Double - Auditions for Actors - Blog 4 - -16/09/16

Today we performed one of our two monologues we chose and work on them with the notes we were given.

Out of the two monologues I had prepared, I decided to go with Treplev's monologue from The Seagull as I felt that I understood the background regarding this play more and I had rehearsed this one more.

We started off performing these monologues only with our preparation from outside of lesson. When quizzed on the context of my monologue, I'd say I did well to know what I did except I was unsure on who my monologue was aimed at. This was a very big error as this reflected in my performance thus making it less believable.

Below are the notes I received after my first performance:

It isn't clear you understand fully what you're saying.

"She loves me/not" - Say each line differently

Watch your pronunciation e.g. THink, THeatre.

Lack of movement

You need to change your tone of voice throughout. Each line is a new thought.

After receiving this feedback, I looked over my monologue and decided what my character was feeling and what they mean with every sentence they say. Having this clear image of what my character mean in my head is very helpful with deciding how I want to perform my monologue; if I don't know what my character means, how am I supposed to tell the audience he means.

After this, I repeated the same activity I did for my last monologue and underlined each word I was going to put emphasis on. This helped me a lot when wanting to get my point across to the audience.

Below are my notes I received after my second performance:

• Good eye contact
• Wait before you say your first line - hook us early
• Movement needs to be more purposeful
• Change tone throughout

After this set of notes, I continued to perform my monologue, rectifying my mistakes.

Next lesson, we will perform these monologues again after having a while to rehearse them.