About Two Monologues I Did This Week
The two monologues I did this week were very different from each other. One was from my own writing, and one was from the play "Fences". Although both of them require me to show emotions, the monologue picked from “Fences” needed me to work on more character adaptation.
Talking about monologue “A Barbershop Venture” that I wrote first, the monologue is based on my story, and I am the part of the story, I, therefore, might pay less attention to build a character. However, the character here should have a sense of humor, simply saying, a funny guy (while Aaron is not). Besides the story itself, the humor quality of the character could be achieved by interesting languages, exaggerated facial expressions, and thoughtful pauses. Probably I did ok with the facial expressions, however, considering criteria I did not do well, memorizing lines will help me improve the character in the monologue.
In term of emotion, Aaron (the character) should feel embarrassed. More specifically, in a stage between laughing at himself and feeling angry about the barber’s taste. I might act out unconsciously since my name is Aaron, but the paper in my hand blocked most of the acting and emotions. I learned that to achieve expressing emotions or stirring audience’s emotions, having lines memorized is required.
In the monologue adapted from “Fences”, character Gabriel is a disabled man. He has mental problem due to the injury in the warfare. The monologue is divided into two phrases. The first part is about the life Gabriel spent in “heaven”, the second part is him telling Troy that Troy can go to the heaven. The character of Gabriel is linked to the emotion. I have a brother who has the same problem as Gabriel, who acts nervously in responding the environment. Thus the first time I tried to add nervousness into the character and the emotion in the first phrase. It worked well, but the problem is it became pure nervousness. After adapted others’ advice, I tried to add childish into the character by showing more dramatic contrasts of emotions and more body moments. I did not do well on this part; it even weakened the affection toward the audience as a whole. How to act this character is still confusing me; it might relate to the phenomenon that I will mention later in this reflection.
In the second part of the Gabriel’s monologue, I added the quality of “secret teller” to the character. I also tried to added the excitement into the phrase. The excitement just like a child who comes up with a valuable idea and cannot wait to tell to others. I was thinking about the concept, but still, having a hard time to deliver it. I think this is something that I can overcome eventually by doing more practice.
Among all the monologues we did on Monday, I like Stella and Maddie’s monologue the best. I think it was amazing for Stella to use background music during her performance, it enriched the feeling and stimulated a sense of nostalgia. Maddie’s monologue had a different highlight, her immersion of the character led us into the story smoothly. Additionally, the slow motion made a strong imprint in our brains.
I also like all the monologues in “Fences” except mine. Cassidy’s version of Troy drove me crazy. The mix of anger, frustration, and a little bit of fear made Troy become a living flesh in front of me. Her almost aggression even scared me. On the other hand, Yun’s strategy of not getting nervous worked: avoiding eye contact with the audience. He was thus able to reveal the Troy’s “Big”.
Another interesting thing I found is, when you practice too much, the feelings and the emotions will fade away. After practicing, you may be better at delivering lines, but somehow get more tolerant to the feelings that you should deliver to the audience, meaning you are getting harder to trigger and act out your emotion during the performance. I came out a possible solution but have not yet put in practice, that is, find other sources in your life to trigger the emotions. These sources should be events that could trigger strong emotions that suit for the use of the performance. The sources should also be the ones you are not tolerated or board yet. I will try to practice in this way and see if the method is helpful for me.
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