Acting

The start or week 1 or whatever

So like I kinda started writing this while I had already started on doing some of the things to get ready so here's kinda what I've done so far. Soooo....some of this stuff in this chapter is gonna sound kinda weird and thankfully my gf is okay with the weirdness and it's a bit hard to explain but here goes. And if anyone actually reads this and is like thinking to themselves "wtf" or "this is fucking boring asf" then sorry 😂, but yeah it would be cool to remember all this one day in the future.

I picked out three monologues. You only need to have two but I figure I'll go extra safe and have 3 ready just in case something weird happens. 1 of them is Shakespeare (because one of them has to be Shakespeare) and 2 of them are contemporary, which kinda just means more recent. Not gonna say what they are because I have this weird thing about feeling like I'll jinx myself if I do. So here's everything that I've done so far and why I've done it.

So I've read the play that it's from. That's kinda important. Apart from just knowing what the stories about (in case I get asked), it's also important because it establishes who I am, how I feel about other characters and a lot of other stuff.

Then I have to memorize the bitch!! So a monologue should go for no more than 2 minutes at the most. I don't know a good way to memorize but here's what I do.

I write it out. Like physically write it with a pen on paper. It doesn't work typing it back out on my laptop or my phone. Idk why? Something to do with the physical thing of moving my hand and drawing lines on paper that turn into words makes your brain be creative is the idea behind it and idk, it's worked well so far.
When I write it it's also important to take out all the punctuation and stage directions. You take out the stage directions because, in a play (not really in a film or tv script because it's the first time it's being performed) the stage directions are mostly from the first run of the play by a professional company and what the actor did that played that part. So, it might not be what you decide to do. Because, hey, you're different than the first actor that did this. You don't need to pause or shout or scream if you don't feel like it. So get rid of it.

Then I'll take like chunks at a time and just say it to myself over and over again until I have it and then I'll start from the beginning of the monologue and say it all the way through up until I don't remember it and then start again.

Third is like weird. But like if you do something physical while you say your lines out loud it helps. So like kicking a ball against the wall or throwing a tennis ball against the wall and catching it or a football or whatever. Idk why, but doing something physical while your saying your lines emotionless and as fast as you can, works 😂😂

And like the other thing is you're not supposed to add emotion or tone or anything to your lines when you say them back. All that stuff comes later. So I'll say them in monotone as fast as I can. Okay so the reason for this one is kinda weird but here goes. So like, if you memorize something and you put a pause between a word because you think it's dramatic or you think it's funny then when you get to saying the words out loud in front of people, it's really hard to like get rid of the pause you memorized. Or the same with maybe emphasizing a word or sentence. It's really hard to later on change it if you memorized it that way in the beginning. Instead it's better if like you memorize it without any emotion so that later on when you work on the emotional side of your character you can introduce all of that stuff to the words then.

Another thing I've been doing is a mechanical read of the monologue. I don't know how to describe this one. But like the point is that you listen to each word and realize what it is you're saying. So you say each word slowly and take your time with every letter of the word and you say it emotionless like a robot (mechanical). So like instead of just saying "I love you" you'd say it like this "Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllooooooooovvvvvvvvveeeeeeeyyyyooooooooooooooooooooooooooooouu"
Weird huh? 😂😂 but it kinda makes you slow down and listen and think about what you're saying and what's happening.

So that was the first part. Boring af huh?  but it's cool. I like it. There's like more weird shit but that's for the next chapter.