Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Monologues: A Review

Today was the day I performed that monologue I was panicking about since Monday. It was Street Talk, a short, independent monologue by Kristen Dabrowski, an actress who apparently was tired of not being able to find any good audition pieces and wrote the Ultimate Audition Book for Teens series because of it. I recommend it to all thespians at high school level, because castors above that level of performance want to see the monologues from actual plays.

            In this bit, I play the character Hawk, a sad soul who was abused by his uncle, called a liar and thrown out when he tells his parents, and has been homeless for a year or two. I've worked the character as a sarcastic person with a drinking problem and a "been there, done that, stole the t-shirt" attitude. The background I gave this monologue was Hawk bums down next to a freshly kicked out teen-ager who asks about how Hawk ended up like this.

            When actually performed, I did well minus an empty bottle. Apparently, from all the mandatory feedback I got, almost every complaint could be drawn back to my decision to use this empty Vault bottle I had been carrying around as a prop. The only two complaints that weren't of bottlish origin were my change in tone from agitation to serious and my end beat when I put my arm around the "newbie" to tell him, "Just stick with me. You'll be okay."

            A special thanks to Advanced Acting/ Panther Players. May Chris Cringle get a hernia hauling the large amounts of goodies for you all.

No comments: