Struggling to Find Monologues? Read This
I have promised a lot in that title, I hope this is helpful...
Something I have learnt this week:
Be Eccentric
Don’t be boring.
This industry is incredibly saturated.
If you’re an actor, you’re 100% a little bit fucking weird.
But you probably suppress it when you meet industry people/or just general non-acting folk.
Ordinary people will get ordinary results.
Your eccentricity may rub some people up the other way, but if you’re ordinary, they won’t think about you at all.
Something I have struggled with this week:
Finding Monologues
The worst. The WORST.
It is genuinely the most uninspiring, boring task.
It isn’t that it’s physically or cognitively demanding.
Simply put, it is mindnumbingly boring.
I have stumbled on one technique, which I thought I would share.
A lot of Drama Schools (including mine, hence this newsletter) have their 3rd years record monologues.
1: Go to each drama school's recent graduates.
2: Find an actor who has similar casting to you.
3: See which monologue(s) they have done. (It should be on their graduate page or on their Spotlight.)
Of course, some drama schools' graduates don’t record monologues, or the actors have removed them. However, more often than not, it is a pretty good way for inspiration, at least.
Project I am working on:
Long(er)-form acting articles
I am in the process of writing some standalone articles for “The Actors Actuality,” which will be concurrent with the newsletter.
Just concepts at the moment, but I think I’ll look to start rolling them out in the next few months.
A Film/TV Show I have seen:
Gladiator II
The writer deeply sighs.
Here we go.
It was... meh.
Okay, I didn’t think it was awful, but it really wasn’t great.
Most of the characters lacked substance, little was contextualised, and some of the CGI was awful.
What the fuck was that monkey/dog thing at the beginning?
I am a huge Gladiator fan (thanks to my dad), but this film left a very neutral feeling in my mouth.
To be honest, I was a little bored throughout the middle of the film.
I am going to watch the extended cut of the first film to drown my sorrows.
A Quote:
“You just need to have the courage to eliminate everything that doesn't directly feed what you really want.”