Journal

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Wandering

Tonight in class we did a Wandering scene. The scene provides very little information about what is really going on. This is where the who, what, where, when, why and “How does that make you feel?” come into play. We were paired off and had to run through these questions to determine what was going on for us. We first did the scene using only the script, then with the next go round, we could improve as long as we stated with our lines first.

Also, we learned that the words themselves are just a technicality. The emotion put into the words will give them meaning and physicality.

Wandering

A: Hello.
B: Where have you been?
A: Wandering.
B: Wandering?
A: Yeah, wandering around.
B: You pick the strangest times?
A: Look. I’ve got to get to bed.
B: I care about what’s happening to you.
A: It’s my problem.
B: Let me in.
A: No.
B: Please.
A: I’m scared.
B: So am I.

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How does that make you feel?

Today is the first day of a new class. My second with Chris Harris. I am excited to be in class again. It is amazingly fun beyond my expectations.

In class we discussed creating background for monologues. Who, what, where, when, why, and for all those apply “How does that make you feel?” “Who” can also have many other questions: “Who am I”? “Who am I talking to”? “Who am I talking about”? Monologues are statements to somebody, or an answer to a question, or simply a running conversation with yourself. The majority of the questions above apply in all situations, monologues, dialogues, other. So for example the monologue I did for class this night The Child by Anthony Giardina I needed to ask these questions:

Who am I? How does that make me feel?
Who am I talking to? How does that make me feel?
Who am I talking about? How does that make me feel?
What is the situation? How does that make me feel?
When am I? How does that make me feel?
Where am I? How does that make me feel?
Why am I saying/doing this? How does that make me feel?

Some of the answers are in the description (as seen below in the monologue). Others are answered in the monologues or dialogues themselves. Others you have to decide for yourself. But decide you must. It is important for character development.

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The Child

Title: The Child
Author: Anthony Giardina

Description: Thomas, twenty-seven, an idealistic man who drives a milk truck, and his wife Leah, twenty-three, a first-year medical student, struggle to decide whether to have the baby which is growing inside of Leah or to abort it. They finally decide to have an abortion, mainly on Thomas’s insistence. In this monologue, Thomas discusses a recurring dream of his in which he meets the child that they going to name Tonio.

THOMAS: I keep having this dream.
Can I tell you this dream?
I know you must not like me much just now, but can I tell you this dream I keep having?
(Beat.)
We have a little boy, Leah.
You’re not in it.
Just me and this boy. In my dream he looks like a little Indian.
So wild I don’t know where he comes from.
We’re up in the mountains, hiking, I guess.
We see this bird.
And the boy, Tonio, can’t get over this bird, cannot take his eye off it.
So I sit down on a rock to get out this book I have. This bird book, Birds of North America. I want to find this bird so I can explain everything to Tonio. His markings, his mating habits, where he lives.
When I find it, I look up to tell him.
He’s far away from me.
On the edge of the mountain.
Making like a bird.
Flapping his arms.
Then he jumps.
I watch him jump, it’s too quick for me to say anything.
I sit there with an open book, but I’m not afraid.
Because I expect to see him any minute.
Flying above me.
With the markings and the mating habits of a thing I have to look up in books to find out about.
So I sit on this rock. Waiting.
And finally he flies up. Like I knew he would.
And I smile to see him, Tonio, in the trees, branch to branch.
Tonio over the mountain.
Then he swoops down over me.
He says, “Come on, Dad. Jump. It’s fun.”
(Beat.)
So I go to the edge.
I stand there.
I can see right down to the bottom.
I’m holding a bird book.
I know everything there is to know about birds from the book.
I know I’m not a bird.
I feel so scared.
I look up.
He’s gone.
(Beat.)
No. Christ. No.
I want you.
I want you.
I want you. Please don’t leave me here, Tonio. Come back. I’ll jump. I swear. Just come back. You’ll see me, arms spread, legs out, one golden image of your father I’ll give you?
(Beat.)
Tonio.
Forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me.

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Frustration

Tammy’s birthday and I’m trying to get out of a job I do not enjoy. There is a part of True West where the character I play (Lee) is supposed to be frustrated. Well I can relate now. It’s been a week at this new job and I am trying to get out. Had an interview this morning and was in hopes that I could give notice today. I did not hear a thing. I left messages with the contracting firm and heard nothing. So I wait.

The part of Lee, the dialogue is near the beginning of Scene IV. He wants to get this thing done so he can get out and go! I so understand. We are studying Meisner and we are not supposed to pull from our experiences. I suppose the point is to remain in control despite outward appearance/emotions. (Not really the point, but I know better now.) And of course I have not memorized my lines yet. No excuse really, I just haven?t

Chris, last week mentioned having 4 or 5 monologues memorized/ready, so I suppose I need to choose a few. There is one I like from the original BBC version of Coupling. Steve rants over pornography.

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Inferno

Title: Inferno
Show: BBC TV series “Coupling”
Author: Steven Moffat

Description: At a dinner party, Steve (Jack Davenport) is confronted by his girlfriend about a porn tape she found in his apartment, “Lesbian Spank Inferno.” He is forced to describe the plot of this ‘erotic film’ as he calls it, much to the confusing and amusement of the women present. He describes the ‘plot’ as the story of a ‘lesbian film collective’ that hold a contest to see which film-maker had made the best film. Eventually, the whole thing becomes a ‘spank inferno.’ But that’s not the point.

Dinner Guest: How could you possibly enjoy a film like that?

Steve: Oh, because it’s got naked women in it! Look, I like naked women! I’m a bloke, we’re supposed to like naked women, we’re born like that! We like naked women as soon as we’re pulled out of one; halfway down the birth canal we’re already enjoying the view! Look, it is the four pillars of the male heterosexual psyche. We like: Naked Women, Stockings, Lesbians, and Sean Connery best as James Bond, because that’s what being a boy is. And if you don’t like, darling, join a film collective. Look, I want to spend the rest of my life with the woman at the end of that table there, but that does not stop me wanting to see several thousand more naked bottoms before I die, because that’s what being a bloke is. When man invented fire, he didn’t say “Hey, let’s cook!” He said “Great! Now we can see naked bottoms in the dark!” As soon as Caxton had invented the printing press, we?re using it to make pictures of, hey! Naked bottoms! We have turned the internet into an enormous international database of naked bottoms. So you see, the story of male achievement through the ages, feeble though it may have been, has been a story of our struggle to get a better look at your bottoms. Thank you, girls, I’m not sure how insulted you really ought to be.