2013 Monologues Unit 4 AREA OF STUDY 1: Monologue Interpretation (50%) OUTCOME 1 This area of study focuses on the interpretation of a monologue from a playscript selected from the monologue list. This area of study requires you to: • Select a monologue from the prescribed monologue list. • Create an interpretation of your selected monologue by developing a monologue performance. You will, of course, apply the stagecraft of acting to create your performance. Area of study 2: Scene Interpretation OUTCOME 2 • Students outline an interpretation of the scene focusing on the ways in which the scene could be approached as a theatrical performance, including its place within the playscript, its specific structure, its character/s, its themes, images and ideas, its theatrical possibilities, its theatrical style/s and the ways in which stagecraft could be employed to convey its intended meaning/s. Students also study the scene in relation to the historical, cultural and social contexts of the playscript and influences on the playwright. In their theatrical brief, they also demonstrate an understanding of the creation of character by an actor, possible application of other stagecraft, research that helps to inform an interpretation and decisions made. This area of study requires you to: • Develop a theatrical brief that presents an interpretation of a scene 2013 Monologues 1 • • • • • • • • • Play: King Oedipus Playwright: Sophocles Character: CHORUS Gender: Neutral (male or female) Serves the expository function of a chorus Implied Style: Ancient Greek Tragedy Setting (TIME): Ancient Greece (around the time of Thebes civil war) Setting (PLACE): In and around the palace at Thebes Themes: The unwritten law of fate, the limits of free will, power and determination, the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, willingness to ignore the truth 2013 Monologues 2 • Play: The Skin of Our Teeth • Playwright: Thornton Wilder • Character: SABINA (Miss Somerset) • Gender: Female The maid of the Antrobus family • Style: Non-naturalism / Epic Theatre • Setting (TIME): • Setting (PLACE): in the fictional town of Excelsiur, New Jersey. The Ice Age / Great Flood / War • Themes: The life of mankind, human character vs human need, history repeats itself, art enhances humanity 2013 Monologues 3 • Play: Woza Albert • Playwright: Percy Mtwa, Mbongenie Ngema, Barney Simon • Character: MBONGENI • Gender: Male • Style: Political Satire • Setting (TIME) Present day • Setting (PLACE) South Africa • Themes: The second Coming of Jesus, Resisting religious oppression, the concepts of freedom, police brutality and political imprisonment 2013 Monologues 4 • Play: Songs For Nobodies • Playwright: Joanna Murray-Smith • Character: BEATRICE ETHEL APPLETON • Gender: Female A “nobody” who recounts an intimate tale of how her life was transformed by an encounter with a singing icon. • Style: • Setting (TIME) • Setting (PLACE) • Themes: 2013 Monologues 5 • • • • Play: Babes in The Woods Playwright: Tom Wright Character: AUNTY AVARICIA Gender: Neutral (The monologue is contained in a play-within-a-play. In the play-within-a-play, the character of Aunty Avaricia can be interpreted as if played by a male or female actor.) • • • • Style: Pseudo-Colonial pantomime Setting (TIME): Setting (PLACE): lost in the Australian Bush Themes: Australian social history, criticism of government, history and treatment of asylum seekers 2013 Monologues 6 • • • • • • Play: The Glass Menagerie Playwright: Tenessee Williams Character: JIM Gender: Male Implied Style: Expressionism Setting (TIME): Tom, from an indefinite point in the future, remembers the winter and spring of 1937. • Setting (PLACE): An apartment in St Louis, America. Jim is a potential suitor to Laura, daughter of Amanda • Themes: Freedom and confinement, impossibility of true escape, duty and responsibility, accepting reality, the power of memory, abandonment 2013 Monologues 7 • • • • • • Play: The Glass Menagerie Playwright: Tenessee Williams Character: AMANDA Gender: Female Implied Style: Expressionism Setting (TIME): Tom, from an indefinite point in the future, remembers the winter and spring of 1937. • Setting (PLACE): An apartment in St. Louis, America. Mother who is trying to find her daughter Laura a suitor • Themes: Freedom and confinement, impossibility of true escape, duty and responsibility, accepting reality, the power of memory, abandonment 2013 Monologues 8 • • • • • • Play: Lloyd Beckmann, Beekeeper Playwright: Tim Stitz and Kelly Somes Character: LLOYD Gender: Male Implied Style: Solo Non-Naturalism performance Setting (TIME): Stitz in the present day summons up past stories of his grandfather • Setting (PLACE): present day looking back on Depressionera Queensland, Australia • Themes: Memory and forgetting, family history, inheritance, the ripening of age and inevitability of death 2013 Monologues 9 • • • • • • • Play: The Entertainer Playwright: John Osborne Character: PHOEBE Gender: Female Style: Kitchen Sink Realism Setting (TIME): late 1950s Setting (PLACE): a music hall in England, and at Archie Rice’s (a failing music-hall performer) family house • Themes: the condition of post-Imperial Britain 2013 Monologues 10 • • • • • • • Play: On The Harmfulness of Tobacco Playwright: Anton Chekhov Character: NYUKHIN Gender: Male Implied Style: Expressionism Realism / Farce Setting (TIME): late 1800s Setting (PLACE): set in a town hall in a small provinicial town where the main character is to give a lecture • Themes: Co-existence of comedy and tragedy, family relationships, marital discord, freedom, individuality 2013 Monologues 11 • Play: Ruby Moon • Playwright: Matt Cameron • Character: SYLVIE • Gender: Female Mother, who is trying to cope with the disappearance of her child, Ruby • Implied Style: Theatre of the Absurd / Black Comedy / Gothic expressionism • Setting (TIME): present day • Setting (PLACE): set in picture perfect Flaming Tree Grove • Themes: Grief, losing a child, contemporary fear, suburban isolation and loneliness, innocence 2013 Monologues 12 • Play: Tamburlaine the Great, Part One • Playwright: Christopher Marlowe • Character: TAMBURLAINE • Gender: Male A Scythian shepherd and a nomadic bandit who takes control of the Persian Empire • Implied Style: Elizabethan Drama • Setting (TIME): 1590s • Setting (PLACE): set around Ancient Wars and royalty in Persia, Egypt, Turkey and Babylon • Themes: Renaissance humanism, immense power, death, revenge, war, religious 2013 Monologues 13 • Play: Tamburlaine the Great, Part One • Playwright: Christopher Marlowe • Character: ZENOCRATE Daughter of the Egyptian King who is wooed by Tamburlaine • Gender: Female • Implied Style: Elizabethan Drama • Setting (TIME): 1590s • Setting (PLACE): set around Ancient Wars and royalty in Persia, Egypt, Turkey and Babylon • Themes: Renaissance humanism, immense power, death, revenge, war, religious