisation.
- There was a little too much pacing going on throughout the monologue, but not too much that it looked out of place.
- She had suggested that if this monologue were to be used for an audition piece, that it should be cut down considerably or to speed up the first part of the monologue.
- Lewis had also given me the note that it had definitely improved a lot since the previous time I properly did it, there is much more confidence to be seen from me.
Self Evaluation on this Monologue when Performed for Assessment
When it came to the assessment, I had performed this monologue first. At first I can admit I was a bit nervous, but who wouldn't be in this scenario! But I feel that once I got going and was fully into character for Skin-Lad that the nerves quickly faded away. I feel like that I had performed this monologue on-par with how I'd performed it to my voice lecturer. I have done this monologue so much that it's kind of muscle memory with me performing it, meaning that I have a low chance of doing it differently.
I treat this monologue like it's a brother to me, I take care of how I perform it, I don't rush at all, I'm fully embodied into the character of Skin-Lad. Each time I perform this monologue, my confidence and sense of character increases ever so that it has now been received as a very effective and strongly dramatic audition piece.
The only problem I had when performing this monologue to only my tutor and her friend was that I didn't have a larger audience. I feel that, like with every performance I do, if there's a large audience I do actually have more confidence in myself and perform the role better than if there isn't an audience. Since me and others had been told to not look directly at our tutor and friend during the performances, it gave me a challenge to encounter whilst performing. I was pretty much performing this monologue to nothing but air, and half the time I felt like I was looking downwards at the floor, which isn't very good for an audition piece. Other than this problem alone, I feel that I still performed to the best of my ability and hope to get a good grade, and also some good feedback on the performance.
Hamlet from 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare
When it comes to William Shakespeare's plays, 'Hamlet' is one of the few that I've never really witnessed. With the "To be, or not, to be" speech being quite famous, I had a challenge to face with this monologue, since I had to get my head wrapped around the play as a whole, and to also understand the character of Hamlet, and what he's really saying to himself in this speech.
A Synopsis of the Story in the play 'Hamlet'
The moral of the story in the play is that Hamlet is severely depressed after the death of his father, and once he's been summoned home, he discovered that his mother is all ready to be remarried. With this cause, Hamlet suspects there to be a bit of foul play occurring. His suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father pays him a visit, telling Hamlet that he cant rest easily, as he was murdered. He asks of Hamlet to avenge his death, without the sacrifice of his mother, as the ghost said he'll deal with her itself.
As the play progresses, Hamlet succumbs to madness. He starts to question whether he should trust the ghost. To take advantage of this situation, he performs the play named 'The Murder of Gonzago'. Within the plot of the play, Hamlet adds in extra scenes which depicts the same death which his father had. Hamlet then simply renamed the play to be called 'The Mousetrap'. This plan does come to a success, and Hamlet finds out who the murderer of his father is. He discovers it to be Claudius, whom goes off stage in a less than enthusiastic state. In Hamlet's state of avenging his father by killing Claudius, he also kills six other people, being many family members around him.
After this cause, Laertes plots with Claudius to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword. A massive fencing duel takes place, ending with Hamlet picking up the poisoned sword, after already being slashed by it, and killing Laertes. In his last words, he tells Hamlet of the poisoned sword, and that he too shall fall the same way as him. Gertrude, Hamlets mother, believing that Hamlet had full won the fencing match, drinks a toast of poisoned wine, meant for Hamlet, later resulting in her death. Enraged, Hamlet quickly dispatches of Claudius with the poisoned sword, and downs the last of the poisoned wine, killing himself. Before his death, Hamlet announces the next true heir to the throne. The play ends with the now new king arranging a funeral of honour for the now slain Hamlet.
How I've Developed the Monologue for this Assignment (Feedback on the Voice)
The monologue that I have chosen to perform from this play is the infamous 'To be, or not to be' speech delivered by Hamlet. I had quite a few famous shoes to fill by performing this monologue. At the first stage of development for this monologue, I started out by watching how many other famous actors had performed this same monologue. Specifically, I looked upon the performances of David Tennant, Adrian Lestor, and Kenneth Branagh.
After watching these three actors perform this monologue, I soon discovered that Kenneth Branagh's delivery of it was much more light hearted and quick paced when compared to the other two. out of the three, David Tennant performs the monologue at the slowest pace. Adrian Lestor is kind of slow as well on the delivery of his lines, but I feel he added much more emotion through his facial expressions and his voice. Kenneth Branagh's performance is much more diverse when compared to the other two actors, as he truly looks like this mad man which Hamlet is depicted to be, whereas David Tennant and Adrian Lestor are much more depressed.
Not to say that I didn't like how David and Adrian had performed their monologue, they are two very good stage and TV actors, but it's just how Kenneth Branagh had interpreted the monologue which I preferred the most. With this, I took inspiration from how Kenneth had performed the monologue, but I also gained a few bits of inspiration from David and Adrian, resulting in how I performed the monologue to be depressing to begin with, but then adding slight moments of exaggeration, particularly mid-way through the monologue, when Hamlet says "To die, to sleep-To sleep, perchance to dream". From this point on, the monologue becomes much more fast paced as Hamlet lists, "the pangs of despised love, the laws delay, the insolence of office,the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?" With this part of the monologue, I implemented the speed up of piece to not make it drag as much as how David Tennant had performed it, plus the quick execution of the lines, alongside good clarity, diction, and articulation just makes it sound more effective to me in terms of using my voice.
When performing this monologue to others for feedback, they find it to be performed very well. My voice is very clear and articulate. The way that used the P's for words like "Pangs, Spurns, and Patient" made it come across as a very effective piece. Whilst performing the monologue, however, it looked as though I was really trying to restrict myself from moving, thus resulting in me standing in one stance for the entire run through of it. I wasn't necessarily trying to restrict myself from moving in this monologue, but I wanted to take a risk of trying to perform this monologue whilst not moving from the beginning spot. I would still perform physical movements, via gestures, but I wouldn't physically move myself around the stage, I would stay in the exact same spot from start to finish.
Self Evaluation on this Monologue when Performed for Assessment
Much like Skin-Lad, I had performed this monologue to the best of my ability, as any actor in an audition scenario would do. Although my tutor compliments my skills in performing Shakespeare, I did indeed have a hard time thinking of how to perform this particular monologue.
I kept thinking throughout the audition that I was going to keep being compared to famous actors whom have also performed the piece, and I think this resulted in me not performing as well as I could have. Following this up, my tutor found this monologue to be the worst one performed out of the three I did. So, after taking this information and analysing what she had told me thereafter, it made me agree with the statement that I've stated.
Given the chance, I would like to perform the monologue again, to show how I could really perform it, without thinking of being compared, but seeing as I got a distinction for the assessment with flying colours, I guess that leaves me with the option to not perform it again, as I've already achieved the highest possible grade.
Sam from 'Not Safe For Work' by Emma Hart
When compared to the other two monologues I had to rehearse for this assessment, this one was the most emotional. I loved the contrast between the three monologues, with Skin-Lad it's quite mental, faced paced, and almost scary to watch, but also to perform since it's so much different than my own persona. Then I would perform Hamlets speech, which can be perceived as depressing and almost succumbing to madness, contemplating life itself in a way. And then I would perform this monologue, in which the character I'm performing as, Sam, would talk about this girl that he's desperately in love with, sharing with his work collogue the stories they had whilst being together and that he misses her. Analysing these monologues this way made them ever more fun to play and rehearse with, thus resulting in me trying much more things within all three, taking very big risks in some areas, to make these monologues the best that I can possibly make them to hopefully impress my tutor in an audition scenario.
How I've Developed the Monologue for this Assignment (Feedback on the Voice)
When rehearsing for this monologue, I took full advantage of the words within, adding as much emotion as I could, seeing as the other two monologues were quite mental and depressing, I made this one with tones of happiness mixed with sadness. Doing it this way would hopefully show how much I can diverse myself as an actor in an audition scenario, which is a very good thing if done correctly.
For the beginning of the monologue, when I'm speaking to Miranda, my co-worker in the office they both work in, I started with the tone of sadness within my voice, I wanted to really show how much Sam misses his girlfriend by using just my voice to start off with and then going into a crying state. This would then be followed up by moments of happiness, using thought-tracking to remember what Sam liked about this girl - "I think she's my soul mate. Stupid things, like, I love the way she eats... the way she eats is so...(added moment of remembering how she eats) and she's funny, she's beautiful.... and...Brave". I feel that by adding this acting technique that I can really perform this monologue much different to the other two, hopefully resulting in a higher grade, as I would show that contrast between the monologues.
Skipping to the bit mentioning when Sam and his girlfriend are on the tube, I would add moments of laughter and excitement to help look like I'm reliving that moment again, along with exaggerating some lines like "and she's just so fearless(exaggerated line), you know?". Doing this would show how much Sam really idolised this girl, and expanding his feelings ever more so on why he misses her so much. I continued to do this with a few other moments in the monologues until its quite emotional ending "I just...really....love her."
When performing this monologue to others before the assessment, after performing the other two monologues beforehand, they really noticed and were really impressed by how my contrast of character had changed completely, making my confidence for the real thing increase more so since this what I had originally planned to do with my monologues. By performing it in the order of Skin-lad, Hamlet, and then Sam, it would show how I can show my skills as an actor. they said that they could really detect the tones within my voice throughout, and they also thought that the moments of thought-tracking and pauses especially throughout the piece made it very dramatically emotional to watch. They most importantly believed me when saying that I missed this girl.
Self Evaluation on this Monologue when Performed for Assessment
After performing this monologue, I thought it was the best I had ever performed it. For some odd reason, I couldn't get the last few lines in my head throughout the whole of the rehearsal stage, the wording just didn't really work for me. But in the assessment, I actually said these lines word for word, which is what I'm quite impressed by. I had followed my tutors notes completely as to what to do for this monologue to heart and I feel that it came out to be a very effective audition piece.
I would be confident in saying that the level of execution for this monologue is on par with Skin-Lad. When putting the two side by side, they are indeed much different characters, and I feel that by having this contrast, that it would make a good impression on the panel, which it did. These two monologues were the best received by my tutor and her friend, and ex teacher of the college. They were so impressed by my skills as an actor that my tutor said to me personally and with the whole group in the room that I was the most impressive performing, which left me feeling very proud of myself and increasing the confidence of myself.
To follow this up, I am very happy with how this monologue was received, and I've been advised that if I was to audition for something in the future, I should definitely use either Skin-Lad or Sams monologue for a near definite chance to succeed.
My skills as an actor have definitely improved since I had performed this play last year, so much to the point that I have much more confidence and physical presence whilst on stage. With this advantage, I was able to take the character of Skin-Lad to the next level. I felt like that with my recent performance of Skin-Lad that I was able to portray a much more menacing presence.
When I performed as this character last year for the play 'Road' by Jim Cartwright, I'd been given feedback that I had more characterisation, my voice had much more clarity as well. I'd projected the words quite well also. I feel that it's been much more developed since then through feedback from my voice lecturer. The notes she gave me were:
- Excellent Clarity in the voice.
- My overall diction was good, but was lost a certain points.
- She said it's the best she has seen of the monologue, which makes me very proud to hear.
- My accent was changing throughout the performance, ranging from northern, Scottish, and southern.
- The pace of the piece was excellent, it was very engaging, and dynamic.
- The facial expressions I had, along with how I was using my mouth and eyes to exaggerate words was very good.
- Very strong characterisation.
- There was a little too much pacing going on throughout the monologue, but not too much that it looked out of place.
- She had suggested that if this monologue were to be used for an audition piece, that it should be cut down considerably or to speed up the first part of the monologue.
- Lewis had also given me the note that it had definitely improved a lot since the previous time I properly did it, there is much more confidence to be seen from me.
Self Evaluation on this Monologue when Performed for Assessment
When it came to the assessment, I had performed this monologue first. At first I can admit I was a bit nervous, but who wouldn't be in this scenario! But I feel that once I got going and was fully into character for Skin-Lad that the nerves quickly faded away. I feel like that I had performed this monologue on-par with how I'd performed it to my voice lecturer. I have done this monologue so much that it's kind of muscle memory with me performing it, meaning that I have a low chance of doing it differently.
I treat this monologue like it's a brother to me, I take care of how I perform it, I don't rush at all, I'm fully embodied into the character of Skin-Lad. Each time I perform this monologue, my confidence and sense of character increases ever so that it has now been received as a very effective and strongly dramatic audition piece.
The only problem I had when performing this monologue to only my tutor and her friend was that I didn't have a larger audience. I feel that, like with every performance I do, if there's a large audience I do actually have more confidence in myself and perform the role better than if there isn't an audience. Since me and others had been told to not look directly at our tutor and friend during the performances, it gave me a challenge to encounter whilst performing. I was pretty much performing this monologue to nothing but air, and half the time I felt like I was looking downwards at the floor, which isn't very good for an audition piece. Other than this problem alone, I feel that I still performed to the best of my ability and hope to get a good grade, and also some good feedback on the performance.
Hamlet from 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare
When it comes to William Shakespeare's plays, 'Hamlet' is one of the few that I've never really witnessed. With the "To be, or not, to be" speech being quite famous, I had a challenge to face with this monologue, since I had to get my head wrapped around the play as a whole, and to also understand the character of Hamlet, and what he's really saying to himself in this speech.
A Synopsis of the Story in the play 'Hamlet'
The moral of the story in the play is that Hamlet is severely depressed after the death of his father, and once he's been summoned home, he discovered that his mother is all ready to be remarried. With this cause, Hamlet suspects there to be a bit of foul play occurring. His suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father pays him a visit, telling Hamlet that he cant rest easily, as he was murdered. He asks of Hamlet to avenge his death, without the sacrifice of his mother, as the ghost said he'll deal with her itself.
As the play progresses, Hamlet succumbs to madness. He starts to question whether he should trust the ghost. To take advantage of this situation, he performs the play named 'The Murder of Gonzago'. Within the plot of the play, Hamlet adds in extra scenes which depicts the same death which his father had. Hamlet then simply renamed the play to be called 'The Mousetrap'. This plan does come to a success, and Hamlet finds out who the murderer of his father is. He discovers it to be Claudius, whom goes off stage in a less than enthusiastic state. In Hamlet's state of avenging his father by killing Claudius, he also kills six other people, being many family members around him.
After this cause, Laertes plots with Claudius to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword. A massive fencing duel takes place, ending with Hamlet picking up the poisoned sword, after already being slashed by it, and killing Laertes. In his last words, he tells Hamlet of the poisoned sword, and that he too shall fall the same way as him. Gertrude, Hamlets mother, believing that Hamlet had full won the fencing match, drinks a toast of poisoned wine, meant for Hamlet, later resulting in her death. Enraged, Hamlet quickly dispatches of Claudius with the poisoned sword, and downs the last of the poisoned wine, killing himself. Before his death, Hamlet announces the next true heir to the throne. The play ends with the now new king arranging a funeral of honour for the now slain Hamlet.
How I've Developed the Monologue for this Assignment (Feedback on the Voice)
The monologue that I have chosen to perform from this play is the infamous 'To be, or not to be' speech delivered by Hamlet. I had quite a few famous shoes to fill by performing this monologue. At the first stage of development for this monologue, I started out by watching how many other famous actors had performed this same monologue. Specifically, I looked upon the performances of David Tennant, Adrian Lestor, and Kenneth Branagh.
After watching these three actors perform this monologue, I soon discovered that Kenneth Branagh's delivery of it was much more light hearted and quick paced when compared to the other two. out of the three, David Tennant performs the monologue at the slowest pace. Adrian Lestor is kind of slow as well on the delivery of his lines, but I feel he added much more emotion through his facial expressions and his voice. Kenneth Branagh's performance is much more diverse when compared to the other two actors, as he truly looks like this mad man which Hamlet is depicted to be, whereas David Tennant and Adrian Lestor are much more depressed.
Not to say that I didn't like how David and Adrian had performed their monologue, they are two very good stage and TV actors, but it's just how Kenneth Branagh had interpreted the monologue which I preferred the most. With this, I took inspiration from how Kenneth had performed the monologue, but I also gained a few bits of inspiration from David and Adrian, resulting in how I performed the monologue to be depressing to begin with, but then adding slight moments of exaggeration, particularly mid-way through the monologue, when Hamlet says "To die, to sleep-To sleep, perchance to dream". From this point on, the monologue becomes much more fast paced as Hamlet lists, "the pangs of despised love, the laws delay, the insolence of office,the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?" With this part of the monologue, I implemented the speed up of piece to not make it drag as much as how David Tennant had performed it, plus the quick execution of the lines, alongside good clarity, diction, and articulation just makes it sound more effective to me in terms of using my voice.
When performing this monologue to others for feedback, they find it to be performed very well. My voice is very clear and articulate. The way that used the P's for words like "Pangs, Spurns, and Patient" made it come across as a very effective piece. Whilst performing the monologue, however, it looked as though I was really trying to restrict myself from moving, thus resulting in me standing in one stance for the entire run through of it. I wasn't necessarily trying to restrict myself from moving in this monologue, but I wanted to take a risk of trying to perform this monologue whilst not moving from the beginning spot. I would still perform physical movements, via gestures, but I wouldn't physically move myself around the stage, I would stay in the exact same spot from start to finish.
Self Evaluation on this Monologue when Performed for Assessment
Much like Skin-Lad, I had performed this monologue to the best of my ability, as any actor in an audition scenario would do. Although my tutor compliments my skills in performing Shakespeare, I did indeed have a hard time thinking of how to perform this particular monologue.
I kept thinking throughout the audition that I was going to keep being compared to famous actors whom have also performed the piece, and I think this resulted in me not performing as well as I could have. Following this up, my tutor found this monologue to be the worst one performed out of the three I did. So, after taking this information and analysing what she had told me thereafter, it made me agree with the statement that I've stated.
Given the chance, I would like to perform the monologue again, to show how I could really perform it, without thinking of being compared, but seeing as I got a distinction for the assessment with flying colours, I guess that leaves me with the option to not perform it again, as I've already achieved the highest possible grade.
Sam from 'Not Safe For Work' by Emma Hart
When compared to the other two monologues I had to rehearse for this assessment, this one was the most emotional. I loved the contrast between the three monologues, with Skin-Lad it's quite mental, faced paced, and almost scary to watch, but also to perform since it's so much different than my own persona. Then I would perform Hamlets speech, which can be perceived as depressing and almost succumbing to madness, contemplating life itself in a way. And then I would perform this monologue, in which the character I'm performing as, Sam, would talk about this girl that he's desperately in love with, sharing with his work collogue the stories they had whilst being together and that he misses her. Analysing these monologues this way made them ever more fun to play and rehearse with, thus resulting in me trying much more things within all three, taking very big risks in some areas, to make these monologues the best that I can possibly make them to hopefully impress my tutor in an audition scenario.
How I've Developed the Monologue for this Assignment (Feedback on the Voice)
When rehearsing for this monologue, I took full advantage of the words within, adding as much emotion as I could, seeing as the other two monologues were quite mental and depressing, I made this one with tones of happiness mixed with sadness. Doing it this way would hopefully show how much I can diverse myself as an actor in an audition scenario, which is a very good thing if done correctly.
For the beginning of the monologue, when I'm speaking to Miranda, my co-worker in the office they both work in, I started with the tone of sadness within my voice, I wanted to really show how much Sam misses his girlfriend by using just my voice to start off with and then going into a crying state. This would then be followed up by moments of happiness, using thought-tracking to remember what Sam liked about this girl - "I think she's my soul mate. Stupid things, like, I love the way she eats... the way she eats is so...(added moment of remembering how she eats) and she's funny, she's beautiful.... and...Brave". I feel that by adding this acting technique that I can really perform this monologue much different to the other two, hopefully resulting in a higher grade, as I would show that contrast between the monologues.
Skipping to the bit mentioning when Sam and his girlfriend are on the tube, I would add moments of laughter and excitement to help look like I'm reliving that moment again, along with exaggerating some lines like "and she's just so fearless(exaggerated line), you know?". Doing this would show how much Sam really idolised this girl, and expanding his feelings ever more so on why he misses her so much. I continued to do this with a few other moments in the monologues until its quite emotional ending "I just...really....love her."
When performing this monologue to others before the assessment, after performing the other two monologues beforehand, they really noticed and were really impressed by how my contrast of character had changed completely, making my confidence for the real thing increase more so since this what I had originally planned to do with my monologues. By performing it in the order of Skin-lad, Hamlet, and then Sam, it would show how I can show my skills as an actor. they said that they could really detect the tones within my voice throughout, and they also thought that the moments of thought-tracking and pauses especially throughout the piece made it very dramatically emotional to watch. They most importantly believed me when saying that I missed this girl.
Self Evaluation on this Monologue when Performed for Assessment
After performing this monologue, I thought it was the best I had ever performed it. For some odd reason, I couldn't get the last few lines in my head throughout the whole of the rehearsal stage, the wording just didn't really work for me. But in the assessment, I actually said these lines word for word, which is what I'm quite impressed by. I had followed my tutors notes completely as to what to do for this monologue to heart and I feel that it came out to be a very effective audition piece.
I would be confident in saying that the level of execution for this monologue is on par with Skin-Lad. When putting the two side by side, they are indeed much different characters, and I feel that by having this contrast, that it would make a good impression on the panel, which it did. These two monologues were the best received by my tutor and her friend, and ex teacher of the college. They were so impressed by my skills as an actor that my tutor said to me personally and with the whole group in the room that I was the most impressive performing, which left me feeling very proud of myself and increasing the confidence of myself.
To follow this up, I am very happy with how this monologue was received, and I've been advised that if I was to audition for something in the future, I should definitely use either Skin-Lad or Sams monologue for a near definite chance to succeed.
