First we discussed the following lecture:
Lecture One: Elements of Theatre and Drama, By Terrin Adair-Lynch
see link below for the text
http://homepage.smc.edu/adair-lynch_terrin/TA%205/Elements.htm
Then we looked at:
Schepp’s Dairy Project Discovery Study Guide, Pg 4 “Setting the Stage”
See this link for the text:
http://www.dtcinfo.org/PublicDocs/CROWNS.PDF
Exercises for tonight
THREE TIMES THREE
Or
This exercise was taken from: http://pdc.avc.edu/Faculty/etrow/playex2.html
TIME LOCK EXERCISE
Lecture One: Elements of Theatre and Drama, By Terrin Adair-Lynch
see link below for the text
http://homepage.smc.edu/adair-lynch_terrin/TA%205/Elements.htm
Then we looked at:
Schepp’s Dairy Project Discovery Study Guide, Pg 4 “Setting the Stage”
See this link for the text:
http://www.dtcinfo.org/PublicDocs/CROWNS.PDF
Exercises for tonight
THREE TIMES THREE
- Write a 9 page piece with 3 pages each for a single episode
- One thing must remain constant to tie all three ‘episodes’ together. That could be a character, a place, a
topic of discussion, an object, it doesn’t matter. - Other elements must change – (i.e. the conflict, the character, the setting, the motivation…)
- Use your imagination. What is an object, place, or person you could use in this piece that remains constant
in the eye of history? Or in your town? Or in your house? How would that object, person, place change over
time, or if moved to another location, or if another person interacted with it?
Or
This exercise was taken from: http://pdc.avc.edu/Faculty/etrow/playex2.html
TIME LOCK EXERCISE
- Write a scene with two characters in which one character must get the red box from the other character
before a certain time is up (i.e., the bus stops, the game is over, the old one dies, the paint dries, he marries
her, the ice cream melts, the baby is born, etc.). - Keep the action in the same place (no change of scene).
- Keep stage directions to a minimum.
- Write a scene that ends when the character gets the red box or fails.
- Write two to three pages.
- Repeat this for three different scenes
| FEBRUARY 12, 2008 Workshop |
| April 8, 2008 Workshop |
Let's start by examining a great overview of the history of the monologue from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monologue
Monologue
A monologue is an extended, uninterrupted speech by a single person. The person may be speaking his or
her thoughts aloud or directly addressing other persons, e.g. an audience, a character, or a reader.
As a literary device, it is most common in dramatic genres (plays, opera, animated cartoons, film) but can
also be found in prose fiction. The term can also be applied to poems, which usually take the form of the
thoughts or speech of a single individual. In everyday usage, a long, rather boring speech by a
conversation partner is sometimes called a monologue as well.
The term 'dramatic monologue' is used both for monologues in plays and for a poetic genre.
Dramatic Monologue (Theatre)
There are different terms for monologues in plays. Although they are often used synonymously, they serve
to distinguish monologues with regard to the addressee.
such as Shakespeare and Goethe used the soliloquy to great effect in order to reveal their characters'personal thoughts, emotions, and motives without resorting to third-person narration. Hamlet's "To be or not
to be" speech may be the most famous soliloquy. There is a dramatic convention that soliloquies, like
"asides" to the audience, cannot necessarily be heard or noticed by the other characters, even if they are
clearly delivered within earshot.
Monologues can also be distinguished with regard to their frame of reference. A speech addressed to a
character or a group of characters within the play (including the speaker himself) is called an interior
monologue. A speech addressed to the audience is called an exterior monologue. Sometimes a speech
addressed to an absent character is also called an exterior monologue.
Then let's take a look at some excerpts from this essay on writing monologues for
vaudeville by Brett Page
http://www.authorama.com/writing-for-vaudeville-7.html
The word monologue comes from the combination of two Greek words, monos, alone, and legein, to speak.
Therefore the word monologue means “to speak alone"–and that is often how a monologist feels. If in facing
a thousand solemn faces he is not a success, no one in all the world is more alone than he.
.....
The soliloquy of the by-gone days of dramatic art was sometimes called a monologue, because the person
who spoke it was left alone upon the stage to commune with himself in spoken words that described to the
audience what manner of man he was and what were the problems that beset him. Hamlet’s “To be or not to
be,” perhaps the most famous of soliloquies, is, therefore, a true monologue in the ancient sense, for
Hamlet spoke alone when none was near him. In the modern sense this, and every other soliloquy, is but a
speech in a play. There is a fundamental reason why this is so: A monologue is spoken to the audience,
while in a soliloquy (from the Latin solus, alone, loqui, to talk) the actor communes with himself for the
“benefit” of the audience.
Now for the exercise
That's it! We'll do this exercise in-class on Tuesday, but folks are encouraged to use it before or after too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monologue
Monologue
A monologue is an extended, uninterrupted speech by a single person. The person may be speaking his or
her thoughts aloud or directly addressing other persons, e.g. an audience, a character, or a reader.
As a literary device, it is most common in dramatic genres (plays, opera, animated cartoons, film) but can
also be found in prose fiction. The term can also be applied to poems, which usually take the form of the
thoughts or speech of a single individual. In everyday usage, a long, rather boring speech by a
conversation partner is sometimes called a monologue as well.
The term 'dramatic monologue' is used both for monologues in plays and for a poetic genre.
Dramatic Monologue (Theatre)
There are different terms for monologues in plays. Although they are often used synonymously, they serve
to distinguish monologues with regard to the addressee.
 | If a speech is addressed to another person or group of people, it is called a monologue. | |
| If a speech is addressed to the speaker himself, it is called a soliloquy. |
such as Shakespeare and Goethe used the soliloquy to great effect in order to reveal their characters'
to be" speech may be the most famous soliloquy. There is a dramatic convention that soliloquies, like
"asides" to the audience, cannot necessarily be heard or noticed by the other characters, even if they are
clearly delivered within earshot.
Monologues can also be distinguished with regard to their frame of reference. A speech addressed to a
character or a group of characters within the play (including the speaker himself) is called an interior
monologue. A speech addressed to the audience is called an exterior monologue. Sometimes a speech
addressed to an absent character is also called an exterior monologue.
Then let's take a look at some excerpts from this essay on writing monologues for
vaudeville by Brett Page
http://www.authorama.com/writing-for-vaudeville-7.html
The word monologue comes from the combination of two Greek words, monos, alone, and legein, to speak.
Therefore the word monologue means “to speak alone"–and that is often how a monologist feels. If in facing
a thousand solemn faces he is not a success, no one in all the world is more alone than he.
.....
The soliloquy of the by-gone days of dramatic art was sometimes called a monologue, because the person
who spoke it was left alone upon the stage to commune with himself in spoken words that described to the
audience what manner of man he was and what were the problems that beset him. Hamlet’s “To be or not to
be,” perhaps the most famous of soliloquies, is, therefore, a true monologue in the ancient sense, for
Hamlet spoke alone when none was near him. In the modern sense this, and every other soliloquy, is but a
speech in a play. There is a fundamental reason why this is so: A monologue is spoken to the audience,
while in a soliloquy (from the Latin solus, alone, loqui, to talk) the actor communes with himself for the
“benefit” of the audience.
Now for the exercise
- You get 10 – 12 minutes to write a monologue. These are your parameters:
- The monologue must contain an intense emotion: Rage, Obsession, Joy, Despair
- They must speak to themselves, in order to understand themselves better, decide their next action,
or purge the emotion. - Your character must be clearly described in 5 pages or less
- The monologue must contain only one story or through line
That's it! We'll do this exercise in-class on Tuesday, but folks are encouraged to use it before or after too.
The Ten Minute Play
From:
The current popularity of the ten-minute play form is largely due to the efforts of Jon Jory, Producing
Director of Actor's Theatre of Louisville. As part of the now internationally famous Humana Festival, where
new plays of all lengths are premiered, Jory has created a specific part of the festival to the ten minute play.
In this first volume, there are 25 Plays.
For more on the history and reason for creating ten minute plays, go to:
Drama Workshop
Forward to Jon Jory's Collection
Exercise
1. Write a ten-minute play about any subject.
a. Keep it tight.
b. Use no more than 4 characters, less if you can.
c. Try to expand it beyond the silly or absurd, and beyond your realm of everyday minutiae.
d. Use action as much as words, or more.
2. Write a play no more than 10 pages long.
a. Don't worry about run time.
b. Keep it to 2 characters.
c. Start in one location and end in another.
d. At one point, use long monologue, at another switch to one word interchanges.
From:
The current popularity of the ten-minute play form is largely due to the efforts of Jon Jory, Producing
Director of Actor's Theatre of Louisville. As part of the now internationally famous Humana Festival, where
new plays of all lengths are premiered, Jory has created a specific part of the festival to the ten minute play.
In this first volume, there are 25 Plays.
For more on the history and reason for creating ten minute plays, go to:
Drama Workshop
Forward to Jon Jory's Collection
Exercise
1. Write a ten-minute play about any subject.
a. Keep it tight.
b. Use no more than 4 characters, less if you can.
c. Try to expand it beyond the silly or absurd, and beyond your realm of everyday minutiae.
d. Use action as much as words, or more.
2. Write a play no more than 10 pages long.
a. Don't worry about run time.
b. Keep it to 2 characters.
c. Start in one location and end in another.
d. At one point, use long monologue, at another switch to one word interchanges.
| July 8, 2008 Workshop |