Auditions for Actors

Wednesday 16th September 2015

Today we started work on our monologues. Most of the time we just rehearsed them, and it felt pretty great to just have the studio space to practice in. 

When we worked together, we sat in a circle and each stood up and delivered just the first few lines of our monologue, then we received some initial feedback from rob. 

First there were some general points he gave us all: 

• Don't drop the psychological subtext, keep it consistent. Especially when you aren't quite sure of what you're doing or perhaps when you've forgotten a line, it can be seen in your eyes, so try to keep them steady and don't give it away. Keep engaged. 
• Let the external movement flow naturally from the internal truth, start in neutral and just be in the moment with what you're saying; this way you avoid your gestures and movements looking contrived. 
• Really try to inhabit the whole environment of the piece, think about where you are, who is there, every detail is important to the context. Immerse yourself in it.
• The personal feedback I got was: 
• Make sure I can see who I'm talking to, really visualise Silvius being right there.
• Mine the though process. 
• Watch out for my glottal stops and work on removing them.

We only began get working with our speeches today, so I'm going to focus on the feedback we got over the weekend in preparation for continuing next week.  

Wednesday 23rd September 2015 

Some time to practice our two monologues is what we started with today. Now that I have this space to rehearse in freely, I'm already finding new flavours to my monologues. Learning them at home over the summer gave me time to get to know them, read the plays and develop a good understanding of the speech and character, but now that I'm working on them here at college it feels like they're really coming to life. 

It's great because I can really lift it off the page now and start physicalising it more than I could at home. 

Next, we worked in pairs. We had to choose a speech, explain to one another what had happened just before the speech takes place, and then perform them to one another just sitting down. I found this helpful because even though I understand my monologue, talking to someone else about it means I can make sure that my interpretation of it is clear to the audience. 

Then we changed pairs, and this time did an emotions exercise. First, we just did about thirty seconds of our chosen monologue each, but part way through we had to become so distracted by something that gradually it took over. This was quite funny, and challenging too, because it of course changed the flow of the speech and actually did distract you, which made it harder to continue the monologue without just losing it. 

The next exercise was a little more flexible, we just had to deliver our monologue, and our partner had to give us random emotions to adopt throughout it. 

I worked with Klodian on this and it was a lot of fun, just playing around with the way you did the speech. I also found it interesting because delivering it in such different ways opened my mind up to a fresh take on it and gave me some ideas about different parts that I mightn't have thought of otherwise. It's easy to get into a comfort zone once you know a piece of text so well, so I think games like this are an effective way of keeping it evolving and always giving it more life. 

The final thing we did to work on our monologues today was quite intense, we were recorded doing the first minute of one of them. It was odd, just sitting down and keeping quite still, trying not to lose the essence of your speech that is assisted by movement, while engaging with the camera too. 

The idea behind this was that by only focusing on our head and shoulders, we had to be more concentrated on the psychology of our piece and also work hard on things like not dropping our eye line. 

The feedback I was given today was positive and also helpful: 

Rob said my thought processes were really good, and that I should work on my vowels, loosening up my voice a bit and really getting those vowels right out from my diaphragm.

Having gotten really clear feedback I feel sure about what I can focus on especially technically, and I'm going to practice my speech using one of the warm up exercise we do as Rob suggested to try and improve my vowel sounds. 

Why I chose my speeches

Speech one: As You Like It by William Shakespeare, Phebe, Act III scene V.

Choosing a classical speech was really hard for me because there were a lot I wanted to do, but I chose this one because the character and the monologue stood out to me the most. 

I think Phebe is a great character because I find her funny, entertaining, and quite an interesting representation of a particular problem: taking for granted what you've got and wanting what you can't have. 

I also love her sarcasm and attitude, to me it makes her a fun, energetic role to play. 

I like the play very much, and this added layer of interest in it for me adds motivation and excitement to do this monologue, as well as helping me with my interpretation of the speech because I have a good understanding of the story and character. 

Another reason I chose this particular speech is the emotions in it; I think her frustration and anger is something I need to really commit to so it is understandable in only a few minutes, and I'm enjoying the challenge of that. 

Moreover, her feelings in this and the text itself are very contrasting to the other speech and character, which I believe to be important, so I can strive to demonstrate a good range.

Speech two: Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale, Tess Moffat, Act 2, scene 9. 

One of the major reasons I have selected this monologue is the subject matter. As I'm a feminist and have a genuine interest in the history and progression of women's right this is a fascinating play to me, not just because I hold strong opinions on the matter but also because it is something I as a young woman can relate to. 

I really like this particular speech because it explores a moment of reflection and even self doubt, it feels very human and real. It also feels to me to portray a lot of depth, which I adore, because I find it really unpleasant working on texts which feel one dimensional. 

I this monologue I think Tess is feeling really vulnerable and is completely expressing her confusion and uncertainty, almost thinking out loud, which is something so raw that I cn really dig deep into it. 

I see this speech as a great opportunity to experiment with what feels like a whole inner monologue simply verbalised in all its honesty. 

Also, in Geoff Coleman's session he discussed not wanting to do a speech to seem too contrived, and I think this text being so based on raw emotion means I can try to reach the truth of it rather than simply acting it.