How to Act a Monologue Part 7

Today is the final part of our How to Act a Monologue Series. If you haven’t had a chance to read it from the start, click here and you can work your way through it.

In Part 6, you practised working through the labels and sizes and speeds in the Preparation Exercise. You focused on the Mindset of the Task, which was that the other person had no faith in you, there was no evidence for why they should believe in you, but you are trying to persuade them to believe in you without evidence that what you are saying is true.

You then talk to the person in your As-If/Daydream from the Mindset of the Task:

The MINDSET of Put Your Faith in Me with ENTHUSIASTICALLY ROUSE (BIG and FAST)

Let the label and the size and speed colour HOW you work from the Mindset of the Task.

• The MINDSET of Put Your Faith in Me with WARMLY CONSOLE (BIG and SLOW)

• The MINDSET of Put Your Faith in Me with SOLEMNLY VOW (SMALL and SLOW)

• The MINDSET of Put Your Faith in Me with HOPEFULLY LIFT (BIG and FAST)

• The MINDSET of Put Your Faith in Me with TENDERLY PROMISE (SMALL & SLOW)

• The MINDSET of Put Your Faith in Me with TIGHTLY EMBRACE (BIG AND SLOW)

• The MINDSET of Put Your Faith in Me with SYMPATHETICALLY REASSURE (SMALL AND SLOW)

When you have shape this journey through the chunks of the monologue in your own words from the Mindset of your Task and with the self-direction (labels and sizes and speed), you will have habituated those elements that need to remembered.

Now you start using the text.

1) Do the first chunk of the monologue in your own words through the Preparation Exercise with self direction.

2) After a minute or two to get into gear, slip into using that chunk’s words.

3) Don’t do anything different under the surface, don’t perform, don’t suddenly start ‘acting’.  Working from the Mindset of the Task, do nothing more than get someone to put their faith in you with the elements of self direction added (labels and sizes and speeds).

4) Do this with each chunk and then start stringing the chunks together.

5) Work your way through the monologue using only the words of the text, but make sure that you are still speaking to the person in the As-If/Day Dream and using the Labels and Sizes and Speeds.

So that’s how I work with actors on monologues. It’s actually a very simple process, understanding who and how to speak to them, analysing the monologue, breaking it down into manageable chunks, giving each chunk a label, trying out sizes and speeds to develop gear changes in the monologue – to develop pace changes, then work between the preparation exercise and the words of the script until you have habituated the direction, and always always ALWAYS working from the Mindset of the Task.