A single person speaking alone, with or without an audience. Monologue A single person speaking alone, with or without an audience.

Character Motivation The two main questions you must ask yourself are: “What am I saying?” “Why am I talking?” These deal with understanding the text itself and understanding the motivation of the character.

Understanding Language Look up words that you are unfamiliar with, thinking you know is not good enough, you must know the meaning of the words so you can understand if they are being used in seriousness, in jest, or as an ironic play on words. Look at is the structure of the text. What kinds of words are being used? Are they words the character would usually use or is this a special circumstance? What is the punctuation and what meaning does it add to the text?

Understanding Punctuation There are specific meanings for certain punctuation marks: a comma (,) indicates structure, parenthetical phrases, and lists; a semi-colon (;) indicates a new thought or the clarifying of a previous thought; a colon (:) indicates a list, a run-on sentences or a clarifying statement; and a period (.) is always the end of a thought. Hyphens (-), parenthesis (), and other marks serve the same purposes in monologues as they do in any text.

Motivation and Objective After you have the surface understanding, begin to look deeper by asking to whom you are talking and why. There are a couple words to describe the “why” of your speech; they are motivation and objective.

Objective The objective is what the character wants or needs. It can be as broad as the objective for the entire play, called super-objective, or you can make the objective as specific as why a particular word is being used. There is always an objective, even if it is as simple as liking the sound of your own voice, though that is rarely the case in theatre.

Monologue Levels Levels refer to the energy, volume, intensity, or emotional states of the speaker. You can decide and map out what levels you think are appropriate when you read through the monologue, but to try out as many options as possible before deciding on what you feel fits the character you have created the best. Just as you wrote down all the Back Story information, you will want to make note of the places you change, increase, or decrease levels so that you are aware of whether or not you are rehearsing what you intended or if you have found something new that you like better.

Punctuation & Pauses When you are ready to say the monologue, go back to the punctuation because it indicates when pauses and breaths should be taken. A comma is a brief pause but not long enough for a breath; semi-colons, colons, and periods or other end marks are the acceptable places to breath. Breathing needs to be a specific choice because an audience hears the breath, or a long pause, as an indication of a completed thought so it cannot come in the middle of the sentence. (A written example of poor breath choice is: The other day. I went to the. Grocery store but it was. So far away.)

Important Tips Always remember that neither you, nor your character, do anything without first deciding to do it, make the decision making part of your “internal” monologue as you go through the lines. Note: Both Back Story and Scoring are a process, adjustments can be made at any time but it is important to record the process so you may go back to a former idea if needed and you do not have to constantly re-invent the character.

Memorization (Advice from Actors) Read through repeatedly. Record your monologue to MP3 and listen to it over and over again. (Think about how you learn lyrics to a song.) Chunking (Memorize smaller sections at a time.) Practice, Practice, Practice – Everywhere! (In the shower, in the car, going to sleep.) Relax and Don’t Panic