In-class writing about dramatic monologue

The character of whom I am performing the monologue of is a serial killer. What she is speaking is her backstory as to why she turned out to be the way she is, and in some way it is a reflection of "how did I get here". It is a personal thought process that I believe is internal. I think that blocking is done in a sort of tired, drawn out, disappointed manner. The backstory starts out hopeful but in a more melancholy way, as though this was a wonderful dream, however it didn't work out for her and that is the source behind her wrongdoings. In a way she is almost angered at the past for setting her up into the position she is in where she is so mentally disturbed that she turns to murder. I believe that the setting and blocking especially effect each other in this monologue. The setting is her disturbed and unsettled mind expressing itself, most likely hidden behind some alleyway which can be portrayed through her physical instability with body language that makes her seem self conscious, guilt ridden, or even sociopathic. This monologue is so dark and unsettling in its progression that I will definitely be challenged in its delivery.

My Dramatic Monologue

Here is the script to the dramatic monologue I am doing. It is from the movie Monster.

I always wanted to be in the movies. When I was little, I thought for sure, one day, I could be a big star. Or maybe just beautiful. Beautiful and rich like the women on TV. Yeah, I had a lot of dreams. And I guess you could call me a real romantic because I truly believed that one day, they'd come true. So I dreamed about it for hours. As the years went by, I learned to stop sharin' this with people. They said I was dreaming, but back then I believed it wholeheartedly. So whenever I was down, Iwould just escape into my mind, to my other life, where I was someone else. It made me happy to think that all these people just didn't know who I was gonna be. But one day, they'd all see. [...] Yeah. I lived that way for a long, long time. In my head, dreaming like that. It was nice. And one day. it just stopped.

Who am I? Read here to find out!

The “Who am I?” Monologue was definitely one of the more challenging monologues I have done; not just in delivery, but in creation as well. It was a very internal searching monologue and my writing style tends to veer on the side of factual, which posed as a challenge in writing this monologue. When originally doing a read-over of the monologues in class, it was evident from what my peers had presented that I had misinterpreted the assignment… oops. Once I focused in and organized my thoughts on one subject matter, my future goals, it was much better, as well as easier to memorize.

            As far as the performance, I think the final product ended up turning out pretty well. What is not evident in the final video, however, is the 7 other takes that happened prior where I tripped up on the same exact line over and over again. There was a bit of struggle memorizing, and I think that at certain points my pacing was awkward along with my hand movements.

            Though it took many takes, I am very proud of my final product monologue…it’s my best work so far! But on a serious note, I think from the beginning of my takes I was able to use a lot of crazy and wild facial expressions through this monologue that helped to give a presence to the words that I was saying.  I also think that, after watching and seeing how everything works together, I did a decent job annunciation and pronouncing words.

            In my next monologue, I think I will definitely be challenged due to the different type of acting it stems from. My next monologue is somewhat the backstory and thought process of a serial killer. This is much darker than anything I have ever done, and being that my past monologue had a more comedic and sarcastic undertone I am very excited to see what I can do on the opposite spectrum of what I have always done into something so extremely foreign to me.

            My peers definitely were the biggest influence in my monologue, from their advice to learning from how absolutely amazing they all preformed, I am definitely so comfortable in the atmosphere they provide, which makes it easier to improve and learn from my mistakes. Before my final take on my monologue performance, I was clearly getting frustrated with how long it was taking me. Everyone was so supportive and gave amazing advice that I truly believe I will be able to use for the remainder of my acting career. The acting ability of everyone I am taking this class with is so unfathomable; they can truly make you picture how they felt wearing their sensible white knock-off Keds or their true pride for their nationality. It is so nice to be surrounded by people striving to do their best in this class and I have found that it certainly pushes me to do better.

Here is the link to the final take of my “Who am I” monologue… I hope you enjoy!

http://youtu.be/fJNz1VDcUq4

Blog Post #2

Some important elements of acting we have reviewed  so far are stage positions and body language, projection, articulation, and vocal emotion.  Stage position is important for voice position as well as minimizing confusion as to what is occurring in the scene. There is a stage right, left, up, center, and down. all of these are very important for movement in a production in order to convey the proper story.Projection is important, and goes hand in hand with articulation simply because if an audience cant understand or hear what you're saying, then the performance would have no impact on them.Vocal pitch is very important to acting because it gives depth and emotion to a piece. Vocal pitch is the increase and decrease in pitch in voice. This can help to display emotion in a piece. 
Three of my goals for this current semester are to be able to improve my writing personally instead of just factually, improve my memorization ability, and overall just improve as an actor. In this class I can work on this by writing and doing the blog post assignments, as well as working to memorize monologues and other pieces of work. Another way in which I am able to work on this is by becoming more open to constructive criticism and learning from my fellow classmates. 
In this class I hope to work on improvisation because I fell as an actor it is very important to understand the scene you are working with as well as be able to think right off the top of your head in case a cue goes wrong or something to that effect. Another element that I hope to work on is  a serious mindset for a character. I find it very easy to portray a silly, comedic character because that is what suits to my personality, however I feel it would be a good challenge to attempt to portray a more serious persona in acting. The final thing I would like to work on is body movement in actin because I feel as though when I am speaking, say, a monologue I never know how to move and what to do with my hands without feeling awkward, so I hope to be able to figure that out.

Blog #1 About Me

     My name is Alexis Shanok.  I am a member of the Cheshire Academy community and a varsity player for the field hockey and softball team in this community, and hope to continue with one of these two sports into college. I have one younger sister named Jordan who is also a softball player except outside of the Cheshire Academy community. Other than that, my mother, sister, and I all participate in karate and have all achieved the rank of black belt.  I am also an honor roll student who hopes to one day be involved in the medical industry. I also play the guitar as well as sing. One thing I enjoy doing is traveling. Over this past summer I took a trip to Costa Rica for three weeks and was fortunate enough to see many of the different regions and climate zones.  As an actress, I have never participated in any large productions unless you count the Norton Elementary School production of Jack and the Beanstalk in which I was the bean seller, and had my own solo and all that.

 I hope to broaden my skills through this course and prepare myself for the winter musical at the Academy.  As a thinker I tend to group myself as a STEM centered thinker; I like to base my knowledge on facts, which is one of the reasons that I find the portion of acting that is showing emotion so challenging. Memorizing lines is an exact science because you can be told exactly what to say and when to say it (your cues), however showing emotion in a scripted manner is very challenging to me because it is entirely the interpretation of the performer, and depending on how the emotion is portrayed, an actor could evoke many different emotions from their audience.

Some more interesting things about me are that I compete for the Karate that I do and I have won first and third place at a worldwide championship for my age division. I also plan on playing college level athletics. Over this past summer I was very fortunate enough to spend three weeks in Costa Rica with many friends, both old and new. In my free time I enjoy reading, playing guitar, listening to music, and practicing my sports.  My favorite quote is “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work” by Tim Notke. My favorite color is maroon, and my favorite food is sushi. Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence, and Emma Watson are all tied for my favorite celebrity at the moment. My favorite book is The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder. A few songs I am currently listening to constantly are New Americana by Halsey and To the Hills by Laurel.  I am actually ambidextrous, a skill which I acquired the summer after third grade when I broke my right wrist and had to learn to compensate by writing with my left hand.

I am very excited for this upcoming semester in Ms. Guarino’s acting class, and hope it is a fantastic year!