Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller

Willy:

"Business is definitely business, but just listen for a minute You don't understand this. When I was a boy-eighteen, nineteen---I was already on the road. And there was a question in my mind as to whether selling had a future for me. Because in those days I had a yearning to go to Alaska.

See, there were three gold strikes in one month in Alaska, and I felt like going out. Just for the ride, you might say. Oh, yeah, my father lived many years in Alaska. He was an adventurous man. We've got quite a little streak of self-reliance in our family. I thought I'd go out with my older brother and try to locate him, and maybe settle in the North with the old man. And I was almost decided to go, when I met a salesman in the Parker House. His name was Dave Singleman. And he was eighty-four years old, and he'd drummed merchandise in thirty-one states. And old Dave, he'd go up to his room, y'understand, put on his green velvet slippers---I'll never forget---and pick up his phone and call the buyers, and without ever leaving his room, at the age of eighty-four, he made his living. And when I say that, I realized that selling was the greatest career a man could want. 'Cause what could be more satisfying than to be able to go, at the age of eight-four, into twenty of thirty different cities, and pick up a phone, and be remembered and loved and helped by so may different people? Do you know? When he died--- and by the way he died the death of a salesman, in his green velvet slippers in the smoker of the New York, New Haven and Hartford, going into Boston---when he died, Hundreds of salesman and buyers were at his funeral. Things were sad on a lotta trains for months after that.

See In those days there was personality in it, Howard. There was respect, and comradeship, and gratitude in it. Today, it's all cut and dried and there's no chance for bringing friendship to bear---or personality. You see what I mean? They don't know me any more!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There were a couple of reasons I didn't choose this monologue, first of all the part required a strong American accent which I could not do. Also, I felt that there wasn't enough movement in this speech, when I was looking for monologues I wanted something that was going to give me the movement I needed to properly portray the physicality and body language of the character.

The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

Tom Wingfield:
"Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion. To begin with, I turn bark time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy. In Spain there was revolution. Here there was only shouting and confusion. In Spain there was Guernica. Here there were disturbances of labour, sometimes pretty violent, in otherwise peaceful cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Saint Louis. . . . This is the social background of the play. The play is memory. Being a memory play, it is dimly lighted, it is sentimental, it is not realistic. In memory everything seems to happen to music. That explains the fiddle in the wings. I am the narrator of the play, and also a character in it. The other characters are my mother Amanda, my sister Laura and a gentleman caller who appears in the final scenes. He is the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary from a world of reality that we were somehow set apart from. But since I have a poet's weakness for symbols, I am using this character also as a symbol; he is the long-delayed but always expected something that we live for. There is a fifth character in the play who doesn't appear except in this larger-than-life-size photograph over the mantel. This is our father who left us a long time ago.He was a telephone man who fell in love with long distances; he gave up his job with the telephone company and skipped the light fantastic out of town. . . .The last we heard of him was a picture postcard from Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast of Mexico, containing a message of two words - 'Hello - Good-bye!' and no address. I think the rest of the play will explain itself ."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I liked this monologue but I did not choose to use it as one of my final submissions. The main reason for this was because the character required a strong American accent, this was a problem for me and I struggled to get the accent. I wanted to show my vocal skills and this speech didn't have enough alternation in pitch or range so it was all kind of monotone. I tried to change the tone of the piece to give it more of a range of vocalisation but it took too much away from the words and the meaning of the scene.

Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare

Sebastian:

"This is the air; that is the glorious sun; This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't; And though 'tis wonder that enwraps me thus, Yet 'tis not madness. Where's Antonio, then? I could not find him at the Elephant: Yet there he was; and there I found this credit, That he did range the town to seek me out. His counsel now might do me golden service; For though my soul disputes well with my sense, That this may be some error, but no madness, Yet doth this accident and flood of fortune So far exceed all instance, all discourse, That I am ready to distrust mine eyes And wrangle with my reason that persuades me To any other trust but that I am mad Or else the lady's mad; yet, if 'twere so, She could not sway her house, command her followers, Take and give back affairs and their dispatch With such a smooth, discreet and stable bearing As I perceive she does: there's something in't That is deceiveable. But here the lady comes."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I enjoyed this monologue but I did not decide to use it, my reason for not choosing this monologue is that I have played the role of Sebastian before and I already had my Look Back in Anger monologue where I'd played that character before so I wanted to show off my range of abilities by going for a character that I didn't know. I really enjoyed this play and enjoyed playing the role of Sebastian, I will definitely keep this monologue in mind for future reference.

Casina - Titus Maccius Platus

LYSIDAMUS: Ah, yes, yes, there's nothing in the world like love, no bloom like its bloom; not a thing can you mention that has more flavour and more savour. Upon my soul, it's most surprising that cooks, with all their use of spices, don't use this one spice that excels them all. Why, when you spice a dish with love it'll tickle every palate, I do believe. Not a thing can be either salt or sweet without a dash of love: it will turn gall, bitter thought it be, to honey--an old curmudgeon to a [self-consciously] pleasing and polished gentleman. It is more from my own case than from hearsay I draw this conclusion. Now that I'm in love with Casina, how I have bloomed out! I'm more natty than nattiness itself. I keep all the perfumers on the jump; wherever there's a nice scent to be had, I get scented, so as to please her. [preening himself] And it seems to me I do please her. [pauses] But my wife does torment me by--living! [glancing toward his house; stiffens] I see her, standing there with a sour look. And unless she's gone deaf, she's heard every word. Well, I suppose I must greet this bad bargain of mine with some smooth talk. [to audience, hopefully] Unless there's anyone here who would like to substitute for me. [vainly waits for reply; turns to his wife, fondly] And how goes it with my dear and my delight?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This monologue is from the play Casina, written by Titus Maccius Plautus which is set in Ancient Rome, and is spoken by Lysidamus. The style of this is a translation of a classical Greek play.  I can’t really relate to this monologue because he speaks about love but not the love we see today, he speaks of what love was like back in Ancient Greece, he describes love in ways of flavour. I don't believe that this monologue would have shown my acting abilities. I could not relate to the character which is important for a monologue.

I wanted a strong piece for my classical monologue and this speech did not reach my expectations.

Henry IV - William Shakespeare

FALSTAFF: If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have misused the king's press damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, yeomen's sons; inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banes -- such a commodity of warm slaves as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum, such as fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wild duck. I pressed me none but such toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies -- slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; and such as indeed were never soldiers, but discarded unjust servingmen, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fall'n; the cankers of a calm world and a long peace; ten times more dishonorable ragged than an old fazed ancient; and such have I to fill up the rooms of them as have bought out their services that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat. Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on, for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There's not a shirt and a half in all my company, and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stol'n from my host at Saint Alban's, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This monologue was probably the most difficult as it was Shakespearean.This monologue was very difficult to translate but I liked in nonetheless, as soon as I read it I started getting ideas about the character. Performing a Shakespearean monologue today is difficult because there are few guidelines, this is because we do not perform them the way they were originally intended to be performed, for example they would have performed this with very little facial expression because a lot of the audience would not have been able to see the actor meaning he would have to rely heavily on his voice. 

I portrayed Falstaff as an old angry man who was very disappointed. At this point in the play Falstaff has acquired an army by going through villages and offering money to common folk. In this speech he has realised that he's made a mistake. This monologue is a rant about the poor quality of his company.

One of the main themes in the play is honour, Falstaff is one of the most dishonourable characters in the play serving with his dishonourable partner in crime, Prince Hal. Dishonour is not an easy theme to portray through a monologue, many dishonourable characters are usually that of a sneaky and dishonest nature. I did not want to portray Falstaff in this way because of his importance to the storyline and the archetype he was. I chose to portray Falstaff in a loud and grumpy way, I think this was effective because he was more of a full on character so the audience got the full range of his personality.

My physicality for Falstaff was very hunched because he is quite old and he's been in wars. My view was that he was very cocky, I believe Falstaff thinks he has more rights than everyone else because he is a war veteran. To show this, whilst trying to stay hunched I tried to be open with my physicality. I paced up and down the floor during the speech because it shoes the frustration in the characters mind and that is one of the main aspects of this scene, frustration. Because of the frustration my facial expressions were very similar to that of an angry old man. I believe this was effective because it is something that people can relate to which isn't too common in a Shakespearean piece.

I seen Falstaff as having quite a deep rough sounding voice because of the way he is as a character so that is the voice I developed, whilst developing this character I realised I could go deeper with the voice. The way I would describe the voice is raspy.

Look Back in Anger - John Osbourne

Jimmy: "[Don’t try and patronize me. (Turning to CLIFF.)] She’s so clumsy. I watch for her to do the same things every night. The way she jumps on the bed, as if she were stamping on someone’s face, and draws the curtains back with a great clatter, in that casually destructive way of hers. It’s like someone launching a battleship. Have you ever noticed how noisy women are? (Crosses below chairs to LC.) Have you? The way they kick the floor about, simply walking over it? Or have you watched them sitting at their dressing tables, dropping their weapons and banging down their bits of boxes and brushes and lipsticks? (He faces her dressing table.) I’ve watched her doing it night after night. When you see a woman in front of her bedroom mirror, you realize what a refined sort of a butcher she is. (Turns in.) Did you ever see some dirty old Arab, sticking his fingers into some mess of lamb fat and gristle? Well, she’s just like that. Thank God they don’t have many women surgeons! Those primitive hands would have your guts out in no time. Flip! Out it comes, like the powder out of its box. Flop! Back it goes, like the powder puff on the table. [CLIFF (grimacing cheerfully). Ugh! Stop it!] (Moving upstage.) She’d drop your guts like hair clips and fluff all over the floor. You’ve got to be fundamentally insensitive to be as noisy and as clumsy as that. (He moves C, and leans against the table.) I had a flat underneath a couple of girls once. You heard every damned thing those bastards did, all day and night. The most simple, everyday actions were a sort of assault course on your sensibilities. I used to plead with them. I even got to screaming the most ingenious obscenities I could think of, up the stairs at them. But nothing, nothing, would move them. With those two, even a simple visit to the lavatory sounded like a medieval siege. Oh, they beat me in the end – I had to go. I expect they’re still at it. Or they’re probably married by now, and driving some other poor devils out of their minds. Slamming their doors, stamping their high heels, banging their irons and saucepans – the eternal flaming racket of the female."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I really like this monologue and I have had previous experience playing the role of Jimmy Porter. I like the character because we share some of the same traits like sarcasm. This means I can relate to the character. This individual piece is very interesting to me because it shows a side of Jimmy that is very strong. In the monologue he is ranting about Alison and generalising women as a whole, Alison is in the room with him and the speech is spoken to Cliff. This monologue pretty much shows most of Jimmy's character and shows what kind of person he is.

For this piece I used a slightly more aggressive version of my own voice which was at some points in the speech quite comedic when he was exaggerating. This was effective because I didn't want to be really dramatic to the point where it was unrealistic. My voice was very firm and strong unlike the voice I used for Simon which was very shaky and scared, this is a great technique that shows my vocal variety not just in terms of accents and voices but the quality and strength of it too.

I started the monologue with my hands in my pockets to show that he starts off quite calm and gets more aggressive and his personal feelings come out more. This is shown by the hand gestures and the body language. The more into the rant Jimmy got the more I would move my arms about and animate myself, trying to express the seriousness of the speech to the audience through physicality.

I think one of the reasons Jimmy is very opinionated may be because of past experiences, in the monologue he talks about this flat he had underneath a couple of girls. He rants about how annoying they were, I believe Jimmy has had plenty of experience dealing with the type of people he doesn't like. I believe he has never really gotten to know any women who share the same beliefs and views as him which is why generalises women the way he does. I think another reason Jimmy dislikes women is because he doesn't really understand them, they think in a way that is different to him, therefore he believes they are intellectually inferior.

Back in the time this play was written it was not uncommon for men to be sexist and believe they held more power than women. I believe that a lot of the writer comes through the character of Jimmy, Osbourne was often criticised for the remarks he made about social standing and towards his own family, his wives and children, Osbourne was part of the Angry Young Man movement. In the play Jimmy is what most people would describe as an angry young man, he shares many similar beliefs and opinions about how the social and political structure has hindered his dreams much like his creator. This was interesting to me because it allowed me to develop my character by looking at the writer not just the character.

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

This monologue is by Simon:

My mind isn’t right. It isn’t. I’ll have one of my goes if I’m not careful. My mind- (he turns. Calls.) Ra-alph!

Jack signals to his troupe to stop. They do so.

If Ralph was here… When I was eight I think… When I was eight I went down to the country and there… There was this horse in a field and… (Stops. Calls) Ra-alph!

Pause. The three in search of the beasts have moved on again but jack signals with a brief ululation for them to stop.

If Ralph was here- Ralph would know. (He stops. The faint moonlight catches the pigs head. It’s right behind him and he hasn’t seen it in the darkness. Freezes with fear. A whimper) Oh. Oh no.

Jack signals his troupe on again and just as he does so, Simon calls.

(shouts) Ra-alph!

Jack calls to them to stop. They do so.

Simon is in front of the pigs head.

It’s blood. And it’s flies. It’s blood. (He starts to reach for the head.) That head. That head. When I was eight I saw a man kill a bird. And I thought… Merridew says I don’t pull my weight. Funny. Why should you pull weight? Eh, piggy? Piggy? (He is touching it with a thrill of horror.) Those are flies. There’s blood and there is flies. It’s not my fault there’s blood and flies is it? You look stupid come to that. (He starts to work the pigs mouth, like a puppet’s.) ‘Oh no I don’t!’ ‘oh yes you do!’ ‘You’re a bad boy do you hear me!’ (Starting to giggle.)  Like Jenkins on that picnic. ‘You’re no go, boy!’ ‘You’re no go!’ ‘I’m not no go, sir!’ ‘Oh yes you are- you’re an ignorant, silly little boy! And I know you are because I’m the beast! You hear me! I’m the beast!’ (He scared himself. Starting to feel the fit coming on him.) You’re not. You’re not. Pigs head on a stick. You’re just a silly… (Very scared) I feel funny. I’m going to… don’t make me have a turn, sir, will you? Please don’t let me have a turn, sir. Ralph! Ralph! (And the fit starts. He begins reaching out for the head then falls, feet drumming on the earth, choking.)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I really liked this monologue, there are a few reasons for this, the first being that it is different from what I would usually perform, this is good because it shows that I have a variety of acting skills. This is different from the other two speeches I have chosen because  the one I chose from Look Back in Anger by Jimmy Porter is very naturalistic and relies on the words and the vocal aility whereas this monologue contains lots of silence, this means I can show the emotional and mental state of the character through facial expressions and physicality. If a drama school asked me for two audition speeches I believe that these two would contrast well and I would be able to show that I can put myself in the emotional state of both characters. This monologue is quite realistic and invokes techniques like mime. I like this monologue because there is a lot tat I can do with it. I believe the main tone of this speech is feverish or melancholy, this is shown by the way that the themes and text of the speech are quite gloomy. This is feverish because at this point in the play Simon is ill. In my opinion there is a bit of grotesqueness. I tried to include this grotesqueness but in a small way because Simon is quite a small character and I didn't want to go over the top. An example of a Berkovian technique I used was exaggerated mime. 

Throughout the play Simon is confronted with multiple horrid tasks that no schoolboy should ever have to face, this makes it hard for me to sympathise and/or emphasise with him. For example, in the beginning of the play Simon and the rest of the boys suffer a plane crash on a desolate island where they then have to survive, Simon being unfriended wanders off where he finds a severed pigs head on a stick, the head, covered in flies is what Simon believes to be the 'Lord of the Flies'. Simon talks to himself and also has visions of the head talking to him, resulting in him literally scaring himself to death.

Here is my first read through of the script: 

Here are the notes I was given:

• Need to fixate the pigs head in one spot and keep it there
• Walk towards the head so there's more movement
• Eyes were moving around too much, keep eyes fixated
• Don't turn head to shout Ralph, we thought it'd be a better idea if I kept my eyes forward or looking at the pig showing that Simon is scared.
• Work on the mime
• Keep feet in place when miming because it means I can turn back and it will be easier to relocate where the head is
• Bigger pauses, this will make the monologue much more effective.

I used these notes to improve my performance, one way I did this was by focusing my eyes to a certain spot on the wall, this spot was where the pigs head was, this was effective because there was no movement in my eyes when I was looking at the pig which made the scene much more realistic.

In this piece I took a couple of creative risks for example I used quite a southern accent which was not too difficult for me as it is not an accent that is uncommon to me I believe this paid off nonetheless in a big way as it helped separate the character from myself.
Also, I used mime in my piece, in the scene Simon talks to a pigs head on a stick, I could've played the part without the mime and just spoke to the audience but I believe it was more effective for the audience to see me talking to something that I had to convince them was real.

I used my tone of voice, body language and facial expressions excessively to portray Simon for example, my body language mimicked that of a timid schoolboy who was cold and alone, I was hunched over with my arms crossed in a protective manner. I was nervous going into this monologue so I used that to my advantage, I did this by shaking a lot showing that I was cold and scared I also breathed heavily with a shaky breath. This was effective because it gave the audience more insight into the conditions inside Simon's mind.