MONOLOGUES 101

How to choose a monologue

Most auditors will want you to perform two monologues, of contrasting character, for a total of two to four minutes. Choose monologues from characters that are closest to your experiences and age. Do not choose a monologue with violent behavior patterns and vulgarity. The auditors do not want to hear or see such a monologue. Show them talent, not a violent temper tantrum. Use your own judgement when it comes to content of a monologue. Would you like to sit in their place and watch you perform this monologue?Contrasting monologuesWhat are contrasting monologues? Two completely different characters from two different plays and play genres. One classical and one modern piece is the norm. Make one a comedy and the other dramatic. One character may be slightly psychotic (if that fits your personality...) and the other character may be a complete Mamma's Boy. One character may be a love-struck fool, the other a hacker nerd who let loose a devious computer virus. Contrast is day and night. Not shades of gray.

Timing is everything

Keeping your monologues under the time limit is the way to go. If you run over, you will be stopped. They will not let you continue past the time period stated. Do not abuse this. To be honest, if you can give them great stuff in less time, the better. You do not have to use your full four minutes (or whatever) for your monologues. They will appreciate your brevity. Trust me on that one.

Avoid "telling a story"

Try to choose a piece of the monologue where you are speaking to someone actively, but with little to no interruption from the other character. Try to avoid "telling a story". There are a hundred and one monologues where the character is telling a story of what happened to them at a party, or on a hunting trip, or on the subway... you get the picture. Or worse, they are telling a story about what happened to someone else! Don't do it. It is boring. You want your character to be active, not sitting and telling a boring story (out of context) to some other character who is also probably bored. My advice: Stay away from them. Make sure that it is a monologue that you like. Nothing like going into an audition with material that you are uncomfortable performing. This is your audition. Choose your monologues well.

Practice..please!

I cannot emphasize this point enough: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! Sorry for shouting there, but I had to drill that in. The more comfortable you are performing your pieces, the better. When you walk into that audition you must be ready to go at the drop of a hat. Forgetting your lines is bad, very bad. Practice.

Wanna know a secret?

The best monologue you could ever choose for yourself is from the play or plays in which you have just recently performed. Hunh? Didn't think of that one, did you. If you happen to have been in a play or are currently in one, why not use a monologue from the character you are portraying? You've been working on it for weeks, performing in front of a live audience, use it! All the work has been done already, just get up and "perform" your snippet for the auditors. Also, put that monologue in your repertoir to pull out at a later date.

Be friendly and personable.Walk into the room with confidence. Introduce yourself. If they ask questions before you begin smile, relax and answer them. Take your time. Present yourself well. This is your time and your audition. They want you to do well!

How to prepare a monologue:

Step1

Read the entire play from which your monologue comes, several times.

Step2

Memorize the monologue thoroughly.

Step3

Break down the character. What does the character in the monologue want? How will the character get it?

Step4

Make sure you are communicating. Imagine the person you're speaking to in the monologue, and keep them in your mind's eye. Imagine their reactions, and see the other person in the piece. Remember, monologues are really dialogues in which the other person doesn't speak.

Step5

Practice performing the monologue first to an inanimate object. Then perform it for a trusted professional, such as a fellow actor or an acting coach, and get feedback.

Step6

Try performing the monologue in several different ways. Be prepared to perform it more than one way at the audition.

Step7

Time yourself and make sure the monologue fits the length acceptable for the audition (usually one to three minutes).

EVOLUTION THEATRE BECOMES NEWEST RESIDENT ARTS GROUP FOR CAPA

"to rival ..... as the most promising new troupe." Michael Grossberg, Columbus Dispatch, Sunday, December 28, 2008

The Evolution Theatre Company (ETC) has joined the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) as a resident arts group. As such, future ETC productions will be presented in CAPA theatres beginning with the 2009-10 season opener, The Agony and the Agony. The Ohio premiere of Nicky Silver’s dark comedy about life in the theatre will appear in Studio One of the Riffe Center Theatre Complex September 30 – October 17.

For more information about the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts, visit http://www.capa.com/

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS AND CLASSES

Acting for TV Commercials
Introduction to Acting for the Camera
Sunday September 27, 2009 1:00pm -8:00pm $200

Learn how to audition for and break into the local commercial and industrial industry. You will learn how to make the first contact with the agents. By taking this class you have the opportunity to show the agents that you are serious about pursuing this type of work. This workshop will give you experience with the actual audition process. You'll work on-camera all day doing both prepared and cold readings, and receive plenty of feedback from instructor Richard Mason.

Acting for Film Eight-Week Scene Study

Acting Fundamentals for beginners

Wednesdays, beginning September 16, 2009 7:00pm-9:30pm $200

This class is limited to 12 students. As of September 14, 2009 there are only four (4) slots available.

This class offers a focused introduction to the acting process. Beginning actors work, stage, and shoot several film scenes during the eight-week session. We work in depth on concepts central to the actor's role development for film. We use Shurtleff's 12 Guideposts as our basic text to help students make strong choices with a wide variety of scenes and monologues. Your ability to make active, personal choices is essential for dynamic auditions and performances for stage and film.

Advanced Acting for Film

Tuesdays beginning September 15, 2009 7:00pm-9:30pm $200

This class is limited to 12 students. As of September 14, 2009 there is only one (1) slot available.

Here is your opportunity to take on more challenging scenes. To work with people who are serious about the work. This is an on-going, eight-week course designed to stretch your skills. Actors work, stage, and shoot several film scenes during the eight-week session. Scripts from soaps, sitcoms, dramatic TV and film are used. This is an on-going on-camera scene class. Actors receive a new scene each week to be prepared but not rehearsed in order to most closely reproduce the working situation in TV and Film. Intermediate and Advanced level actors - Audition May be Required.

Your final scenes will be screened for area Agents and Casting Directors.

STUDENT UPDATE: Joe Jankowski has the Lead role in Emerald CIty Players upcoming production of ON GOLDEN POND

Photo: Joe Jankowski

On Golden Pond By Ernest Thompson - Directed by Tina Gleason. Performances: October 9 – October 24, 2009. Go to: http://www.emeraldcityplayers.com/Current%20Season.htm for more information

ON GOLDEN POND is the love story of Ethel and Norman Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the forty-eighth year. He is a retired professor, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations and a failing memory—but still as tart-tongued, observant and eager for life as ever. Ethel, ten years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in all the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-aged daughter and her dentist fiancé, who then go off to Europe, leaving his teenage son behind for the summer. The boy quickly becomes the "grandchild" the elderly couple have longed for, and as Norman revels in taking his ward fishing and thrusting good books at him, he also learns some lessons about modern teenage awareness—and slang—in return. In the end, as the summer wanes, so does their brief idyll, and in the final, deeply moving moments of the play, Norman and Ethel are brought even closer together by the incidence of a mild heart attack. Time, they know, is now against them, but the years have been good and, perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.

STUDENT UPDATE: James Dreussi's PENN STATE COMMERCIAL

James Dreussi is currently appearing in a PENN STATE UNIVERSITY Commercial

STUDENT UPDATE: Chris Panzera's KENTUCKY LOTTERY Commercial

Chris Panzera is currently appearing in a KENTUCKY LOTTERY COMMERCIAL

STUDENT UPDATE: Brian Elles' STATE AUTO COMMERCIAL

Brian Elles is currently appearing in an STATE AUTO INSURANCE Commercial

CRAFT NOTES by ED HOOKS

Confidence and Hilary Clinton

An actress in my Chicago scene study workshop recently presented a contemporary dramatic monologue. I generally presume that monologue presentation in class is primarily being sharpened for audition situations. In this particular case, the actress was giving a reasonable interpretation of the material, but it was clear to me that no matter how extensive her research on the role might be, she would probably not be cast if she used that monologue at a real world audition. The problem was not in the script, but in the performer's lack of confidence. As unlikely as it sounds, it is entirely possible for an actor to hide on stage, to send out the message, "I am not ready for this. Do not look at me." It is a conflicting signal to auditors because, by virtue of the fact that the actor is on the stage, the implicit message is "Look at me."

I am going to tell you something very important - and possibly surprising - right now. If you do not think you should get the job, neither will the people who are interviewing or auditioning you. Success and failure are self-fulfilling prophecies. Everybody wants a winner. Success breeds success. An unassertive actor makes auditors nervous.

The thing is, no amount of acting lessons can correct the problem of self-doubt. Stanislavsky himself could not have fixed it. Confidence in oneself is what an actor brings to the party in the first place. Confidence is the base upon which an actor's craft and art must be erected. This is such a crucially important characteristic that confidence alone can sometimes carry the day. I have seen some woefully un-talented people making big money in Hollywood simply because they suffer under the delusion that they are wonderful. If you arrive on the scene believing that everybody is going to be happy to see you, they likely will. Talent is definitely essential if you are going to enjoy a long professional career. However, a talented actor who does not feel confident standing in the spotlight, is in for a world of frustration.

Back to that actress in the workshop. Rather than talk with her about character analysis and such, I asked her to try an unusual exercise for me. "Please present the monologue again, this time as Hilary Clinton would do it." Sounds like an odd adjustment, doesn't it? Well, let me tell you that the actress was utterly transformed when she took it. She may personally lack self-confidence at the moment, but Hilary does not. In presenting the monologue as she thinks Hilary would do it, she was actually doing it as if she had confidence. As Hilary, she was projecting the dynamic of a winner, and I feel confident she would get into callbacks using that approach. In time, and with some success, she will undoubtedly develop her own self-confidence. Until then she's probably better off channeling Hilary.

One of my many psychiatrists (Stop laughing. All good actors have spent time on the couch...) asked me during a session if I could imagine how things would be if I didn't have the psychological issue of the moment. "Can you imagine how you would feel getting up in the morning if you didn't have this problem?" I thought about it for a while and then smiled in recognition of the feeling. "Have you got it?" he asked. "Yeah. Got it." "How does it feel?" "Marvelous!" "Good. Start acting like that.

BOOK OF THE MONTH

The Actor's Encyclopedia of Casting Directors: Conversations with Over 100 Casting Directors on How to Get the Job by Karen Kondazian

The Actor's Encyclopedia of Casting Directors. It's a highly practical, intelligently written work that will be an asset to any working actor or newcomer who hopes to find work. The information dispensed in the Q&A format will help you prepare for any auditon whether it be for the particular casting director profiled or someone else you may be reading for. - Thomas Mills - Senior Columnist, Backstage