During rehearsal time, I have been thinking about monologues and why we use them. I decided to do a short post on what a monologue is and why we have decided to use one in our production. I have included some brief research on an opinion which opposes to the use of monologues.
“A monologue is a lengthy speech by a single person” (Abrams and Harpham, 2009, p.85)
“The monologue differs from the dialogue in the lack of verbal exchange and in that it is of substantial length and can be taken out of the context of conflict and dialogue” (Pavis, 1998, p.218)
As I see it, a monologue is a theatrical device which is used to portray a character’s inner feelings. You do not necessarily come across monologues in every play you see or read, yet they can be used as one way of just one character communicating with the audience, whether it be directly or indirectly.
In Scene Two of ‘A Gothic Tale’, my character, The Countess, delivers a monologue. It is a long speech which introduces herself indirectly to the audience. The monologue gives a brief explanation as to who she is and what she is doing. The speech also foreshadows the rest of the scene, and partly the rest of the play.
It is questionable, however, whether or not monologues should be used in theatre at all. As Pavis states, “[Monologues] are often condemned or restricted to a few indispensable instances. Besides the fact that it is static, even boring, it is seen as improbable. A man alone is not expected to talk aloud, so that showing a character confiding his feelings to himself is easy to ridicule as being unrealistic and improbable. (1998, p.218)
In this case, the monologue is used not only to give depth to the Countess, but it is also used to allow the audience to clearly see the change in her personality later on in the play. Her monologue introduces her as a newly married woman who is vulnerable and shy. Later on however, she is quite the opposite. Her speech is there as an inner consciousness, questioning everything that she is worried about. At this point in the play, she is about to lose her virginity to the Count. She has a few moments on her own where she is able to think about what is happening and what is expected from her, and the monologue reflects her feelings towards the situation. This also allows the audience to get to know, what they think, is her true character.
Although not all playwrights agree with using monologues, I believe that the Countess’ speech fits well in our piece. She is the only character with a monologue, and she is the only character who changes dramatically. Her honesty in the monologue is able to fool the audience who later on find out that she has turned into a much darker character.
Works Cited
Abrams, M.H and Harpham, G (2009) A Glossary of Literary Terms. Boston USA: Cengage Learning Inc.
Pavis, P (1998) Dictionary of the Theatre. Terms, Concepts and Analysis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Inc.
The most important factor of producing a technical demanding production is organisation. ” The production manager is responsible for the entire organization of a theatrical production” ((Crabtree, Susan and Peter Beudert (2005) Scenic Art for the Theatre. Oxford: Focal Press.)). A PM’s main role is to organise ALL elements of the theatrical production from set to lighting, sound to props and bring all these elements together into one, cohesive performance, all the while maintaining the director’s concept for the show. In order to achieve all of these aims in an efficient and effective manner, a PM must be well organised.
Therefore, my main method in producing this performance is careful planning and organisation and, as a consequence, ensuring that all designers/stage management team have clear instructions and deadlines to meet throughout the production process.
After our initial production meeting, my aim is to begin set construction as soon as possible (ideally during the Easter break) and work to as close a budget as possible. Theatrical productions such as ours, which employ numerous technical elements, can often incur unexpected costs close to performance day. Therefore, I feel it is important to ensure that some money is left in the budget for any unforeseen costs on performance day.
I also aim to maintain constant contact with the director, throughout the rehearsal process, in order for no technical requirements to be missed. In order to do this, I will ensure that at least one member of the technical team (not including those who are also actors) are present at every single rehearsal. Ideally, the Stage Manager will attend as many of these rehearsals as possible because she will be on book during our live performance and it is important that she knows the performance inside out. Any member of the production team who attends these rehearsals has been asked to compile a ‘Production Rehearsal Note’ (see *Appendices) detailing any technical requirements/changes which have been made during that rehearsal.
This is the Stage Management Rehearsal Schedule detailing who will attend each rehearsal:
Since my previous post, I have had much enthusiasm from the rest of the company in terms of re-creating the wooden 3D angel for our production. Furthermore, I have managed to develop this concept in collaboration with the production manager, and have decided to create two wooden angels, identical in size and appearance, but with a reversal of the image, so that they will appear to face each other from opposite corners of the stage. If we placed these at the edges of the proscenium arch, and reinforced them with stage weights and brackets, they could create a really impressive and imposing scenic composition. Therefore, in moving forward, I have arranged to meet with our stage manager to source some wood in the coming week.
Furthermore, as we need to create ‘the bloody chamber’ somehow on stage, perhaps we could consider a form of doorway, or gateway, such as the crypt/tomb image above?
Word Count: 150.
Works Cited:
Image, Online: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qKC0u1nv9s0/T-_gqX9wfRI/AAAAAAAAATk/_Z3stY2deY4/s1600/DSCN1061.JPG (accessed 12 February 2013).
After deciding on our chosen stories The Bloody Chamber and The Snow Child, there was a small dispute over how we were going to portray certain scenes in our new devised performance. There are what are considered ‘adult’ scenes in both stories, meaning there was a worry as to how we would overcome the issue of portraying them in a tasteful way. For rights purposes, the group decided to merge the two stories together to create a new story with brief similarities. Although we decided to merge the stories, these ‘adult’ themes were still an issue. However, as any professional theatre company would, we sat down and allowed our director, script writers and producer to explain their ideas on how these scenes would be tackled. Eventually we came to a mutual understanding and concluded that none of our performance would be offensive to watch. Due to our heavy technical aspects, we will be able to show the ‘taboo’ in a much more tasteful way, allowing our performance to provoke high emotions as was talked about in the beginning stages.
Taking all of this into consideration, I thought I would take a brief look at Angela Carter, her stories and the criticism that came along with her work and how she tackled it, if she did at all.
An article written by Helen Simpson in The Guardian talks about The Bloody Chamber and what Angela herself had in mind for the book. It states: “[Angela] knew from the start that she was drawn to ‘Gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror, fabulous narratives that deal directly with the imagery of the unconscious’”(2006). This is the essence that she wanted to get across in her stories. Although her book may have shocked readers (and still shocks readers now), her focus was not on the disturbing scenes she used. Simpson tells her readers that Carter’s idea “was not to do ‘versions’ or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly, ‘adult’ fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginnings of new stories.” (2006). By touching upon this new way of writing, this new style, she wanted to reach out to a wider audience. She did not want to offend or disgust anybody, which is what our group also aims to avoid. Because these types of stories were so new to Carter’s audience, they soon wanted more, and she got criticised for not writing about more taboo subjects. She was, in so many words, breaking the mould of society.
She had very vivid ideas of what she wanted to write and how she wanted to portray them. Her love for science fiction and fantasy played a big part in her writing, allowing her create a new world full of issues and themes that were never thought about until the book was published.
Angela Carter is such an inspiration to our group because she knew exactly what she wanted. We love her ideas of the gothic and the tales of wonder. Our aim is to tell a tale all about love and relationships with no real focus on the ‘adult’ aspects. Overall, we want our story to be mysterious and spooky so it can catch the attention of our audience. We want it to provoke high emotion with help from our actors and technical spectacle, rather than shock them with the ‘mature’ attributes.
Francesca
Word count: 574 Works cited: Simpson, H (2006) ‘Femme Fatale’. The Guardian. Online: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jun/24/classics.angelacarter (accessed: 16th February 2013)
I feel the idea of corruption is a theme we should really play with, in acting, set design, lighting it can all tie in together.
“And for the first time in my innocent and confined life I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away.”-(Countess Bloody Chamber)
Exploring the idea of ‘corruption’ under and positive OR negative light in opposition to the ‘perfect’ fairy tale endings. If we explore the effect of corruption on the countess it actually pulls her away from the fairy tale innocence archetype.
“He sensed a rare talent for corruption.”
Exploration of gender binaries, fairy tale literature representation etc.
E.g. the mirror scene in the bloody chamber shows the sexual awakening of the young woman, she herself views her corruption as positive as she looks at her reflected body.
“Elaine Jordan suggests that the death of the virgin girl is the symbol of ‘killing masculine representations’ not a ‘killing of women’ – (Regarding the Snow Child, Deconstructed masculine evil in Angela Carter)
How do you feel about this?
Why is there a feeling that this image is not correct?
What sort of message have fairy tales inadvertently been creating?
Do you feel Angela Carter represents a female awakening in her tales?
I place the countess as having just finished her fairy tale ending and married the count – and what we are left with is the ‘reality’ of her situation. What glitches are created between the fairy tale and real worlds that can transcend into more than just a spectacle. E.g. fairy tale vs. reality becoming childhood memories vs. adult life.
Character Breakdown (various interpretations for you to choose what you feel suits the character you visualise playing)
Count
A typical villain or simply perceived this way through the countess subconscious desires to ‘be free’ from her innocent confined life? Is he used as an excuse for the countess to be corrupted?
Where do you feel the evil really lies in this tale? If any true evil at all?
The Count Vs. The Piano Tuner
As the inversion of binaries is something we are definitely approaching (on what scale remains to be explored, but im thinking big!) I do not necessarily see the count being your typical stalking, dark, piercing figure as like so many other traditional villains. He could perhaps be the most unsuspecting looking character who the audience feel truly shocked when faced with his actions, it challenges how they should feel and what stereotype they have come to expect … even when told that this is dark fairy tale, they still come with certain expectations.
Countess
Is this girl really innocent?
Does she herself have villainous qualities?
Does she become her ‘own woman’ through corruption?
Is this positive or is this negative?
How does it make you feel to think about something positive coming from such a deeply negative scenario
She has stepped out of the fairy tale, mundane world of her life and into ‘reality’, with this she welcomes her sexual female awakening. Some arguable villainous qualities that outrank the count. She takes the innocent image of the fairy tale character no longer in a positive light but as female repression. She becomes her own woman after marrying the count. She has longed for excitement and actually places herself in the situation. She is not ignorant or naïve to her marriage. She is curious.
The House Keeper
The house keeper keeps things ordered and is constantly trying to ‘maintain’ relationships, I vision her constantly trying to fix the corruption around her by fixing cracks in the sets, putting paintings back together, hiding broken mirrors etc She is very much part of the furniture, set in her old fairy tale ways – a character who refuses to leave the fairy tale setting but who finds herself placed in this new age of corrupt independence. The world, even this mock-fairy tale world is moving on and she is left behind.
The Piano Tuner
The blindness of the piano tuner gives him insite, as he is blind to the corrupt world around him – he is in his own world and this gives us room to explore what sort of world he imagines himself in
e.g. should it be a fairy tale like most people or should it be a version of reality?
He is in love with the countess because of her desire to be free, not because she is reserved or innocent. In some ways she is the very opposite of this innocent piano tuner, he is attracted to the differences between their two worlds.
I vision him being unable to tune the piano so even the music he plays is corrupted, as a literal representation of a dislocated time but which at the same time holds elements of truth and beauty to it that you would not get with a perfectly tuned piece of music.
The Ghost/ Spectre/ Mother/ Ex-wife/ Nature
This character is very much open to interpretation and it is something I want us all to explore in the casting session and reach a decision with.
Should this character act as a warning? If so, to who?
If it in an ex-wife character did he count truly love this woman?
Do we want a supernatural element heavily involed? It was very common in gothic literature to have characters representative of nature. Reflective of mother nature, human nature etc
I imagine this character to be heavily linked with the design, almost a ‘Puck’ like character from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream – containing mystical, supernatural elements but with a rational truth or warning attached to them. (Also can help if any narration is needed, although I don’t want It to be heavily narrated!)
The Snow Child
Starting off as a pure innocent picture of perfection. The snow child almost seems out of place in our production because of her links to the traditional, but this is something that will work in creating and blurring the borders between the two worlds. I see the snow child as almost another narrative going on within our play, her own journey could perhaps mirror the passage from child hood fairy tale to the adult world?
What happens to the snow child in the end?
How do you think we can show this journey?
Workshop Tasks (some of this can be done in preparation for the workshop/casting session)
Try to come with answers to all the questions I have posted above, I think it is important to have different perspectives put forward to create the best possible production. We will begin by discussing these so we have a feel for what sort of character we are pushing for in the casting session.
As a short exercise, (if like you can prepare this beforehand alone or in pairs, and you will be given some time on the day) in order to explore the passage of time and the corrupt ‘fairy tale’ image I feel it would be useful to see where these ideas stem from. Take a well-known fairy tale character and move them on 15 years in their life to after their fairy tale ending.
What has happened to these characters?
Has there been a corruption?
Do you feel they’ve maintained the perfect fairy tale ending?
What images of corruption can you see?
This can be a short improvisation; perhaps the character simply reflecting like we will have the countess doing in scene 2, or it could be a quick scene from a day in their lives.
(for inspiration see the video below, a new film based on Hansel and Gretel 15 years into the future)
After this we will turn to the characters in our production and discuss how the previous exercise can be applied to the lives of our characters.
Have an idea of the character you want to play and why you want to play this. What experience can you bring to this character?
What corrupt images/symbols do you see in your character that you feel can be explored?
You will be given a short extract of your character from the script with someone to read with you if need be, to get a feel for the role and to see if you suit it well and how you feel in this role after the workshop today.
