Monologue Discussion

To develop out rehearsal process we decided to have a brief discussion to the rest of the group. This allowed use to gain a variety of feedback from our group member enabling us to improve our performance technique but also become familiar about discussing the monologues out loud as this is what we will need to do during the real audition.

I firstly discussed why the monologue is appropriate for me:

• I have previously studied Hamlet it a great deal of depth during my GSCE's-This means i am familiar with the characters and story looking at certain themes in the play
• Ophelia is at the centre of the tragedy where she eventually is the consequence of her own death. This allows me to make my own interpretation of Ophelia rising action and her state of emotions in the particular monologue.
• Ophelia is a young character-Very important and appropriate as i suit the physical appearance of the character creating an believable character.
• I feel my own personal emotional response would be stronger doing this character due to my acting style being more featured on playing emotionally charged character. This is due to personal experiences and having the ability to feature emotional charge into my performances

Next i discussed Ophelias character and journey throughout the performance and how my specific monologue should be performed due to the given circumstance.

After the monologue i was given some feedback, this included:

• Introduce the monologue more-After thinking about the given circumstance and realising that there would be great heights of tension after she had just been threatened by hamlet i figured that Ophelia would be in a state of almost panic! This needed to be present and obvious in my monologue. I could involve this by having Ophelia perhaps pacing around more and involving heavy breathing.
• Think about the given circumstances more-To make the performance more realistic i decided that during the monologue Ophelia's father would be present in the room. The given the monologue charge and would change the way it is performed! To help me develop this i performed the monologue with another person acting as the father. This helped me also realise the physical space!
• Expressing emotion-The aim of this monologue i feel that Ophelia is showing realisation. This need to show clarity to the audience so they understand exactly how Ophelia is feeling at the present time! I will portray this by adding subtle pauses and almost stuttering of words. This emphasis the fact that she is overwhelmed and is realising all her emotion to her father.
• Emphasised panic-To highlight this factor i need to place myself in the given circumstances and think about how i would feel
• Emphasised passion-To be a successful performance i feel i need to let the monologue be influenced by my own personal response! This included adding subtle hints of different emotions. Firstly anger, this is important to show Ophelia's desperation for wanting a male to guide her in life. Also adding a hint of unstableness into the monologue would be significant as eventually the play evolves to Ophelia's own death due to madness.