Monologue creation
Initial notes
In today's session, we concentrated on writing our own monologues for the monologue competition that we are going to perform.
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In order to begin writing our monologues, we had to look at a step-by-step structure to our monologue so that we could begin writing it. For example, we had to first determine the monologues' goal, think about who the character is and why they want to achieve this goal and how to begin with a powerful opening that would draw the audience in. This would help make our monologue be very powerful and keep the audience intrigued all the way through rather than it falling flat.
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Furthermore, I worked collaboratively with others during this task as we would help each other come up with ideas for our monologue by creating a spider diagram to produce as many plot lines as possible. This was very beneficial for myself as well as everyone else as it allowed us to help each other out and be more creative with what we come up with.
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For example, an idea that I suggested for my partner whilst creating the spider diagram was that she should create a horror type of monologue, filled with emotions of scared, vulnerable, fear and tension as it is something that she has not done before so it would help with expanding her skills and looking at different types of characters. As a result, this helped me to expand my skills too and create a monologue that I have never performed before, which was very successful as it allowed me to become more comfortable with different performance styles and highlight my different skills and my flexibleness.
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However, during the collaborative task, I found that it was very difficult to pick a certain idea that we have come up with as we all produced many ideas, so moving forward, I believe that we should come up with at least three options and pick the one that is the complete opposite to you so that it is something different rather than trying to pick an idea out of all of the ones we produced which was very time consuming.
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Script/monologue writing
In today's session, we further looked at the creation of our monologues for the monologue competition.
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In order to begin the development of our monologues we had to watch a clip on YouTube which helped us make notes on our understanding of a monologue and how we can create a successful one. For example, we need to determine the monologues audience so that we can create a character that relates to the people who are watching so they are hooked on.
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Moreover, I worked collaboratively with others during this task by working in groups to write short monologues on different emotions so that we could generate our minds and help produce creative ideas for when we create our own monologues. This was very beneficial as we were all able to take away different ideas and perspectives on all the emotions so that we could create powerful monologues.
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Furthermore, an individual action that I suggested during this task was to write down times in your life when you felt the different emotions so that we could also build a deep and meaningful character to go with the monologue. This further allowed us to think freely and not use generic ideas which helped to create raw monologues that audiences could connect to, which was highly successful as we could perform with real intentions.
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However, during the collaborative task I feel that we need to ensure that we are all allowing others to share ideas during the tasks, so moving forward, I am going to suggest that we all think of a different plot for each emotion and then take it in turns to share each idea.
Character Profile/ Given Circumstances
In todays session, we looked into creating our characters profiles for our character in the monologue.
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In order to begin writing our characters profiles and given circumstances, I took part in a hot seating exercise so that I could find out a lot more information about my character so that I could create a well-detailed character profile to help me feel more connected with the character. Using this hot seating exercise was very beneficial when finding out my characters given circumstances and facts about them as it helped me to develop an understanding for my character and their needs.
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Moreover, during the hot seating exercises to find out information about each of our characters, I worked collaboratively with others by coming up with well- detailed questions and recommendeding what questions we could ask to find out more about characters. For example, an individual idea that I came up with was to ask questions such as what perfume they like or if they were a city who would they like to be, so that we could get well thought answers and facts about them to add to the character profile and find out about their given circumstances.
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However, during the collaborative task, I found that it was a very slow process with waiting for people to come up with questions, so moving forward I believe we should all plan out a couple of questions to ask before coming to lesson so that we are ready and does not waste any time.
First attempt of script/monologue
In todays session, we began writing the first attempt of our monologue/script.
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In order to begin writing our monologue we had to look at a structure of how a monologue is written and use all the notes that we have gathered for the past couple of days about our characters and use that to begin writing it. Using the three point monologue structure, beginning, middle and end, helped me to write a monologue that would bring the viewers in and not loose their attention throughout. This was very helpful, as I was able to start off with a strong opening and keep my monologue interesting and not predictle through the rest of it.
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Furthermore, I worked collaboratively with others during this task by reading each others monologues and suggesting any ideas that could help the monologue be more enticing or how we can surround it more to the point without going off too much on something else and loosing the readers attention. This was very helpful as we were able to give and recieve any feedback on our first attempt of our monologue and how we can make it even better. For example, a piece of feedback I sugessted to keep it concise so that the monologue can be more powerful and memorable to the viewers.
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However, during the collaborative task, I feel like not everyone expressed their feedback on other monologues after reading them, so moving forward I think we should go around individually and share our ideas so that evryone gets a chance too and so new ideas can be explored.
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Development of script and editing
In todays lesson we looked at the development of our script and how we can edit it to make it the best possible version.
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In order to develop our script/monologue even further and edit it, we began to read through our first draft of our monologues and look at adding in any acting techniques that we have learnt in previous workshops so that when we perform it, our delivery of it is powerful and entices viewers. For example, when developing my script even further I had to think about who my audience was and who I was delivering my performance too so that my writing could be more clear and straight to the point, which helped my monologue to be straight to be well-written and raw.
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Moreover, I worked collaboratively with others during this task by helping people edit their monologue scripts so that it can be developed further and is powerful. This allowed us to each go through our monologues once again and suggest any ideas or techniques to add into our monologues that would help the devlopment of the monologues. For example, I suggested that should know our parameteres so that we can get use to the rythm and pacing of our monologue and add any slow or fast rythms to certain sentences that would make a powerful impact when performing it.
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As a result, working collaboratively during this was very beneficial as it helped to indentify any techniques that we could add into our monologues that would develop theme even further and make them much more impactful emotionally. However, working collaboratively was also not beneficial at times as not everyone remembered any acting techniques to add into the monologues, so we had to research them which took longer, so moving forward we should add these techniques into our initial notes in the beginning.
Final edit
In todays session, we focused on the final draft of our monologue script to perform.
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In order to make sure that I had the best possible version of my monologue, I had to make sure that the three point structure of my monologue was very clear and had a good climax. To make sure that this was all in place, I went to my teacher, Mr Wyer and asked for any notes or feedback that could develop the monologue for the finaly performance which consisted of adding any pauses or beats to it so that I can show a variety of emotions throughout and aids to my climax in the monologue. This was very helpful as I was able to make any final adjustments to my script so that It can be interesting and enticing.
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Furthermore, I also worked collaboratively during this task by helping each other come up with any other adjustments that they can make to their final edits of the monologue so that it can become better, for example an idea that I also sugessted was to end the monologue with a powerful line just as powerful as the beginning to show dignity for the character and that they have achieved what they have desired.
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Asa result of using my teachers aswell as my pupils feedback, I have been able to achieve the best version of my script so that it is ready to be performed to. Moreover, using all this feedback has allowed my performance skills to be shown more effectively as it has been shown in my monologue a variety of different emotions, clear characteristaion through the character profiles and the characters goals which is important for us as well as the audience.
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However, during the collaborative task, I believe that not everyone got to share their feedback to people, so in the future we need to make sure everyone is getting the chance to share their ideas so that everyone can make final edits to their script and make it the best possible version.
Looking at my feedback from my previous assessment, my target for this unit Is to work on my development of physical characterization. Having this target is very important for my performance development as it will help me build a bond between the character and myself, making the performance raw and natural as I will find a relationship with my character. So, moving forward, I am going to do a lot more in-depth character profiles about my character and do a lot of research on the time and place where they grew up.