Vocal development programme: Evaluation of Monologue
& Duologue
Voice & the Actor 3
Sophia Hinchliff
Since I started this course last year, I feel I have
learned so much about my voice, and my vocal strengths and weaknesses. I can
hear a definite change in my voice and the way I articulate.
We were asked by our tutor to research any monologue of
our choice that is suitable for each of us individually and to perform this in
front of the class, whilst being filmed by our tutor. The monologue I have
chosen is a young female monologue from www.aceyouraudition.com
written by Kellie Powell. She is an American playwright, who specialises in
writing plays which can be sectioned as monologue and duologues, she is quite a
feminist and most of her plays are based around women, and everyday struggles
they go through, particularly young girls at high school. My monologue is
taking from one of her plays called , “ Thanks giving in the wilderness” The play is about a young woman called Emily,
who has given up all hope on all men as she has had so many problems with
relationships in the past, she is very cynical of men, but one day she meets a
strange man, who appeals to her, and he invites her to spend thanks giving with
him in the countryside, she is thrilled but when she gets to his eery house,
she meets the two guests he has invited, and they are two women he is also
romantically linked with! It is quite a
strange play, and overall makes men look like lazy, rude and heartless pigs! I
like this play as it is lighthearted, comical and dramatic and serious all at
the same time, it produces great monologues for young imaginative girls, and
the feminist style of the play appeals to me very much, and the monologue I
have chosen is very familiar to me, and I can empathise with the woman in the
monologue. My monologue is by RITA, who is Emily’s great friend, and she is
VERY feisty, protective, angry, sarcastic and condescending. She is sticking up
for her friend who has been hurt by this man, and is praising her friend. I
feel the emotions in this monologue are very raw and upfront, which I like and
I also like the fact that she is a feisty woman who is tearing into a man who
has hurt her best friend.
The main vocal exercises I used in order to portray this
monologue as well as I could were mainly, Articulation and Range exercises. I
also used A LOT of Inflection in this monologue, particularly on the more rude
words like “dick-head, pretentious, bastard, fuck, shit” All these words I feel
had a point in this monologue, they were not just put in the monologue for the
sake it, just to have “ swear words” they are used to portray her genuine anger
at this man and to show just how angry she is. These words naturally make me
use in inflection as they are strong words, and are necessary in a monologue
like this, as it is spoken by a young woman who is angry and sounds as if she
is at college or university, so is quite young, not to stereotype but young
college girls when they are angry will use swear words! So I was able to relate
to this anger, which helped me use inflection.
One main piece of feedback I have been given by my
tutors, is that sometimes I naturally without thinking can drop words,
particularly at the end of my sentences. In this monologue I made sure I did
not do this, by varying my pitch and range, to make sure my voice did not fall
flat and end up having a monotone sound at the end of my sentences. I used releasing
the sound exercises for this, I felt it really helped me to maintain the
strength in my words, rather than dropping them.
When I performed this monologue to my tutor and class a
couple of weeks ago, I received mainly positive feedback, and what I needed to
work on was mainly getting the emotions more established and using inflection
in a stronger way. The exercises that helped me to do this were, releasing the
sound, drop and release and Articulation exercises, one in particular was
Shaping the sound: Lip exercises, this helped me because I was able to use my
mouth more freely when I spoke, and it allowed my vowels to become more strong
and accurate, which led to me being able to inflect better and to use stronger
emotion with my words as I was saying them correctly and in a way that was
clear for everybody to understand. My peers said I delivered this monologue
with very good use of pace, pause and pitch. It was never just at one pace, I
feel I naturally started talking quicker when I was talking about Emily towards
the end, as this is where she establishes who she is talking about and how it
effects her personally, and again I naturally used inflection on the swear
words and right at the end when she says “I give up, lets go home” as this is
when she has reached her final straw and cannot even be bothered to continue
speaking to him
Overall I feel I performed this monologue with
imagination, empathy, emotion and understanding. The main vocal techniques I
used were Inflection, Articulation, Releasing the sound, Shaping the sound and Range.
The duologue I have chosen is from the popular film “Mean
Girls” and I will be performing this with Izzy. It is a phone conversation
between Regina and Katy about Regina’s ex boyfriend Aaron. It is quite a comical
conversation between the two girls, but you can definitely sense the tension
and sarcasm in their voices, particularly Regina. We have not decided yet who
will be speaking as who, but as we both know the conversation pretty well as we
have seen the film so many times, we are both confident with playing which ever
character.
Myself and Izzy have both focused on the articulation of
this duologue, as we have to be very clear with our words for people to hear us
clearly and for the audience to understand the humour in this conversation. The
sarcasm of this duologue is very apparent and I feel we have rehearsed this
very well, we have been careful not to do impressions of the characters and to
interpret them in our own way.
We have both focused on our pitch, pace and range in this
duologue, as we both need to be in sync with each other and need to make sure
that we do not rush this piece as it is an important conversation within the
film as it shows just how manipulating and two faced Regina is, and how naive
Katy is. I personally used releasing the sound vocal techniques when rehearsing
this monologue as again they help me with maintaining strength in my words
throughout my sentences, so I do not drop words at the ends.
I have not received any peer or tutor feedback for this
duologue as I have not performed it yet with Izzy as I was off ill the week
where we performed them, but we have been rehearsing together, and helping each
other in developing the duologue even more. I feel this duologue is a good
choice for me and Izzy as we both get on very well and can work together very
closely, and are not afraid of criticising each other in areas we feel need to be improved. I am
looking forward to performing this duologue as it is fun, upbeat and has a
bitchy nature to it, which I personally enjoy acting as I feel it is one of my
strengths as an actress.
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Assignment Sheet
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Course Title
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B0471 Acting 2
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Qualification Title & Code
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BTEC National
Extended Diploma Performing Arts (Acting) 555/7600/3
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Assignment Title:
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Tutor/Assessor(s):
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Voice and the Actor 3
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Kirstie Maginn
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Date set:
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20/03/14
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Deadlines:
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Written Work 24/04/14
Performance 03/05/14
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Return
date:
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10/05/14
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Unit
No(s)
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Unit
Title(s) & Code
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103
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Voice and the Actor
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Learning outcomes:
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On completion of this assignment a learner should:
1.
Be
able to demonstrate a command of vocal technique in response to material.
2.
Be
able to demonstrate vocal technique in performance.
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Vocational
Assignment description
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Task
list and instructions:
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Grading
criteria
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1.
Apply vocal technique to a range of material studied in
class.
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3
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2. Perform a monologue and duologue/scene with 3 of your own choosing.
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4
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