Part 2: The planning process of your chosen scene: Contrasting

Contrasting: I chose Shona, from “Top Girls”, written by Caryl Churchill.

Within this speech Shona delivers an exaggerated story about her current job, that involves her driving a company Porsche and staying in a variety of hotels on an expense account. This job description is clearly something she has fabricated and so I wanted to deliver it in a kind of flourish. For example when I say "I have a car. I have a Porsche" I would put more emphasis on the "Porsche" as she is attempting to show off her supposed "success". As the speech is an interview I want to do the speech in a chatty, colloquial manner, this is also suggested by the structure of the sentences and how they are all short and there is more often than not repetition in things she says. Perhaps Shona trying to think of how to make her job sound all the more incredible. I want to create an almost snobbish air about Shona as she paints this picture of her glamorous job. As it's an interview I am going to be sat down and I'll sit with a straight black with legs tucked neatly by the chair leg as Shona tries to portray the grace of a twenty-nine year old high-flying women, when in fact she is 21 and inexperienced. Sitting is more difficult when delivering speeches as it limits what you can do with your body and means you have one less element in conveying story and emotions, but I feel it would make less sense to have her standing while being interviewed. To help make up for the lack of space I'll be using during the speech I will use lots of hand movements to help show Shona's larger-than-life character. When describing the types of fridges she sells "Big ones with big freezers. Big freezers" I will use my hands to indicate the "large grandeur" of these fridges as Shona creates more white lies but also to show how everything with her has to be that much larger than what is of he norm. Similar to her restaurant preferences, and I want t portray that as almost condescending at suggesting she would never have anything less than filet steak or smoked salmon. Vocally I am going to work on ensuring that I speak with clear articulation to represent the image of a successful woman. Movement wise I am going to hold a tall posture, keeping my head up and using my hands in an elegant manner to reflect the glamour she has conjured up.  I chose this piece to contrast my contemporary as I felt that Shona is a much more lively character, who is very chatty and friendly. Unlike She she talks about more materialistic things, whereas She is obsessed with how society has shaped her and those around her. Not only do the speeches contrast in terms of material but the voice of the two characters contrast completely, Shona speaks as if speaking to an old friend and pays close attention to articulation whereas She's voice changes dynamics depending on how agitated she gets, ending in a louder and frustrated tone. Movement wise they are also dissimilar, when playing She I have her moving forwards and backwards and pacing slightly as she gets more wound up, whereas Shona is sat on a chair and so her excitement will be portrayed solely through arm movements. The main reason the two are contrasting is that "Death and Dancing" is more of a serious speech, compared to the lightness of "Top Girls". As described through my choices in body and voice exploration of the two characters.

http://youtu.be/BOBHNiy3xw4 This video is of an early run of my speech where I am experimenting with delivery of lines.

Below are annotations I have made during my development of the character and speech:

Synopsis of "Top Girls": Act One begins with Marlene hosting a dinner party in a restaurant to celebrate her promotion to managing director of "Top Girls" employment agency. Her guests are five historical women from the past and they spend the evening talking over one another as they tell stories of their pasts. Act Two and Act Three centre around the women at the Employment Agency. Marlene feels that a woman has more employer prospects when viewed as single as she's less likely to have children. Win and Nell are seen at the agency discussing Marlene's promotion and how Howard Kidd is upset because a woman was considered for the job he considered to be his, due to his gender. Win interviews Louise, who describes the attitudes that are changing around women at work. Howard Kidd's wife enters and describes the morose state of her husband after being overlooked for a promotion, and his wife sides with him saying what happened is wrong as he has a family to support and so needs a job. Nell then interviews Shona, who describes her present job which turns out to be all false. We then learn of the poor life and illegitimate child Marlene left with her sister Joyce to be able to pave herself a successful career. This play examines the role of women in society and what it really means to be a successful woman. 

Part 2: The planning process of your chosen scene: Classical

Classical: I chose Helena, from “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, written by William Shakespeare.

“Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of my favourite Shakespeare plays as I enjoy the chaos that ensures within the forest in the space of one night but no two scenarios ever meet. I was drawn to the character of Helena as she can be portrayed as a sad, lonely girl as well as a frustrated and stubborn. Having studied her speech in Act 3, Scene 2 I decided that I wanted to portray a girl who feels betrayed by a dear friend and appears incredulous as she comes to her own conclusions as to what is occurring. This play is considered to be one of Shakespeare’s most famous comedies and when reading this speech I felt like it was one of the more sobering moment within the play but can still be played up by portraying Helena in a hysterical manner.  I began my research and development process by looking at Helena’s relationship with Hermia. Helena holds grievances against Hermia after Demetrius betrays her by leaving her and falling for the more beautiful Hermia. Within the speech Helena is pleading with Hermia to save their friendship and is left feeling sad and confused at why Hermia would join with men over her. My first step in blocking out this speech was to intention the script and look at how Helena is feeling. This was done simultaneously with voice work to allow me to play with the different emotions she is faced with. There is a lot of emphasis put on words that Helena uses to implicate Hermia in the plans she has created in her mind, “she”, “you” and “I”. When emphasising these words it voices the betrayal and sadness that Helena feels. In the middle section “We, Hermia...crowned with one crest” I wanted to create a pleading tone with my voice to show the lengths that she will go to save their friendship. When developing my movement I thought of how Helena is a young woman of noble status and so I looked to keeping a smart posture and lady-like hand movements. I placed Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius in front of me just above where the audition panel would be sat. Placing them there allowed me to open the speech up and to swivel in my position when I direct specific lines to Hermia. I wanted to use an exclamation when saying “To join with men” as this is Helena’s final point at proving that Hermia has been disloyal to their friendship by joining with men to mock. A method I used when rehearsing recommended to me by my tutor was to do the speeches in different rooms around my house as way to test myself on my lines. By rehearsing in different spaces I was adapt my speech and movements to work efficiently wherever I performed. The feedback I received from AUB was to really look into the emotional and psychological journey that Helena goes on throughout this speech, and how this results in her growing more upset as she concludes one after the another all the things that Hermia has betrayed her on.

My annotates script and mind maps I created during development: 

Synopsis of “Midsummer Night’s Dream”: Shakespeare’s comedy set in Athens and an enchanted forest, where it portrays the adventures of four lovers and a group of amateur actors. Mishap ensues when they interact with woodland fairies and the Duke and Duchess of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. This leads Hermia and Lysander to try and elope into the woods. Demetrius follows them and he is pursued by Helena, whose love is unrequited. Chaos ensues between the lovers as a result of the mischievous Puck. While this occurs a group of amateur actors rehearse a play in the woods and soon lives are changed by the doings of Oberon and Titania.

Here is a video of a rehearsal of my classical speech: http://youtu.be/JR1xy2A4k8Q

Part 2: The planning process of your chosen scene: Contemporary

Contemporary: I chose She, from “Death and Dancing”, written by Claire Dowie.

I was immediately fascinated by this play as the character of She is a bit like a bomb waiting to explode. She’s a strong character, with strong ideas and increasingly swift mood swings. I changed my speech within a week of selecting it as my tutor felt that the speech “There are dark days...” offered more as a monologue than “Okay, go on, push me now...” as my first selection didn’t have many levels, and so there was nowhere for me to take the character. With the new speech I was able to look at the more quiet and fragile side of She and show how that develops into a manic woman. I wanted to perform the speech as if moving through different levels of tension. Starting with neutral and then growing to a more suspenseful/passionate level of tension. Once I had learnt the monologue and started to block it out I began with exploring the voice, the first part of the speech is spoken out to no one specific and I wanted to make it sound like a story and I put emphasis on the “and” to show the cycle that she is describing. I chose to perform the first part of the speech as if she’s feeling a bit lost and holding on to any hope that she can grasp onto. This is dissolves into sarcasm as she paints a picture of how there is always someone to give a helping hand regardless of if they are the kind you need. This then gets taken a step further where she begins to feel belittled by Him and how he can say she’s pathetic just because she’s a female. To show the frustration here I played with louder dynamics to portray this. She is acting ridiculous to show him how ridiculous he is. Comments from my tutor on this piece was how I was stuck to one spot and needed to show more emotion on my face. I began by looking at my movement, I start the piece fidgeting with my hands to create the impression that she is curling in on herself and then gradually opening up as she becomes more confident in what she says. The movements become more farcical as she indicates to the “almighty cock” that He feels give him a holdover She, and so by using arm indications to her lack of cock she is taunting him and his attitudes towards her. Developing movement allowed me to grow more comfortable with the speech and the character and with each rehearsal I was able to really sink into the character, which helped me explore facial expressions. One method was to speak the monologue to a mirror and this allowed me to experiment with sneers and shocked faces at her reactions to He. Another method I used within the process was to write intentions on my script of what she feels at pivotal moments, as well as creating a mind map that explores who She is as a way to help me get into character and understand the motivations that led to this monologue in Act 1. Feedback I received from AUB was to really pinpoint who I’m directing the speech to as it gets lost in my delivery and to really focus in on the intentions of my character as a way to prevent my arms from dropping to my sides consistently.

My annotated script and mind maps I created during development: 

Synopsis of “Death and Dancing”: “She is determined to be anything she wanted to be...” ‘He’ and ‘She’ are caught up in an angry duologue which explores the labels we face in society that constrict everyone – what is/how should a gay/lesbian/straight/man/woman behave? He comes over from America and comes out as gay, he meets She on a night out from his studies at a London University. After a near one night stand a relationship grows and she shows him that you don’t have to be masculine or feminine or wear a costume or a suit. She wears men clothes and encourages him to wear a dress that labels don’t matter. He has always followed the social constricts laid out for him, such as getting a good education and a good job whereas She just wants he to see that social none of that should matter as long as you know what’s important. This story is about two people who go dancing and try to fight the social categories of sexuality that try to pin them down constantly.

Here is a video rehearsal of my monologue: http://youtu.be/vp_9v0yL_f0

Here is the link of my performance of my contemporary: http://youtu.be/6a5qdEjAVBc 

Part 1: Selecting The Right Material

To begin the selection process of choosing material I started by looking at the Performing Arts Library in WGC to get an idea of the kinds of speeches available for me to choose from. For my classical piece I decided to choose a Shakespearean piece as I am familiar with many of his works. Within the information I received about my auditions and from open days it was specified to look for speeches that were my playing age and to perform in my own accent (evidence shown below). With this in mind I looked at Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream” as Violet, Helena and Hermia are all portrayed as young girls and I enjoyed reading both plays. The speech I ended up choosing was Helena’s speech in Act 3, Scene 2 of “Midsummer Night’s Dream” when she addresses Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius believing they have conspired against her. I chose this speech as Helena comes across as almost hysterical within this speech and I thought it would be interesting to try and balance her hysterical behaviour alongside a melancholy at feeling betrayed by one of her oldest friends. I wanted to play the speech with externalised emotionality, meaning that I wanted it to be written in Helena’s facial features and body language as well as voice to show the emotions that she goes through.

I spent more time looking for a contemporary speech as I struggled to find speeches that would meet the criteria of the audition packs I received from institutions. I began by skimming through material to see if any speeches caught my eye and then read the plays.

“Girls Like That”, Evan Placey: This play centres around young females and the difficulties faced with technology. There were a few monologues to choose from but I didn’t feel any interest or connection with the piece and felt that the characters lacked any kind of depth and had no variances within their speeches, meaning I could not push myself.

“Secret Bridesmaids’’ Business”, Elizabeth Coleman: I found this play quite funny and liked the hints of a more serious tone that complimented the humorous moments. Like “Girls Like That” there were several monologues and I considered doing Naomi Bartlett’s one, however on further research I learnt that she is the youngest character at 29 and within her monologue she reminisces about her days at school and I felt that with my playing range being the school years I would be unable to select this monologue.

"Blink", Phil Porter: I first looked at this play as it is narrated wholly by two characters, with stories from their pasta mixed in with present conversations. The plot of them meeting as a result of both losing a parent and then loving one floor from one another intrigued me. However once I got into analysing if there were any good speeches in there I found that the only options were stories that I saw as very visual and found that I was unable to this kind of any ways of turning it into an audition monologue.

"Boys" , Ella Hickson: I came across this play while browsing through a monologue book and found Sophie's monologue in Act 2, Scene 2 an interesting speech where she tries and explains her conflicted emotions about the death of her boyfriend and her feelings for his mate Mack. However, having read the script I felt that I was unable to connect with Sophie or any of the other characters and felt that the speech was filled with unnecessary starts and stutters. I was left feeling bored when reading the speech and decided to give it a miss. I did originally consider this for my contrasting but felt their were similar tones within my contemporary speech.

“Death and Dancing”, Claire Dowie: This script was the first one I came across when I skimmed a page and the female character is comparing men and women standing to take a piss. I was immediately drawn in and found that there were lots of speeches that I could pull together to create a monologue. I found that the character of Max would be a good challenge for me compared to Helena as she goes through a rollercoaster of emotions within the piece and I was really interested in exploring her sudden mood swings and her brashness and openness.

"Top Girls", Caryl Churchill: For my contrasting I wanted something that was going to be more upbeat and light compared to my "Death and Dancing" speech, so I chose "Top Girls" and selected Shona's speech where she is describing her job. "Top Girls" and "Death and Dancing have similar themes in presenting women in a strong and empowering way. I liked Shona's speech or the conversational way it is written and I got the impression she wants to go all out and impress with her job, which of course turns out to be untrue. I thought it would be fun to play with the comic value of the piece.

To prepare for the development process of all my speeches I read the scripts a couple of times to get an overall idea of the story, context, and characters and then created mind maps to explore the character more thoroughly.

These images below are the criteria that the institutions I applied for asked me to meet for my auditions.