Do you're research. Do you're research. Do you're research.
When you pull a monologue from a play, read the damn play. [Full Stop]
When you pull a monologue from a play, read the damn play. [Full Stop]
Been using that same piece for a hot minute and still haven't read it? Read the damn play. [Full Stop]
You're in rehearsals and you keep being surprised by new text. READ THE DAMN PLAY! Read! Read the damn script. Ain't no half-steppin! Do not pass go unless you've READ IT ALL.
Yes, I know you're brilliant. I know your imagination is full that you can create all the imagined circumstances you want. But there's absolutely no feeling like being anchored in a history -- a history that is freely given to you. It boggles the mind the number of times I used to fly solo in my early auditioning days before I got "it" --- that reading the whole damn thing is a good thing! It's like going on a road trip and having a map, the GPS, and unlimited roaming. It'll be damn near impossible to get lost. You have so much information to pull from. Ruminate on. Luxuriate in. (I love ending sentences with prepositions.)
It's hard, even for me, and I LOVE TO READ. You know what I do when I move to a knew city? Find a grocery store, get a transportation pass, and find the closest library. That is me in a nutshell. And with all that passion for reading, sometimes reading the full play still gets to me, which is crazy because reading is a pretty chill activity. Sit. Look. Repeat. (Eat or drink if you want to.)
It's funny that I find myself in my current predicament. I need to read some text, quite a few tragedies. But... I don't want to be depressed. I know, I know, of all the reasons for not reading (like.. you know... actually not being able to read, this one feels weak as hell.) But dagnabit, I'm already going through a lot. So, to willingly read a script that will depress me feeds the procrastination beast within me because I don't want to make myself go somewhere (in my mind) that I don't want to be. I DON'T WANNA! So what must I tell myself?
It's just a story. It isn't real. Nothing in the story is currently happening. Fascinating isn't it? The power of storytelling? That something imagined can have such an impact! That very (continual) epiphany makes me want to be a storyteller more. So all I have to do is read it. Even though the text will take me on a wild ride of emotions.
But it's just a story. Have you ever woken up from a bad dream where someone betrayed you, hurt you, did you epically dirty? And you end up walking around that entire morning pissed about something that never happened? Pissed at someone who didn't actually do anything to you? Pissed at something happening in your subconscious? Angry at the world about your life... you know... that DREAM life that didn't happen? Or have you ever watched a TV show or movie and by the end, was so angered/hurt by a character's actions and so you stop being able to like the actor who played that character? An actor who in day-to-day life didn't actually do anything? BUT YOU'RE STILL MAD?
It's just a story.
So yes, I need to get over myself because I have some reading to do. When you're sharing a part of a story (read:the monologue), it behooves you know know the entire story. Ain't no half-stepping. You want to elicit the reaction from the audience and move them. You want to have the story somehow resonate with our very real human experiences of love, loss, lust, longing and so on and so forth. You want to see life. Share that. The power is in the details.
