In today’s world of fast communication—especially email—there is specific skill, a trait, I have observed that most actors have when it comes to writing. In writing email correspondence, most actors possess a natural instinct in discerning a major or minor shift in tone or subject that then logically leads to the appropriate double-spacing between sentences. In short, most actors have a good sense of when to start a new paragraph. However, when an actor cold-reads a monologue written by someone else, often their natural instinct to feel a sense of a shift in tone, or change of subject, disappears.
Here’s why: If you look at a monologue as written by a playwright and as it appears in a published play, it consists of a huge block of words. There is no change in structure of the wording. In short, the writing is not broken down with indentations or spacing that signifies the start of new paragraphs as it would in other forms of writing. That’s how plays are formatted. It’s up to actor to take what the playwright has written, and supply his or her interpretation of the words as they exist on the page, and to then supply the appropriate changes and nuances that turn the character into a living, breathing human being.
So, here’s a technique for you to apply. Take your monologue to your computer and start to type. Break it up where you feel you would if the monologue were a conversation, which of course, it is. Imagine that you are speaking to someone you personally know as your scene partner—which is a common substitution technique in monologue preparation and performance.
Let your instincts guide you when you feel a shift in tone or in subject matter. Press “return” twice each time you feel it. When you’re finished, don’t re-read it or second-guess what you’ve done. Print it out. With each break on the page comes an opportunity to observe a response from your scene partner. (By “response,” I mean a logical place where you are observing and assessing your scene partner’s reaction to what you’ve just said—a new beat.) In doing so, you have created a genuine opportunity to deliver your next line by incorporating what you have observed and assessed. Observe the new variance in your vocal pitch and your pace. You have just created a true scene and a richer cycle of communication. And with it comes a better and fuller monologue performance.
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