Monologue Practice

Objective: Students will apply their understanding of script analysis techniques by rehearsing a monologue within the context of the play it is taken from.

Standards:
L2.T.P.5: Use voice to communicate meaning through volume, pitch, tone, rate of speed, and vocal clarity

Essential Questions

• How does analysis improve understanding?
• Why is background information important?
• Why do people do what they do?

Enduring Understanding(s)

• Subtext improves characterization
• Analysis deepens understanding
• People’s actions are influenced by their past and their desires

Materials: 

• The Student Spotlight Response Sheet
• Projector and HDMI
• Monologue Performance Rubric

Spotlight 

• Pull up the Student Spotlight Responses Sheet and choose a student who has not been spotlighted yet.
• Without reading their name, go through all of their answers. After reading all their answers, have students guess which student is the spotlight for today. 
• Once correctly guessed, allow the class to ask a few questions of the student spotlight to get to know them better. 

Warm-up: Freeze! (The students have played this game before)

• Two students start a scene inspired by a suggestion of an action, conflict, or relationship.
• At any time another student can say, “freeze!” The first two freeze in the position they were in when freeze is called. 
• The student who called freeze tags one of them out, assumes their exact position, and starts a new scene inspired by the position.
• This continues as long as it remains fun and fast. If it starts to lag, you can restart the game with a new prompt, or stop the game and continue on with the rest of the class. 

Instruction

• Remind the students that the next class is their workshop performances. Remind them that they will slate, perform their monologue once through, as though for an audition, then be given some feedback or coaching, then asked to perform sections of it again with that feedback in mind. Each student will do this for about 5 minutes each. 

• To help prepare them for their performance, go over the rubric (attached below)

  • The first two criteria on the rubric, the students are already very familiar with, as they have been graded on it in the past, but be very clear that because they are familiar with it, that you expect them to be excellent in both those areas. 
  • The final criteria is the main new skill being assessed in this performance. Encourage students to always return back to their script analysis work as they memorize and rehearse to ground their performance in the connections and evidence they have found. If they do that, they should receive great marks. 

• Instruct the students that there will be a memorization check-in at the end of class today. They will get with a partner and perform their monologue as best they can, the partner can be on book if necessary. “I will give further instructions on how this will work towards the end of class”

Discussion/Transition

• “Speaking of memorization, what are some helpful memorization tools and tips that you have used and found helpful?”
• Take student comments here. Feel free to offer personal tips from experience. 

• Some other helpful memorization tips to mention (if not already brought up):

  • Try to balance a long stick in the middle of your palm while saying your lines (this helps solidify the words by activating a different part of the brain than the area in charge of retrieval.)
  • Write out your entire monologue, word for word. (this is a great first step to starting memorization, as physically writing words with pen and paper also activates a different part of the brain)
  • Write out only the first letter of each word (this one helps with getting every word exactly as it is written in the script)
  • Memorize in chunks, 1-2 sentences at a time, adding on another each time
  • Write out a rough outline of the “Arch” of your monologue, so you don’t get lost in your words/sentences and can build more effectively from one line to the next
  • Say your monologue to a partner, and have them correct any mistakes you make (this is great for exact memorization)
• Emphasize that memorization is not the only thing to work on during class however. A great performer is one who works THROUGH their partner and TOWARDS their character’s objective by using different tactics and actions. Remind them that even though they are performing monologues, they should still imagine their “partner” in front of them and react to them as though they were really there. 
• Ask the students what other helpful tips and tricks they use to effectively rehearse monologues
• Take student answers, and be sure to ask the student how that could be applied to this monologue rehearsal process in class today. 

• Other things to mention if not mentioned by students:

  • Consider the moment before your monologue begins. What has just happened, or what was just said? How does your characters feel about it?
  • Write out your “partners” reactions (whether facial/physical or verbal) to the words you say, and practice how your character reacts to that in the moment
  • Remember to keep your “partner” in one place as you perform. Pick one spot on the wall, about at your eye-line, and any time you “look” at your partner, go back to that same spot. 

Rehearsal

• Give students time to rehearse. Walk around to check on their progress, and answer questions as needed. 
• When there are about 30 minutes left in class, give students a 5-minute warning, explaining that they will be completing their memorization check-in at the end of those 5 minutes. 

Transition

• When there are around 25 minutes left of class, call the students attention.

Instruction

• Explain that it is now time to complete the memorization check-in. Students will get together with a partner and in turn perform their monologue for each other. The partner who is watching will give the performer a grade on a scale of 1 to 5 as to their memorization. A 5 is awarded when students are perfectly memorized and confident in their words, with no noticeable pauses or “ums” and “uhhs”. A 1 is awarded for students who have essentially nothing memorized beyond one or two sentences, with the scores of 2, 3, AND 4 falling in between. 
• Note here that this grade is not based on the performance level, but purely on their memorization of the partner. For those students who are not fully memorized for this check-in, the viewing partner may be on-book for them to feed them the start of lines, correct major mistakes, etc. 

• Ask the students: Why shouldn’t you just give your partner a 5, even if they don’t deserve it?

  • Take student answers here, and make sure to emphasize the purpose of learning is to grow! If they really love their friend/peer/classmate, they should want them to improve and get better, and lying about their abilities will only hinder that growth. 
• Emphasize that this is a formative assessment, and that I will replace this “score” with their memorization level on performance day. This is merely a check-point to see their progress and make sure they are prepared for the next class. 
• Instruct students that once they and their partner have performed for each other, they must come up and report the score they gave for one another. 

Formative Assessment

• Give students 5 minutes to complete the memorization check-in (it should take no longer than this as each monologue is 1 minute long). 
• Note down the scores that students come and report as they finish. 

Rehearsal

• Students have the remaining 15-20 minutes of class to continue memorizing and rehearsing and implementing any feedback they may have received from their partner. 

  • For students who are feeling really prepared and confident, instruct them to pair up with another student and perform their monologue for feedback. 
  • Other practice tips to share with students who are feeling stuck in their rehearsal process: tell them to get with a partner and have them physically pretend to be their scene partner by nonverbally reacting to their monologue; tell them to run through their monologue trying to be “perfect” at one aspect, whether that be diction, dialect, projection, concentration, etc. 

Wrap-up

• Remind students that they are performing their monologues in the next class. Encourage them to continue practicing at home for parents/friends/siblings to solidify their characterizations. Tell them that they will not have time at the beginning of class to work in-depth on their monologue. They will have 2-3 minutes to warm themselves up in whatever way they need, and then they will be called for their workshop performance.