The Monologue: Who Am I? Who Are You?

There are several inherent challenges built-in whenever we face a monologue, whether in person or virtually.

Ideally, in these one to two minutes of performance, we tell a complete story that shows off our best work while reacting to an invisible partner and working in an imaginary environment. Yet, we also need to consider essential details that may be lost in the shuffle. For example, using material suitable for our type and age range, including a moment before we've started speaking, ending the material with a button, having clear transitions, and ensuring that we show a wide enough range of choices throughout the material. There are also the additional challenges that occur virtually with our eyelines, how much movement we should include, what our framing is, making sure we are well-lit, filming horizontally, ensuring we may be heard throughout the piece... the list can go on and on. And yet, far too often-- actors underestimate the amount of work and preparation vital to delivering a solid monologue.

It may be argued that monologues are one of the most challenging forms of acting, and they are often still requested in auditions for this reason. It is a test of an actor's ability to work under pressure and make their own choices while also showing the creative team who they are as a person. Under these conditions, the actor is entirely in control over their work. It is up to them to develop the character's perspective, the world they live in and be constantly attuned to how their imaginary partner is reacting.

With all of the necessary details for delivering a solid performance, it can be overwhelming to know where even to start when developing a monologue. But the first step comes in our choice of material. Sometimes the material has already been chosen for us, depending on what the project is. If we must provide our own, we want to choose something that excites us, has a clear need, intention, or goal, and is something we could play and be cast in today.

Once we have decided upon our choice of material, we need to look into our source material as thoroughly as possible with the allotted time we have available. This is one of the many reasons industry professionals will recommend having a 'back-pocket' monologue ready to go for whenever an opportunity arises. By having more time to research the source material, the more specific our choices will be, and the deeper those choices will be rooted when played out in the present-- all without the pressure of a time constraint. Regardless, we should read the material more than a few times in order to understand the full context of the scene and the circumstances.

At this point, it is time to shift gears into making choices. It is highly suggested that these choices be written in pencil onto your scripts so the choices feel definitive enough, but are still open to being changed.

**It should be noted that we will be discussing this topic further in the coming week in various aspects (the environment, the moment before, the button, etc.). Be on the look-out for part two! But for today, we will focus on our attention solely on who is my character? And who is my partner?**

The first question we should always be asking ourselves is: who is this person? Be as specific as you possibly can! For example, some actors will say their character is a 'teacher'. Although this is an acceptable answer, we need to strive to go deeper. To stand out from the crowd and avoid the obvious choices, we must be more specific. What TYPE of teacher is our character? Are they the type of teacher who will go above and beyond with their students? Or are they the type of teacher who is only there to make rent? Are they the type of teacher that cares about appearing 'cool' with those they have in class? Or are they the kind of teacher who is so overly strict that they have a reputation for being 'uppity' with their students? Even though each person is a teacher, no two teachers here will have the same behavior or respond in the same way to the situation. These answers will dictate which response may be appropriate for the type of person speaking the material. We as an audience should be able to discern from an actor's behavior which type of teacher we are watching immediately. The more answers we have about who our characters are at this stage in monologue development, the faster our responses will be moving forward.

How can we decide what type of person our character is based on the dialogue in the monologue?

This is where a strong grasp of language, our imagination, and our behavior become especially important. We can only ever make the assumption that each line written is intentional by the screenwriter or the playwright. For instance, going back to our teacher example, imagine both monologues are set in the same location with a student who’s been doing poorly. “Henry, this is incredible work! I can really see how much work you’ve put into this!” vs “Oh right. Your paper. It’s good. Not great. But good.” Just from briefly looking at each sentence we can begin to infer what type of people each person is. Although we want to veer aware from the most obvious choices, there is usually a good reason actors auditioning for the same role will latch on to certain qualities. It doesn’t seem like a stretch for the first teacher to seem confident, excited, and proud of the student based on their language, while the second teacher may seem distracted, cold, annoyed based on how clipped their responses are.

If you struggle with this concept of making sense of the person, try saying the dialogue out loud and substitute a scenario in your mind that you may have said something similar. How does that manifest in your body? The odds are high that character may be feeling something similar.

Once we have gained some clarity regarding our character's point of view, we must do the reversal. We must ask ourselves the same question again by asking: who is our partner?

This is when many actors will ask, "But it's a monologue. Why do I need to know that if I'm the only one speaking?" Acting, at its core, is reacting under the imaginary circumstances. How can we react in the present moment if we do not know what we are reacting to? How are we motivated to change as we do in real life if nothing is causing us to change? Monologues are one of the few circumstances that present this unique dilemma. Since we are working by ourselves, we must also see those changes happening in our imaginary partner. If we do not notice how we are affecting our partners, we will remain stagnant and unchanged.

This is usually one of the main reasons we will see actors who are lacking in variety or are using the same tactic throughout their monologue—they are not allowing themselves to be moved off of their partner. By remaining connected to our imaginary partner and checking in with how they are responding to us we, in turn, must change. For example, if a teacher who loves her students and is passionate about their success is talking to a rowdy student who is mocking her as she speaks—how does that make the teacher feel? She may be irritated or annoyed by this potentially; regardless, she must change her response to try and get this student to behave in class. We can easily understand if she was sweet and kind in the first version of the script, but she snaps and tells him to be quiet in the next. Knowing how the student feels and what they are doing affects our point of view as the teacher.

All in all, knowing who our characters are on a deeper level will affect our other choices moving forward. Don’t let that momentum of remaining curious stop yet, though! These are only two of the foundational steps, and there are so many more to come!

by Diana Frankhauser