How to Act a Monologue Part 4

This is the fourth part of my recent series on How to Act a Monologue.  The previous posts start here.  We’ve worked out who were are speaking to and what it’s like to speak to them, we’ve analyse the scene to turn the pages into action and we’ve practised the psychological intention behind the character’s actions in the monologue.

The next step is breaking the monologue down, so that we can create a dramatic flow that undulates.  If you are wondering how to act a monologue to the best of your ability, this tip is going to make a BIG difference. The Number 1 problem that I see with people’s monologues is that they are essentially unaware of how to use a monologue’s dramatic structure to their advantage.

You know that every good story has a beginning, middle and end. Well, a monologue is similar and has a HOOK, MIDDLE, CLIMAX and END.

The HOOK starts at the beginning of the monologue, it is the way of hooking the listener (both audience and listening characters) into the speech. If it is short and intriguing, it makes us want to know more.

The CLIMAX is the highest point of dramatic tension in the monologue and is the point that you will build to over the course of the monologue. You should never be more dramatically intense than at this moment.  You are always rising to this point when you act a monologue.

The END is usually the come down after the CLIMAX, it is usually fairly short, as the audience expect whatever happens post-CLIMAX to be brief.

The MIDDLE is the meat of the monologue, it’s where most of your work will take place, and its where most people become very uniform and do the same thing. This part must be filled with shifting and changing gears dramatically.

So take a look at Sonya’s speech from Uncle Vanya again. What do you think is the HOOK?

SONYA: What can we do? We must live out our lives. [A pause] Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live all through the endless procession of days ahead of us, and through the long evenings. We shall bear patiently the burdens that fate imposes on us. We shall work without rest for others, both now and when we are old. And when our final hour comes, we shall meet it humbly, and there beyond the grave, we shall say that we have known suffering and tears, that our life was bitter. And God will pity us. Ah, then, dear, dear Uncle, we shall enter on a bright and beautiful life. We shall rejoice and look back upon our grief here. A tender smile — and — we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see evil and all our pain disappear in the great pity that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as peaceful and gentle and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have faith. [Wiping away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! [Weeping] You have never known what it is to be happy, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall rest.

Well, that first pause tells us that there will be a break in the dramatic flow, it probably comes before that.

SONYA: What can we do? We must live out our lives. [A pause]

This would make a great HOOK and the pause after it will create a good change of pace before we go into the MIDDLE.  The next section to find is the CLIMAX.  Where does the monologue rise to its most dramatically intense.

SONYA: What can we do? We must live out our lives. [A pause] Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live all through the endless procession of days ahead of us, and through the long evenings. We shall bear patiently the burdens that fate imposes on us. We shall work without rest for others, both now and when we are old. And when our final hour comes, we shall meet it humbly, and there beyond the grave, we shall say that we have known suffering and tears, that our life was bitter. And God will pity us. Ah, then, dear, dear Uncle, we shall enter on a bright and beautiful life. We shall rejoice and look back upon our grief here. A tender smile — and — we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see evil and all our pain disappear in the great pity that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as peaceful and gentle and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have faith. [Wiping away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! [Weeping] You have never known what it is to be happy, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall rest.

Of course, it’s always a matter of artistic choice but this builds ‘I have a faith, I have faith’ which actually syncs nicely with the Task of ‘to get someone to put their faith in me.’

Whatever comes after the CLIMAX is considered theEND, and will be dramatically less intense than what came before it.

SONYA: We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see evil and all our pain disappear in the great pity that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as peaceful and gentle and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have faith. [Wiping away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! [Weeping] You have never known what it is to be happy, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall rest.

Changes occur in the MIDDLE section usually by what the character is talking about, by the sense of the changes in the writing. The MIDDLE has no fixed number of sections, so feel free to break it down into whatever parts you wish. Here’s how I might break down the MIDDLE section of a monologue.

SONYA: Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live all through the endless procession of days ahead of us, and through the long evenings. We shall bear patiently the burdens that fate imposes on us. We shall work without rest for others, both now and when we are old. And when our final hour comes, we shall meet it humbly, and there beyond the grave, we shall say that we have known suffering and tears, that our life was bitter. And God will pity us. Ah, then, dear, dear Uncle, we shall enter on a bright and beautiful life. We shall rejoice and look back upon our grief here. A tender smile — and — we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. We shall rest. We shall rest.

So our MIDDLE has four sections. This makes a total of 7 sections to this monologue. A short hook, a fat middle, a good sized climax and a short end.

So now you have it broken down into sections, you will approach the monologue as 7 separate chunks that combine to make up the overall monologue. 

SONYA: What can we do? We must live out our lives. [A pause]   

Yes, we shall live, Uncle Vanya. We shall live all through the endless procession of days ahead of us, and through the long evenings. We shall bear patiently the burdens that fate imposes on us. We shall work without rest for others, both now and when we are old.

And when our final hour comes, we shall meet it humbly, and there beyond the grave, we shall say that we have known suffering and tears, that our life was bitter. And God will pity us.

Ah, then, dear, dear Uncle, we shall enter on a bright and beautiful life. We shall rejoice and look back upon our grief here.

A tender smile — and — we shall rest. I have faith, Uncle, fervent, passionate faith. We shall rest. We shall rest.

We shall hear the angels. We shall see heaven shining like a jewel. We shall see evil and all our pain disappear in the great pity that shall enfold the world. Our life will be as peaceful and gentle and sweet as a caress. I have faith; I have faith.

[Wiping away her tears] My poor, poor Uncle Vanya, you are crying! [Weeping] You have never known what it is to be happy, but wait, Uncle Vanya, wait! We shall rest. We shall rest. We shall rest.

By breaking it down into the following chunks, you can ensure that you take the audience on a journey through the monologue and not paint it all in one long boring uniform colour.

Tomorrow’s blog is about giving yourself some direction to ensure that each one of those chunks has a different gear, mood, colour, or however you want to think of it,