Final Monologue, Scene Work, And More

So last Monday I performed my monologue for it's final grade for Peter. I thought it went pretty well. It was really awkward for me, since it was in an office and he was about two feet away from me and the space was pretty tiny. It was just kind of awkward and it threw me off. I got an A, which is cool, but I know I could have done better. I just didn't know what to do in the space, you know? I didn't want to act like I would in a larger space because I'm sure that would have been annoying and a bad choice. It was very weird for me. I kind of lost the characterization that I had found. That's something odd for me; I can perform perfectly in classrooms and audition rooms and such, rooms that have been designated as "acting spaces". But when I get thrown into a different environment, it gets me off- kilter. It's more of a socialized thing, I suppose. I don't know, it's odd.

Tuesday in class more people did their final scenes and monologues. I really want to start working on new monologues and scenes. I really like getting new material to work on, especially scene work. I'm excited to see what everyone else ends up doing. It's always cool to see people play different characters than something they played before. I like seeing the changes people make with themselves to make different characters. Also the scene and monologue choices people make interest me. I like seeing plays that I haven't heard of. But it's also cool to see the well-known ones and see the actors' take on it.

I finally picked out my next monologue. It's from Women of Manhattan by John Patrick Shanley. It's pretty funny, and I enjoy it a lot. I'm looking forward to working on it some more. I haven't had the chance to read the play yet, but I'm going to soon. I really like Shanley's work, and I'm looking forward to reading this next play. I've hardly had time to read plays lately because of Midsummer, that show is eating up my time like nobody's business.

Even though there was a furlough last Thursday, Ryan and I met to start rehearsing and blocking our scene. I'm really excited for it. We both started memorizing a lot of it as well. We broke the scene into beats and we managed to get through a hug chunk of it. It was just frustrating because some people yoinked the experimental from us even though that's where our class was held, and by the time we got it it was time for another class. Regardless, I'm really enjoying working with Ryan, it's really fun. Everything is super easy and fun to do.

Today I have tech for Midsummer, so we'll see how that goes. It's a really light-heavy show, so we'll probably be there for ages. Guh. Even if I don't do anything, tech always really tires me out. Seriously. Something about it just makes me want to fall asleep.

Midsummer opens next Friday, April 30th! Go see it!

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tempODYSSEY Review

This semester, ALTO (A Liberated Theatre Organization) put on the show tempOdyssey. I was really excited for this production, as I heard it was a really good storyline. tempOdyssey is about a woman named Genny (Baily Neil), who leaves her hometown to be a temp in another city. Genny believes herself to be a "goddess of death" of sorts, and urges her fellow temp (played by Jared Stovell) to stay away from her. He, smitten with his own idea of being untouchable, doesn't comply, and Genny ends up breaking his neck and killing him. The play is written very well, and really takes the audience on a journey that is not only hilarious, but thought-provoking.

I was really impressed by Jared Stovell in this show as what the text refers to as "Dead Body Boy". Jared was very impressive in his acting, simply because he played "normal" so well. He wasn't outrageous or weird, and the "normal" quality he portrayed in his character really helped the story go along smoothly and provide a nice contrast to Genny's character.

I found that while some actors in the show just played into the roles that they are often given and stayed in their "comfort zone", I was still impressed by the show and what it had to offer. I really enjoyed seeing this performance, and I really think this was an excellent choice for ALTO this year.

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Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet

Upon the recommendation of my boyfriend, I read Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet next, He loaned me his play, and after having it sit next to my computer as a reminder to read it, I picked it up and powered through it. I found it to be very interesting and intricate. The play is about Chicago real estate salesmen and their supervisor, all who are trying to make a buck and get out on top. In a "sales contest" of sorts, whoever earns the most wins a Cadillac, while the two that earn the least get fired. In the high stakes of the event, alliances are made and broken, and even theft of the "good leads" takes place, leaving all the characters suspect.

While there are no female roles in this show, I found it to be a very good play and I would love to see it performed. I find that with Mamet, you simply cannot understand every bit just by reading it, you have to see it performed and see the "tennis ball" of sorts go between each and every actor with their dialogue.

In addition, I feel that this show really depicts characters in realistic environments and circumstances, and shows the characters acting in realistic ways. I so often see or read shows that depict fanciful story lines or unrealistic dialogue, and this show was a really nice change from having read those.

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Research - Overdone Monologues

I decided to approach the theatre article part of this class differently than others have approached it. Rather than just find an article and link to it, I'm choosing to pick a specific subject and link to a few articles that relate to the subject.

I find that getting information from multiple sources on the same subject can be really eye-opening and helpful, and researching things that I'm actually curious about is better for me than just reading some blasé article that I'll never touch again.

I hope to gather a number of articles that I'll check back to eventually. I suppose I'm creating a mini-library for myself here, haha.


The first subject I chose to research is monologues that are overdone in auditions. I've always been curious about what one considers to be overdone, and I really want to steer clear of these monologues.

I found a really good amount of material in my research, and even got a large list. Many other articles referenced this list and explained it fuller. In addition to that list, I found some smaller ones that listed entirely overdone shows, some were the same as the ones on the larger list, but most were not. It's interesting to see the differing opinions.

(Please note that even though I am posting these links, I'm not posting them to discourage/ belittle my fellow classmates or other actors if they've done any of these pieces at an audition or in class. In fact, I've performed a few of the pieces myself. These are also merely opinions, so don't let them get you down. No hard feelings guys. <3)

(I also highly suggest reading the disclaimer in the second link.)

• List of 116 Overdone Contemporary Monologues
• Article Explaining the List of 116 OCM
• Article with More In-Depth Survey Results of the 116 OCM
• List of Overdone Shakespeare Monologues
• List of Overused Monologues and Overused Shows
• List of Overused Female and Male Monologues

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Nest Review

Nest, by Bathsheba Doran, was produced by Skull & Dagger for their spring production. I found this to be an interesting choice, as I had never heard of it before. As Skull & Dagger’s Marketing officer, it was my job to get the word out about the production and market it, so I had to research the play and bring it to the light of the public. I read the play over winter break, and found the play to be very poignant and interesting. Nest centers around a young woman, Susanna Cox, who is the indentured servant of Jacob and Elizabeth Geer. Through a series of events, Jacob seduces Susanna and the two begin an intimate love affair. Susanna becomes pregnant, and as she copes with her frequent hallucinations, she also tries to cope with the situation.

I found the show to be an excellent choice for Skull & Dagger this year, as it wasn't just some "irrelevant story about American history." Director Chis Wollman chose some excellent motifs in the production of the play, and I found that they really helped make the story seem relevant and important for the audience. I have to say that I personally enjoyed the closing scene, in which the audience suddenly realizes that they are just in a theatre and that it was just a play.

I found the actors Ken Hodges (Mr. Drumble) and Jarret Addleman (Joe) to be rather exemplary in their acting. The two portrayed characters with a love for writing; Mr. Drumble a far more seasoned publisher, and Joe a up and coming writer looking for opportunity. The two had excellent chemistry in each and every scene. In addition, I found that they provided the necessary comic relief to the play, yet they didn't go so far as to overshadow the themes or the rest of the story.

Altogether, Nest had an amazing cast, and I felt that everyone did their parts with gusto, passion, and truth. I wasn't let down by a single person, and I truly felt it was a very strong performance.

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Juries // Edward Albee // A Realization

Technically this isn't a journal entry about class, but I really wanted to include it and write about it. Today we had juries at SDSU. If you don't know what juries are, here's an explanation from the SDSU Theatre webpage itself.


"Each spring the department holds a day long event that brings six nationally renown[sic?] professionals to campus to view and critique student work. The process is unique because students show their work as collaborators in groups organized as producing units: director, designers, and cast. The productions presented vary each year. They may be plays, musicals, operas, and with the recent addition of film and television to the department, one of the three groups seen during the day, presents a film adaptation of the theatrical production. In a short talk, the director explains what he or she intended. Then the designers show models, plans, renderings, and briefly explain their work. After a short scene from the play, the jurors can see what a full production would be like and they can then discuss, critique, question, and sometimes praise the work."


This year, SDSU did "At Home at the Zoo" by Edward Albee. There were three groups, and each group performed something different. I only had the opportunity to see the first group present/ perform. I found that they were pretty good, and I was incredibly surprised when Edward Albee himself spoke. He said something so pure and true. Honestly I feel like I learned more about the theatre today than I have for all 6 years of having been a student of theatre.

He stated that we're all essentially being taught gibberish.

And I completely agree.

Acting isn't a strenuous, overcomplicated method. It's life. It's people who may or may not have existed, but are nevertheless existing on a stage in their own world. It's real. It's not this overthought, overtly long and complicated manner where you read far too much into it than you should. Life is life. Yes, there may be motivations behind actions or subtext, but it's not so complicated. It's life.

Some other great quotes (I can't guarantee that they are the exact ways he said them, however the meanings are the same.):

"If a character is symbolic, he should come on stage wearing a sign that says 'I'm symbolic and here's what I represent.'"

"Is there a power surge?" (In reference to why there was a lighting change during an indoor scene.)

"You can't direct symbolism or metaphor."

It just really put everything into perspective for me. I realized today that acting isn't some long drawn out process you have to overthink to do. It's just life. Don't overdo it. Life isn't big and showy and overtly symbolic or controlled. You don't know what's going to happen. You have to imitate real life and real life situations when acting. You... Well you just do it. Granted, you should think about it and create a new persona or individual. Someone that isn't you. But once you figure them out, you jump in and let it become second nature. Let the character take over. Don't make unnecessary movements or melodramatic ways of speaking. Life isn't a performance of unsurprising movements and words that are overtly enunciated. Life is real.

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Class

So. Back to classtime journalism. I guess.

On a completely different note, I'm listening to Gorillaz new album Plastic Beach. (More specifically, "White Flag".) If you get a chance, seriously listen to it. Or youtube it. Legit.

So I was told I need to be more in-depth about my class journals. Which is hard for me, since I'm just watching scenes, and I personally don't want to critique people in my journal. I feel that any constructive criticism I give should be left between me and the student. This is because I'm just a student, and I feel that even though I've been doing theatre for 6 years, I don't need to go blabbering about my opinions of other people's acting abilities. I'm still learning myself, so what right do I have, you know?

That's just my personal view. I'm all down for constructive criticism, but not in such a public fashion.

That being said, I really don't have much to say about our first week back. Turns out there were a lot more kinks in the whole "online" part of the class than I thought there would be. Some people had some technical issues, others didn't even do the work at all. I suppose that's because a lot of us have heard stories about the previous times this was tried. We heard that someone didn't even do any of this and he passed with a B, so I guess they thought it would be treated the same this semester. I guess not though. Eh.

People have been doing scenes and stuff. DeAndre and I worked our butts off the first week back. We originally thought we would work-through the 8th, but he and I were both really sick so we didn't. Instead we performed it full-on today. We brought props and costumes, and we nailed it. Or I thought so, at least. We got grades we weren't expecting. It sucks, since I know I did my best, but apparently it's still not good enough for some. I guess I can't let it get to me though. Not everyone is going to like what one does. The scene was really tough for me, and I know that given the time and resources we had, I did all I could do with it. I was really proud of DeAndre, too.

Today I also found out that Ryan Heath is my scene partner. It should be fun, I'm excited. We talked about doing a comedic scene, and Ryan suggested doing one from "Rumors". I completely agreed. Even though I did it in high school for a show, I know that I've completely changed as an actor. I've gotten a lot better, and I want to approach the scene differently than how the performance was directed. I want to make it more organic and real and less "showy". Ryan and I decided to do the opening scene of the play between Chris and Ken. It's a really fast-paced scene and somewhat farcical, it should be really fun.

I also have to get a second monologue. I guess I'll look over my journal entries and see if I like anything. I was thinking of doing a comedic monologue, I don't have a contemporary comedic that I really feel strong about. I don't know. We'll see.

Turns out that Ryan and I will be performing the same day we do our monologues. Originally it was just our scene, and then the next class we had to perform our monologues, but Gina is the maid of honor in a wedding (Yay Gina!) and was planning to leave the day she had to perform her scene. I figured if I was in that position, I'd want someone to switch with me (I mean seriously, maid of honor is a big deal.) so Ryan and I said we would switch scene days. I dont mind switching, I mean it's not like we've been planning on performing that day, we were just assigned it today.

Midsummer opens relatively soon. We're finally finalizing all the blocking and such, and rehersals have been going good. I may do some tours of the theatre for the kids seeing the show, which should be fun. I did it for Twain, and I had a really good time. Plus I'm helping Chris Wollman and C.J. do the orientations for the incoming freshman and transfers this summer. I'm super excited about that. I can't wait to see the incoming people. I hope there are a lot, seeing as so many people are graduating this year. Seriously.

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Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead by Burt V. Royal

I decided to read Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead by Bert V. Royal next. A local theatre company is putting it on this summer, so I figured I might as well read it. The play is a parody of sorts of "The Peanuts", but this time in their teenage years. The play starts off with CB (Charlie Brown, of course) and his sister who are mourning the loss of CB's dog to rabies. CB then goes on a spiritual quest of sorts, trying to figure out what life's purpose is and what happens after we die. The play then begins to focus more on the character Beethoven (Schroeder), who is a social outcast due to his assumed homosexuality and past family life. The play begins to centralize on tolerance and acceptance of different lifestyles, then ties the two themes together at the end in a monologue shared with all the characters.

I found this play to be very poignant in what it is conveying, and poetic in the sense that it captures truth in the lives of the characters and displays it perfectly in the dialogue. In addition, the play was humorous, yet still very thoughtful and serious when it needed to be. I found this to be a really interesting play.

There are several scenes and monologues I found that I could use in the future.

Scenes
• Pg. 14 - CB's Sister & Beethoven
• Pg. 15-17 - Tricia & Marcy
• Pg. 30-36 - CB and Van's Sister

Monologues
• Pg. 35 - Van's Sister talks of her abortion.

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