My Shakespeare Monologue- Friar Lawrence from Romeo And Juliet

This was taken from http://nfs.sparknotes.com/romeojuliet/page_280.html and this shows my monologue and the modern day meaning.

FRIAR LAWRENCE I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet, And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife. I married them, and their stol'n marriage day Was Tybalt’s doomsday, whose untimely death Banished the new-made bridegroom from the city— For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betrothed and would have married her perforce To County Paris. Then comes she to me, And with wild looks bid me devise some mean To rid her from this second marriage, Or in my cell there would she kill herself. Then gave I her, so tutored by my art, A sleeping potion, which so took effect As I intended, for it wrought on her The form of death.

FRIAR LAWRENCE I will be brief because I'm not going to live long enough to tell a boring story. Romeo, who lies there dead, was the husband of that Juliet. And she, who lies there dead, was that Romeo’s faithful wife. I married them; their secret wedding day was the day Tybalt died. His untimely death caused the bridegroom to be banished from the city. Juliet was sad because Romeo was gone, not because of Tybalt’s death. To cure her sadness, you arranged a marriage for her with Count Paris. Then she came to me, and, looking wild, she asked me to devise a plan to get her out of this second marriage. She threatened to kill herself in my cell if I didn’t help her. So I gave her a sleeping potion that I had mixed with my special skills. It worked as planned. She seemed to everyone to be dead.

Start of Shakespeare Monologue Assessment.

END OF ASSESSMENT.

Evaluation Of Audition

Before the audition, I decided to do numerous exercises to help me relax and warm my vocals, this ranged from breathing exercises, to humming and full body stretches. This helped me calm my nerves and let my body feel more free.

When I walked into the audition room, I was asked to tell the panel about my two monologues. I introduced by saying the names of both plays, the writer who wrote them and when it was set. After this I went into detail about the whole play context and my character fits into this. This was good to use because it showed my understanding of the play and that I have taken time to think about the play. This then nicely lead me on to discussing my characters and their background, I decided to place this bit of information just before I started my monologues because it helped me get into the mindset of that character.

I then proceeded to perform my monologues, the first monologue i performed was Oggy Moxon. Straight from the start I showed clear transition into the character by doing an exaggerated shoulder roll which links to that hard man style which Oggy has. As I performed this monologue, I used a variety of gestures that highlighted key moments and brought out the humour. For example when i was talking about dancing with Mrs Prime. I said that " My hand slipped down her back and felt that arse", to show this, I mimed I was actually dancing with her and grabbing her arse. This links to the persona of Oggy because he doesn't care about who's watching or what he's doing. I kept this hardman persona going throughout and ended the monologue with me miming a cigarette throw straight at the panel so it is given that forward address.

I then went out to start performing my second monologue, Mark, as I was about to start the piece, I took a moment and showed a clear change in costume but undoing all my buttons to get into that changing room environment which the scene is set. Throughout the monologue I kept referring to a specific spot on stage because in this piece I am talking to Barry, my best friend. As well as this, I would also refer to all the people that were around me because I am talking about certain people which are in the room with me. I felt this was effective because it made the scene realistic Nearer the end of the scene, my costume started to get more and more done up because it was linking with that changing room scenario, I finished the piece by saying "Never become a teacher", I didn't do this as Mark, because he is talking about what his dad say's to him so I thought it would be effective to link to that mockery side which a teenager has and mock his father.

After both monologues, I was asked by the panel why I felt these two monologues/characters contrasted. I felt that the characters both contrasted in their attitudes. Even though they are both teenagers, they have two different persona's. Oggy doesn't care about friends he just wants to be top dog of the school and not care, where as Mark wants that attention from people and loves being a joker amongst the group for example when in the changing room making jokes with Barry.

I feel that my performance was successful because I feel that my progression from the start of the assessment to the end was very effective i.e. development of my scenes. The main parts I liked about my monologues was the amount of gestures that I could include within the piece and how much I could bring the humour out more. I felt this was my biggest strength in my piece.
However some aspects of my piece I felt I could of done better on, for example nearer end of my Oggy piece I started to lose the amount of gestures that I was doing and therefore lost a bit of that hardman person of thrusting his weight around. This was similar to my Mark piece where because I was in a changing up, i was limited to the gestures I could do due the fact I was in a realistic scenario.

Overall I feel that my performance was a success due to the fact I showed a good progression from my first performance at the start of the assessment to my end at my audition. I also enjoyed the roles I performed and was fun to be placed in a different character to my own personality.

Improvisation Practice

Because we knew that in our audition we would need to spontaneously improvise with another actor. This scene can be from the play or a completely new scenario which the examiner would give. Therefore in one of our lessons, we decided to split into pairs and start to act out a scene that could possibly come up in the audition. For my improvisation I decided to focus on Oggy Moxon and place my partner as a teacher trying to make me stop smoking. As she came over, I ignore her, however as she continued to hassle me, I turned and walked close up to her face, I made straight eye contact and held this whilst still smoking, as she talked I threatened her by saying " i think you better leave love before you get hurt" then I continued this arrogant persona my blowing the cigarette smoke in her face etc. The scene ended with me leaving whilst throwing the cigarette at her feet.
I felt that this was an effective exercise to do because it helped me explore Oggy beyond the script and let me adapt to how he would act in everyday scenarios rather than a written scene. I also felt it was effective because it got me into that mindset of being this obnoxious character that has no fear.

Oggy Moxon Whole Play Context

Teechers waas written in 1985 by John Gudber and is set around the same time frame. The play is set out to be a "play within a play" where three young school girls, Gail, Salty and Hobby, decide to write a play about their school life. This is where Oggy Moxon is introduced, through this he is shown to be the school bully and tends to consider himself quite the ladies man, overall he is the general king of the school. This is shown through his response to teachers orders and interactions with other people.

New Boy Whole Play Context

New Boy was a play written by William Sutcliffe and was originally published in 1996 however the play is set 10 years earlier in 1986. Before Barry joins the school, Mark considered himself quite the lad of the school however was unsuccesful when it came to girls and relationships. This is when Barry joins the school and due to him being handsome, Mark see's this as an opportunity to get closer to women. However going through the story, Barry sleeps with lots of girls and even a teacher whilst Mark is still left for himself. The reason for this is due to Mark being attracted to Barry however he doesnt want to admit it.