Unit 23 - Developing voice for the actor

Monday 13^th November

The main aim of the session today was to practice through my monologue with the aim to have it ready to perform next week.

We started the session with a warmup to make sure that I was fully prepared to practice my piece. The warmup included a gentle jog around the room followed by galloping and skipping. We then carried out the intercostal diaphragmatic breathing exercise. To finish off we ran through our usual diction exercises.

For the rest of the session I was working on my monologue. After a few times of running through the piece, I spoke to my lecturer and she gave me some feedback. We both came to the conclusion that the first time that I practice the piece is always the best. Therefore when I come to perform this, I shouldn’t practice it beforehand otherwise it may not be as good as it was the first time that I practiced it. Another comment which I received was that some of the lines still need a bit of work. At the moment I am speaking too quickly which means that some of the ends of the lines are lost. I need to make sure that I keep the pace consistent throughout the whole piece so that all of the lines can be heard and that I can apply my diction and projection techniques throughout. Another piece of feedback which I received was that I need to make the movement more direct. I move on the line ”My husband…” and at the moment this is quite a weak movement as I turn to my left and walk forward for a few steps. This action needs to be more direct as it needs to show the personality of the character. The last comment which I received was to make sure that my projection is kept up throughout the piece. At the moment there are parts at which my projection is lacking which then makes it hard for the audience to understand what I am saying.

I think that I am improving every week with this piece and that I am very nearly ready to perform this for the final time. I just need to work on a few things that were pointed out to me today in preparation for my final rendition.