Monday, May 8th:
Your "Self-Reflection" on your monologue is due today. Please submit it to jkatbridge2004@gmail.com
Today we will begin writing a monologue which we will perform on Friday, May 12th.
Tuesday, May 9th:
Please remember to turn in your self-reflection on your
monologue. It was due on Monday, May 8
th. Please submit to
jkatbridge2004@gmail.com by tonight.
Today we are going to begin working on creating a character.
Imagine a person.
What does this person look like?
What gender is this person?
How old is this person?
What ethnicity is this person?
What kind of clothes is this person wearing?
If you want, you can draw a picture of this person.
What is the background of this person?
What is the socio-economic status of this person?
If the person is a kid, what do his parents do?
If the person is an adult, what does he or she do?
Did the person go to school? Or is the person currently
going to school?
Describe the person’s personality.
Is the person shy and quiet? Or is he or she outgoing and
extroverted?
Or is the person sometimes shy and sometimes outgoing?
Is the person intuitive and emotional or is she/he more
intellectual?
What is the person’s philosophy?
There is always another day.
Tomorrow is not a given – so live your life as if it were
your last.
Treat the people you love well because you don’t know what
can happen.
Treat others well because you don’t know what burden others
may be carrying.
It’s a dog eat dog world.
Every man for himself.
You don’t need friends when you have fingers.
What is the major issue this person is going through?
How did this situation arise?
How does he or she want this issue to be resolved?
What does he/she want?
Where is your character? Describe the environment your
character is in.
Who is your character talking to?
The monologue should be about twenty lines.
Example:
What is your character doing at the beginning?
The character is on the phone talking to another CEO about a
proposed merger between their companies.
Raven Roth is on the phone:
Raven: “That is an excellent proposal about our two companies
merging.”
Suddenly an older man appears in the door way. It is her
father whom she has not seen since she was eight. Raven immediately.
Raven: Could we talk about this later. I have an incoming
phone call from Tokyo which I have to take. Thanks! Talk to you later.”
Raven: “Who let you in?”
People who shared their monologues:
Hannah, Briana, Brana
Wednesday, May 10th:
Timothy Landfield visited today for the summer workshop at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Interested Students in the summer workshop at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts:
Nathan, Hannah, Anthony, Malia, Briana, Kimberly, Emily, Verena, Brana, Jennifer, Latija,
Jack worked with Anthony on his self-written monologue.
Students worked quietly on their monologues.
Thursday, May 11th:
Visualize your character and ask him/her a question. What does the character say?
Share your scene with a partner.
Following students read their scenes:
Briana: Fabulously wealthy and successful CEO in her
penthouse New York office, confronted by her father who abandoned her and her
mother seventeen years ago.
Anthony: In a New York alley. Just left a journalism class
and stepped into the alley where he is confronted by a friend who pulls a gun
on him. He gets the gun away and
kills his friend.
Malia: Writing a love letter to the most popular boy at
school, but ends with a twist.
Hannah: At an AA meeting, but her addiction is pregnancy.
Friday, May 12th:
Further readings of self-written monologues:
Nathan: creepy guy living in the basement of an apartment building with his dead girlfriend.
Onyx: spoiled rich girl annoyed at her parents for not buying her another car - she already has four!
Rachel: at cemetery speaking to her father's grave, telling him how the family is doing - her sister got married, etc. But mom is not doing well at all. Father died by a drunk driver; mother is now sick with anxiety that her children might die suddenly and tragically.
Lesly - declined. Said not ready.
Kimberly: 21 year old woman who is working night shift at a mall. People have said girls can't work as a night guard, but she is out to prove them wrong. However, it's 3 a.m. and it's creepy in the mall late at night.
Double points:
Danny: Telling his friend about his deeply troubled seventeen year old sister who is out of control and violent. He is very angry with her.
Verena: Father was the major weapons expert in the world. He refused to build the ultimate killing machine and he and his family were killed by the commander for his refusal. Only Verena survived. She is now a soldier and is talking to another soldier about how her family's death have affected her.
No school today! 
