Monlogue Reflection

Today in class I presented my monologue to the class. As you can see below this entry, my monologue was about poverty and the right to have a family. Although I did a great presentation I think I still have aspects in which to improve on. I think that if I memorized my monologue it would've been a lot better. The fact that I don't have a paper in my hand lets me do more movements and it would improve my performance. I also think that having more mood swings would make it a little more impacting. I also think that mixing ideas and mologues would result in a great presentation for the GIN conference. I think that the emptiness of Alessa's soldier, my character, and Isabella's character can create a great scene because it involves three different characters that share the same problem: emptiness. This mixed character can be the killer of Nichola's and Daniela's characters, which are waiting to be killed and have no hope in life.

My Real Family Monologue-Final

I wake up and my house it’s empty. Not a single soul roams the place. I’m used to this, it happens every morning. My dad is not home, well, he never is. My mom is working, or at least that’s what she tells us. So I leave. There is no point of staying home. It has no light, no food and no proper roof nor floor. There is only one bed, for my parents. I just sleep in the pile of dirty clothes that I make. I honestly prefer that. It is my space; it is the only place in the world that I can consider mine. So I go down the hill and meet my real family. We are all 10 years old and we have a lot of fun together. We are brothers, we do everything together. We smile, we frown, we laugh and we cry together. And there is an old man across the road, sitting in the same stool since I have memory. His white beard and his long yellow nails take all our concentration. That’s why we go and sit to listen to what he has to tell us. We spend hours, maybe the whole day listening to that man. He’s our father, at least that’s what I feel. He loves us, we love him, and he looks after us…what else do I need? Sometimes we leave to ask for money, we wash some cars and eat with that money. We come together, the six of us and join all the money we have to buy food for everybody, like a family. After we buy food and eat, we save some for our dad, and when we give him the food, he thanks us and tells us more stories about life. And when the sky becomes dark, everybody has to leave. So, sadly I start to climb the hill again. I look behind and dad is still sitting there, as if he was waiting for us to get safely home. I get to the door of what I have to say is home and get in without knocking. I hear a gasp and see my mom and a man in the bed, which didn’t look like my dad at all. She starts to talk to me, I think she’s apologizing. But I don’t care what she has to say, you can’t destroy my family more than it is already destroyed, so what the hell. I keep walking and see my pile of clothes…MY pile of clothes. So I smile and remember my family: my brothers and our dad, and lay down thinking on the crappy day I’ll have tomorrow.

Background History on Dramatic Monologues

To be able to produce a good monologue, it is really important to know the background of it. If you have base information about the subject, you now have a lens to produce through. I learned that one of the most important influences of mologues are the Romas poets. Although they didn't quite produce monologues, they philosofically and psicologically describe different things and settings. The main reason that there monologues are not dramatic monologues is that they don't incorporate a concentrative narrative. Apart from that, plays and novels have an influence on dramatic monologues as well. They presented characterization to dramatic monologues.

Now I know that to have a successful monologue, I need characterization and concentrative narratives. Now I will analyze my monlogue, and fix it, so it can be successful.

Improvisation Reflection

In the past few classes of DP Theatre we have been practicing our improvisation skills and been part of activities regarding this technique. The games we have been playing show you what level of improvisation you are on and what aspects of this technique you have to work on. Personally, I think I am good using this technique, but I still have to work on a lot to be able to reach my best level. I think that I am good at making the scene funny, but I need to work on improvising scenes that carry on with the story. Improvisation is mostly used to make people laugh, and I think I am good at this. The reason I am good at this is because I act what first comes to my mind. I think this is the best way to make people laugh, because most of the time the first thing that comes into your mind is really crazy, therefore; really funny. The only problem with this, is that what comes to my mind does not necessarily help carry on with the story. I have to improve on making funny scenes, but that they help the story move forward. These couple of days, I've made the audience laugh, but I don't help in the development of a good storyline. Next time, I will try to think what can I do to make the story move forward, and with that lens, do whatever comes into my mind. That way, I can help the story move forward, and also make the audience laugh. As a class I think we need to develop a better environment to do improv. People in our class are afraid that the rest of the class won't laugh at their scene and they think too much at what they will do. After a lot of thinking, the scene falls and becomes extremely boring and pointless. If we manage to create a better improv environment the level of improvisation in the class will rise abruptly.