Monday 14th May
Today I was working on refining
my Shakespeare monologue which I will be performing tomorrow. These last minute
changes will help me to enhance my performance tomorrow.
To start the session, we carried
out a comprehensive warmup which involved several different exercises such as
the intercostal diaphragmatic breathing exercise and diction exercises. Once I
was nice and warm, we were then able to work on my speech.
The first time that I went
through the speech it was just for words, to ensure I had each section in
order. I managed to remember the whole speech and therefore continued to work
on the delivery of the speech.
There were a few places during
the speech where I needed to address my intonation as I can get locked into a
monotone especially in the passages where there are lists and not much
punctuation. The part that starts ‘Or, if I live’ up until ‘spirits resort’ has
always posed a challenge to me in terms of maintaining characterisation and
engaging the observer through a varied delivery. When I unitised this speech,
that particular section was difficult to separate because Juliet seems to be
just listing all the negative things about the tomb. At times I feel I am really
connecting with Juliet’s character, I understand her vulnerabilities and I can
feel her fear and panic about the future. I can also get some way towards to
understanding the thrill that she is feeling about her love for Romeo. Overall
though, it is the combination of all these emotions coming together, coupled
with her desperation that are still giving me an ongoing challenge.
A positive for me is always being
able to pitch the start of the piece in a sensitive and thoughtful manner. I
can feel her sadness at saying goodbye to Romeo and the insecurity that it
creates in her. I have been working on facial expression, I know this is an
area where I could improve. I don’t always convey emotion through my face and
actually this is something that I have been working on in dance as well.
Another area of movement is sitting down and standing up from a chair. Wearing
the long skirt subtly changed the way I moved around the performance space and
it helped when I was sitting down I was able to drop gently onto the seat and
with both knees bent, able to rise quite elegantly.
Another refinement is clasping my
hands to my chest on the line ‘I fear it is’. I feel Juliet is almost feeling
for her heartbeat, checking that she is breathing. This really helped me to
maintain the characterisation.
I think I am as ready as I will
ever be to perform this monologue. I have had to invest more in order to
realise Juliet’s character as the language has never come completely naturally
to me.
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