CHAPTER 29

Session Nineteen

In this session: • Achieving your intention • Loving your words • Adding a monologue partner • Blocking suggestions • Actor reactions to partners • Rhetorical questions • Prepare for performance

Coach: Thanks for all the sonnets that are stacked up here. I’ll go through your analyses and return them to you next time. Today we’re going to do our monologues and enjoy it, by God! That’s like “Try to relax,” isn’t it? But seriously, I want you to work on shaking it loose, on not letting nerves make you tight, on not evaluating yourself while you work. Think only about achieving your intention by using Shakespeare’s words. We could change the words, couldn’t we? We could rewrite the speech so that the character would speak only realism, and then everyone would have an easier job of it. But that misses the point, doesn’t it?

These are magnificent words, and you’ve learned how to speak them. Now it’s time for the character to speak them. I encourage you to find an appreciation for the opportunity to speak them. You probably won’t get many Shakespeare productions in your careers, but that shouldn’t stop you from loving the words. You probably won’t play Emily Dickinson either, unless you do The Belle of Amherst, but that shouldn’t stop you from loving her words.

Play with your words, use them, don’t let them use you. Take any chances and any liberties you feel like—treat this like a rehearsal and experiment without fear. Who’s first?

Maggie does the first monologue, then I add a second actor, giving Helena a Hermia to talk to—rather than, for example, focusing on a spot on the back wall. Before proceeding, we add second actors to all of the monologues except the Lady Macbeth soliloquy; in this case, we decide the audience can be the listener—as Shakespeare probably intended. Partners added include a Desdemona for Othello, a brother for Isabella, an Olivia for Viola, a king for Prince Hal, a Hermia for Helena, a friend and confidant for Julia (and actors to play the wind and blow about the torn pieces of the letter), two wives for Katherine, and a king for Margaret. Using a partner, Maggie now does her monologue again, and it becomes more specific and takes on more solid emotional involvement. Everyone sees the value of the partner.

Coach: I always like to add partners so that you can connect with someone and work off his reactions. And you people playing the partner, don’t stand like a stick—you can react and you can move, even if seated, by turning, etc. Do what the words require you to do. Of course, in most auditions, but not all, you just get up and do your piece or read from the script. But some directors will pair you up, when the union allows it, and now you see that that can add to or detract from your work. Partners can sometimes upstage. But for workshop rehearsing I like using the partner. Of course, when we expand the monologue to the scene, a second or third character is already there.

(We run the other monologues and discuss each one, preparing to run them again. I make more blocking suggestions for the second run.)

Notice some common notes: Finding and using important and useful words is still incomplete for some of you; if you’re stiff, you know it; if you can’t stop judging yourself while acting, you know it. Tell yourself to shut up—let the character talk.

Kristin: When I’m the partner, I hear things I didn’t hear before—when I was just sitting out here and listening.

Coach: Yes, you’re more involved, aren’t you? And you want to speak. When there is time, I enjoy allowing the partner to speak—say anything you like that’s an honest response to what the speaker has said. It rattles the speaker, but it also makes him hear and not be rhetorical. The speaker can’t help but see how the listener responds, and must respond in turn, using only the set words. It’s a frustrating but fun exercise. It’s especially good if someone is becoming extremely rhetorical. What do I mean by that?

Amber: He doesn’t expect a response?

Coach: Yes. A rhetorical question is posed but is not meant to get a response. Not much for duet acting scenes, is it? But you can break the habit by allowing the partner to respond. The speaker gets a response, whether or not he wants one.

Maybe we’ll have time to try one exercise where the partner is allowed to speak. There are so many things we need time for!

Bride: I like the monologues better when there’s a partner. People seem to be connecting rather than just presenting. Not that they were “performing” in the negative sense, but with a partner we don’t seem to be talking to the air or, like you said, some spot on the back wall, or even speaking to an imagined listener. I was taught in acting classes to do that.

Amber: What do I do when my voice goes back up and I can’t keep it down?

Coach: Short of practice, practice, practice? More voice work with a good leader. It also might help you to get your voice established where you want it before you walk onstage. Stay in the wings and establish your voice. Something else that is often useful: Select a few checkpoints in your work, like a line of only one word, or a special word or line. Train yourself to speak that word or line at a certain pitch, one that pulls you down in case you’ve gone up. A barometer, so to speak—a checkpoint. Good work today. Next time, our last, we’ll have some friends in to hear you.