The Monologue

Over the coarse of a week working with the monologues I've learned a lot about how to control and portray emotion. The monologue I was given was about a kid named Nick who was upset how his dad's work is taking up all of his time and that his dad is missing out on events like soccer games and more because of his job. At first I found the monologue corny and kind of stupid in the way it was written. Because of this it was hard to take the monologue seriously. Which meant that it was difficult to portray emotion correctly. So not surprisingly the first draft wasn't so great. The first draft I couldn't stop laughing because I couldn't take the script seriously. But after a few days of practicing, blocking and memorizing, it became easier to read without bursting out laughing. The hardest thing was doing the performance in front of everyone because it was kind of embarrassing to do it front of friends and it wasn't hard to look over and see them holding in laughter. However some tips I used is to walk around so you aren't in the same position the whole time. Another is to look up or out to avoid looking directly at someone and another is to think about something that matches the emotion you are portraying. For example, I was trying to portray the look and feel of annoyance so I thought of ways and things people tend to do that seriously annoys me. Put yourself in the character and try your hardest to try to make it seem like you are in the same situation that the person you are playing is in. Take a deep breath before starting and in between the monologue. In the end the final draft was a big improvement from the first time performing it. While still could use some improvement it definitely helps me better understand acting