Monologue Script:
Hey Emma, it’s so good to see you. I hope you enjoyed your time in LA. How long was that flight? [PAUSE FOR ANSWER] 5 and half hours? Not too bad considering you flew from South Carolina to California. I’ve had a nice weekend with Austin and Charlotte, but I could use a real vacation. I’m so caught up on my work. [PICK UP FOLDER] This case that I am working on is probably one of the hardest I’ve ever dealt with. PAUSE I am defending a man that I am honestly having a hard time believing is innocent, and that makes defending him so much harder. He is accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. There is some evidence out there that if the prosecution team gets a hold of, I’m screwed. Scratch that. My entire family is screwed. Guess who the lawyer is for the prosecution team? [Pause for answer]. No, not Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. It’s Jane Smith. Yes, that Jane Smith, my rival ever since I was back at Yale. Her husband is running against Austin for Senate and if she gets ahold of that evidence, she can use it to manipulate the court AND the image of my family for me defending the man. I am at the point where I am going to tell my client to find a new lawyer, but I can’t let Jane think I’m giving up on a case because I’m up against her. She’s a good lawyer with some real brains, but she’ll never be as good as me. If I go through with this case, I’ll have some serious studying to do. I need to find him an alibi. Someone needs to be able to truthfully say that they were with him or saw from 12:45 to 3 am on August 18th, 2020. I have a few people who said that they saw him at a campground, but I’m trying to find someone with more concrete evidence. I need to persuade this court that my client is innocent and that is going to be extremely difficult. If you were in my position what would you do? Do I risk it all to beat Jane in this case? [PAUSE] Yes, I understand that it is hard to put yourself in my position, but I need some serious advice. Please, let’s just go down to the beach so we can think about it…
Final Reflection Questions:
1. This semester, you worked on two scenes and created a monologue. What surprised you? This could be something you thought would be challenging but found yourself comfortable doing OR it can be something you found challenging but made it through.
One thing that really surprised me was the amount of detail that we went into for the given circumstances and the verbs for the performances. I actually found that really challenging at first, but as the semester went on, I was able to better analyze the characters/plots. Another thing that surprised me this semester is how easy I found it to create a character for my monologue. I thought it was going to be so difficult to come up with an entire person, but I was able to do it pretty easily. After spending the whole semester analyzing the given circumstances of characters, I was able to take what I learned and apply it to the creation of my own character.
2. What advice would you give to a student who is just starting their work on an acting scene?
The advice that I would give to a student who is just starting their work on an acting scene is to be confident in yourself. It is very hard to be able to play a character if you are not confident in your abilities. I was not confident in myself at all at the beginning of the semester, but when I began to build confidence in myself, I found that the performances came much easier to me. It is also very important to fully understand a character's given circumstances, their wants, and needs to be able to play their character correctly. The time that I realized how important understanding your character was when I was working on my midterm scene. If I didn't understand what my character wanted from the other character, Doug, I wouldn't have understood that I should be begging him to rebuild their relationship. I also needed to understand her history with Doug so I could know when to back off the begging. Overall, it is extremely important to evaluate the key characteristics of your character before trying to perform as them.
3. Did you complete your Student Evaluation sent via email from Banner? Please do so.
Yes, I completed it.