Points to consider

Analyse the suitability of chosen audition material for audition context...

The monologue I eventually chose to execute in front of my tutors was one from the fantastically disturbing 'Debris' by Dennis Kelly. This speech stood out to me the most because of the language used "the fabric of our bodies collapsing on a molecular level" the use of intellectual language intrigued me and made me want to learn it and play with it. Choosing a monologue is always hard, however made a lot easier when you find one that doesn't make you doubt your choice and keeps you confident; this is the exact feeling I got from this monologue material. When I first read it aloud I found a tone to my voice that naturally came with the flow of the speech, this was helpful as I instantly found a personality.

My filmed audition pieces

CONTEMPORARY MONOLOGUE

CLASSICAL MONOLOGUE

CONTRASTING MONOLOGUE

Chosen monologues

CONTEMPORARY 

This is my chosen contemporary monologue, it is a snippet of the very touching story of a brother and sister who try to explain their abnormal childhood. The pair are constantly lying throughout the play, Michelle the sister tells several contradicting stories of how her Mum died, and Michael finds a baby and calls him Debris, trying to keep him a secret from their alcoholic father proves difficult. Michelle the character I'm portraying is obsessed with her mothers death.

SYNOPSIS:

A one-act play where a brother and sister try to make sense of their dysfunctional childhood. The pair lie about their past creating new elaborate past stories, the central narrative is of the brother, Michael, who finds a baby who he names Debris trying to keep him a secret and alive from his alcoholic father confiding only in Michelle his sister who is fascinated with their mother's death and gives several contradicting stories of how she died.

CLASSICAL





















I have chosen this monologue from Hamlet by Ophelia, this monologue is at the point in the play after she experiences Hamlets madness. She's recalling what she witnessed of Hamlet to her father, this causes her to become upset and distressed. Her emotions become clear in her opening words "My lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted" and then she begins to explain in detail their encounter.

SYNOPSIS:

Prince Hamlet’s student friend, Horatio, goes to the battlements of Denmark’s Elsinore castle late at night to meet the guards. They tell him about a ghost they have seen that resembles the late king, Hamlet. It reappears and they decide to tell the prince. Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, having become king, has now married Hamlet’s widowed mother, Gertrude.

In the court, after envoys are sent to Norway, the prince is dissuaded from returning to university. Hamlet still mourns his father’s death and hearing of the ghost from Horatio he determines to see it for himself. Laertes, son of the courtier, Polonius, departs for France, warning his sister, Ophelia, against thinking too much of Hamlet’s attentions.

The ghost appears to Hamlet and tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. The prince swears vengeance and his friends are sworn to secrecy as Hamlet decides to feign madness while he tests the truth of the ghost’s allegations. He rejects Ophelia, as Claudius and Polonius spy on him seeking to find a reason for his sudden strange behaviour. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, former student friends of Hamlet, are summoned by Claudius and their arrival coincides with that of a group of travelling actors. The prince knows these players well and they rehearse together before arranging to present Hamlet’s choice of play before the king and queen, which will include scenes close to the circumstances of the old king’s death. At the performance Hamlet watches closely as Claudius is provoked into interrupting the play and storming out, resolving to send the prince away to England. Hamlet is summoned by his distressed mother and, on the way he spares Claudius whom he sees kneeling, attempting to pray. To kill him while he is praying would send his soul to heaven rather than to the hell he deserves.

Polonius hides in Gertrude’s room to listen to the conversation, but Hamlet detects movement as he upbraids his mother. He stabs the concealing tapestry and so kills the old man. The ghost reappears, warning his son not to delay revenge, nor to upset his mother.

As the army of Norway’s King Fortinbras crosses Denmark to attack Poland, Hamlet is sent to England, ostensibly as an ambassador, but he discovers Claudius’s plan to have him killed. Outwitting this plot Hamlet returns alone, sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths in his stead. During Hamlet’s absence Ophelia goes mad as a result of her father’s death and she is drowned.

Hamlet returns and meets Horatio in the graveyard. With the arrival of Ophelia’s funeral Hamlet confronts Laertes who, after attempting a revolt against Claudius, has taken his father’s place at the court. A duel is arranged between Hamlet and Laertes at which Claudius has plotted for Hamlet to die either on a poisoned rapier, or from poisoned wine. The plans go wrong and both Laertes and Hamlet are wounded, while Gertrude unwittingly drinks from the poisoned cup. Hamlet, in his death throes, kills Claudius, and Horatio is left to explain the truth to the new king, Fortinbras, who returns, victorious, from the Polish wars.

CONTRASTING




















This is one of many contrasting monologues I looked at and stood out to me because it is definitely a challenge for me, it isn't in my age range or does it suit my usual style of acting. However with this monologue I felt I could impress my tutors and show the what I am capable of.
With this monologue I decided to trim it down dramatically as I was beginning to run out of time, eventually coming to the conclusion of using the second half of the speech and completely cutting the first half.

SYNOPSIS:

Preparation

For our final audition piece that will be graded we have been asked to research different contemporary and classical monologues, this has lead to my bank of speeches slowly increasing.

This monologue is one I would use because it has a powerful story to it, I felt when practicing with the speech there was a lot I could do with it. However overall I don't feel like it suited me perfectly.

This monologue is from a characterless play, with no specific gender roles meaning anyone can use these effectively. I like this speech because it's imaginative and can easily captivate an audience, however I feel with my varied search of monologues I can find something to suit me even more so.

This monologue is about a girl reviewing a version of A Midsummers' Night Dream she saw, I don't think I will use this because it's quite young and wouldn't show my acting ability.

These Shakespeare monologues below were all given to me by Olgar, I decided to take all of the options she gave to add to my research. After reading this speech out loud I don't think I would use this one because I didn't feel an instant connection with the words, I wanted to explore further.

This speech is my favourite out of the monologues I have researched, it is powerful and relevant to the present day. After reading it I felt it suited my voice and style of acting. The only downfall of this piece is that it is slightly too short in duration.

This monologue from Debris is a definite yes for me, I read it in front of my class and Olgar and my classmates loved it. They said they thought it suited my voice and this has given me even more drive to learn and to execute this speech well.

(This is the second part to the Debris monologue above)

Children's books

In this lesson we were all given childrens' books, and told to go into our own spaces and read them to ourselves. After we had gone through them on our own, a few of us performed them to the group. The person reading would be on a chair and the rest of us were seated on the floor in front as if it was reading time a primary school. Surprisingly everyone felt really comfortable when reading, there weren't any mistakes in the sentences and the audience were very supportive of the person reading.

When I read my book 'The Fish Who Could Wish' I was very comfortable, I read slowly and my voice was animated, I faced the book towards my audience so as I was speaking they could see the pictures as I said the words. This increases the level of concentration within the young audience, and I know if I felt this relaxed and confident as I did when reading this book as I do in auditions I could go far.

Introduction

This unit tests our ability to analyse a monologue correctly, find a speech that suits us personally and have confidence when performing them to be graded.
We've started this chapter being lead by Olgar, she picked a handful of monologues both male and female, and asked us to choose one we wanted this way Olgar could overlook our choice, showing whether we know our strengths.

I chose a monologue from 'Death of a Salesman' written by Arthur Miller; the character of Linda. This monologue was all about passion and anger, she was trying to preach a message to her sons by asking rhetorical questions and stating clear facts. When I performed this to the rest of my class, I was confident and paced myself. I didn't stumble on any sentences which was my biggest worry when site reading. Olgar said when I performed by monologue I fade at the end of my sentences which is a really bad habit to get into as it is something casting directors and even audience members pick up on. I have definitely learnt some small details about a smooth delivery from this lesson.


This lesson consisted of monologues and exercises to bring them to life. For example Metin performed a monologue which was supposed to intrigue the audience and make them want to know more, however Olgar felt his interpretation wasn't quite right so Metin was asked to stand when delivering his speech and move around the room, as the audience we were told that when we felt interested and genuinely intrigued we could follow Metin around. This helped him really imagine what he was saying and his monologue turned out at a really high standard.
We also did an exercise for Jovan; his monologue was meant to be intimidating and had the ability to put the audience on edge. So instead of him just standing delivering his speech, Olgar asked Jovan to sit on top of a brick wall which was high off the ground, we were below him and it really made a difference. The height he was at was scary and his menacing attitude added to the piece.