Contemporary Monologue- Motortown

Motortown - Danny & Jade- Scene 6-

Within class we read the script of the play called 'Motortown' by Simon Stephens. Written during the London bombings of 2005, 'Motortown' is a fierce, violent and controversial response to the anti-war movement – and to the Iraq war itself. 

Synopsis: Danny returns from Basra to an England that is foreign to him, the play’s episodic structure leading him through a bleak and bitter portrait of the country he fought to save. His brother tells him that his ex-girlfriend doesn’t want to see him after being frightened by the letters he wrote home. Danny visits her only to find she is now with someone else, sending him on a journey through his once hometown, a place of questionable morals and men selling guns, anti-war protesters and middle class swingers. 

Chaotic and complex and powerful  'Motortown'  portrays a volatile and morally insecure world. The play premiered in 2006 at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
 I liked this script and feel as if you need to have a strong mindset to play these roles. It has a dark theme and in some parts it becomes very aggressive. When it came to looking at monologues I decided to revisit this script and one which caught my mind was the monologue Danny had towards the end of the script where he had just killed Jade then put her in a body bag and got on with what he was doing, as he was saying his monologue. The style of this is serious and it creates suspense with the audience and I like that feeling and it would be great if you could get the audition panel to feel like that.
 A reason why I like this script is because you can really play with how Danny expresses his anger while saying it. I feel as if he's saying all of this because he's gone to fight for his country and when he comes back theres people he saw out there living where he lived and felt as if he's fought for them. I like how Simon Stephens has personalised Danny, because as you can see in the monologue, one pat he is raging and ranting on about the immigrants and then his whole mood changes, and he speaks to Jade whilst she's lying there dead in a bodybag.
After reading this with Olga I didn't feel as if I could perform it to its standard first time I read through it. I felt I didn't express Danny as angry as he would've been or was in the script and that I seemed afraid to swear and be racist, as you can see in the picture the text does become dark, harsh and racist, and when Danny says those things he says it in anger so he'll be saying it aggressively and emphasising the swear words and racial comments. Olga gave me feedback by asking who was I talking too? And I replied, 'the body bag on the floor' and Olga said she didn't see it when I done it. She said I need to make everyone believe that I had actually just killed jade and was talking to her whilst she was inside the body bag, and really believe in it because if I don't believe in it, how will anybody else?  Ive decided to put this one to the side for the time being as its one of the first ones I've looked at, so I'll keep it in the 'bank'. 

Exercises and warm ups-

Today with Olga we done various exercises with our mouths and different techniques to help with our auditions. We were given a set of tongue twisters and songs, which we would do. 

To prepare for rehearsals, auditions, or performances, actors need to do three types of warm-ups. Physical, vocal and mental…and the mental, which is focusing your attention on the work will actually be combined with the physical and vocal warm-ups. To do all of this should take you no more than 15 minutes.

First you need to do a physical warm up. While you do this, you can work on your focus and concentration, by paying attention to your breathing and to the feeling in your body and muscles. When you find yourself thinking about other things, simply come back to your body or your breathing.

Your physical warm up should take you briefly through your entire body, with the goal being to reduce tension; because tension and stress can stop you from breathing, thinking, feeling, and responding—all things that are essential to good acting. Because the voice is housed in the body, the physical warm-up is also essential to preparing your vocal apparatus.

After you do a physical warm-up, it’s time to do a brief vocal warm up. The goal is release any tension, prepare the vocal apparatus, and work your range. As in the physical warm up, keep breathing and keep your focus on what you are doing and experiencing.

Remember, warming up will make your performances better; it will make you auditions better. It is a simple strategy that will improve all of your work. While it will take a few minutes, it will pay you dividends. So take responsibility for your work and warm up before every rehearsal, performance, and audition. 

'The Fire exit must be clear' is another exercise which we were shown by Olga. Within this exercise you have a list of different expressions and for each one you have to say a line given to you, without showing your teeth and furrowed brows. The meaning of the sentence changed every time we changed our expression because our facial expression and physical posture was changing with the expression.

At the end of today were told that Christian Burgess Director of Drama at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, was coming in to have a chat to us and a Q&A. This was a helpful source as it gave us inside knowledge and viewpoints from inside a drama school. He gave us some advice and the one that I felt was most important was when he said "All the panel want is to see you" he elaborated on this and was telling us not to pretend to be something were not and just be ourselves. Christian is a very down to earth man, and is not what I stereo typed the typical director of a drama school to be like. At the end he was very generous and said he would organise free tickets for us to see Guildhalls' upcoming show 'Lulu' which we are going to see on Monday the 30th of November. 

Reading A Children's Book

In this session we were with Olga, and we were all handed out a children's book to go off and read through by ourselves. The book I was given was called 'Hairy Maclary'. Hairy Maclary is a fictional dog, the hero of a series of children's picture books created by the New Zealand author Dame Lynley Dodd, and making his first appearance in 1983 with the publication of Hairy Maclary From Donaldson’s Dairy. We then regrouped and listened to a few of us read our books. This exercise was interesting as it changed all our voices in different ways. Our pitched slow down, we emphasised more of our words and our speech had more of a rhythm or pattern to them. Mine was a rhyme so there was an obvious rhythm within it. I enjoyed this exercise as it wasnt what I was expecting and reminded me of how much I voices change, depending on the audience we're talking too.

Auditions Unit-

Introduction-
In order to gain work actors are required to audition. An actor has very little time or material with which to impress their skill upon the director or the auditioning body, therefore the audition piece has to be very carefully thought about, rehearsed and sweated over.
At this point our current programme of study is to begin to prepare for auditions for drama schools and for Higher Education institutes and will be utilising the skills we have gained. This is the first step for us which will be hundreds of future auditions.

Assignment-
The aim of this assignment is to give us the opportunity to expand upon our understanding of the audition speech and process. It is to introduce us to the idea of knowing our speech and what we can do to maximize our chances of being picked for the role or the place in Higher Education. Ultimately it is to increase the resources that we  draw upon at any audition when asked for a monologue or audition piece. Not least it is to boost our confidence in our delivery and knowledge.

Learning Outcomes-

1.  Know how to select suitable audition material. 
2.  Be able to relate vocal and physical performance technique to character and style. 
3.  Be able to use vocal and physical technique in performance.