# data[].attributes.body
This is a classical monologue, from the play All's Well That Ends Well, written by William Shakespeare.

This speech is about Helena confessing to the Countess, about her love for Bertram, the Countess' son.

Setting decision, Countess in her seat in front of Helena as she stands.

Helena's motivation in this speech is her determination for the Countess to understand, Helena's love for Bertram.

Subtext of this play is, Helena, convincing the Countess to allow her to go after Bertram in Italy.

After this scene, Helena goes after Bertram, and sets her devious plan in motion to get him to fall for her, and marry her. Which in the end, succeeds. As it is a Shakespeare comedy, it has a happy ending. So basically...Helena gets her man.

The movement i used in this speech was more dramatic and bigger. I stand for this monologue. From the first line:
"Then i confess"
I drop to the floor and land on my knees, as i do so i fling my arms in a wide open gesture. I get up when i say:
"so's my love"
to show how serious i am i stand to raise myself up. I gesture to myself and to my heart as i continue with the monologue, as it's a heartfelt speech about Helena/my character. There are a lot of arm gestures going out from my body in this speech to show Helena's high level of emotions and energy.

Facial expressions show desire and need of understanding. Also shows her desperation.

I have chosen not to perform the second half of the monologue.

I did read the play for this monologue. So i know that it all literally ends well. Helena gets her happy ending.
Link to the entire play:
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/allswell/full.html

Below is feedback from my peers on my performance.,

# data[].attributes.body
This is a contemporary monologue, from the fantasy play: The Black Remote, written by Glyn Maxwell.

This speech is about a young girl, Polly (who i believe to be no older than 12), ignoring her parents wishes. Polly, was told that she was not to use a black remote, that came with a new television. Along with a few other remotes for that same television. She knew what the other remotes did but not what the black one did.

Final setting decision: Polly is sat in a low light attic, on a chair, with it's and her back up against the statue. I think these things because she says:
"I'm talking to a statue..."
and
"and how can the answer to anything be in an attic?"
The attic is clutters with boxes and things that are unused or not needed. On the far side of the attic, just to the left. Is, Nono, the third creature. Also Polly is sat not to far from a small, round, attic window, that she can see out to the world outside, and see all of the chaos.

The subtext of this speech, is Polly trying to find out what the creature, Nono, thinks of her;s and Norman's, actions. I think this because, when she informs Nono about what has happened she asks what he thinks:
"Nono? Do you want to hear the news? We let them out, those others, and between them, Nono, they ruined everything. It's our fault. We used the black remote. What do you think of that?"

Polly's motivation in this speech is, to confess her actions, her wrong doing, to Non, the third creature.

The movement that i put into this piece was simple. Movements included, turning around and looking up at the statue Polly was leaning against. Also, moving to lean on my knee, with my chin pressed in to my palm because, i have my head resting on my hand. I would make Polly rest her head on her hand, and her arm on her knee at times when shes wondering about things. For, example:
"I suppose, if they tell the people living in the houses, it's being done for beauty, that might work."
Or when she she seems lonely and/or fed up:
"and all in all i wish my mum and dad would find themselves and bring themselves home where i am, because, because - no one's found me."
When she talks about Nono to the statue, i had her look to diagonally forward to the left, and at times gesture in his directions. For example, when she says:
"Nono - What about him? Is he the answer?"
Also when she says:
"and how can the answer to anything be in an attic?"
I throw my arms open in a gesture to show that i am in that attic.

As Polly i sat on a chair cross legged. I thought that this showed how young she was, instead of formal, it was informal. I associate it with times when kids are in primary school and they have to sit that way on the floor. I had Polly sit this way on a chair because, it kept her close to herself, comforting to a young child,  it also represents the small space she's hiding in. Away from the mayhem and disaster, her releasing of the creatures caused.

The facial expressions i used involved, worried expressions when recollecting and viewing the mayhem outside. A saddened expressions at the thought of her mother and father, and of her being alone. A curious expressions at any question or questionable thought.

I could not find the play, just like with Our Own Kind I thought about the ending. I thought that, just like every typical play it would have a happy ending. But no doubt, there was a scene of her parents coming home, and telling her off for the chaos that she had caused. Or she would have resolved the situation with Norman, before they came home so they knew nothing of the events that took place. As for Polly's two sisters, i am not sure what part they have in all of this. I know that they are the beginning of the play, but i couldn't think of an ending with them.

Other thoughts involve, that the three sisters are like the three creatures released. Nono, the third creature. Represents indifference. Polly is the third, youngest sister. Nono is the third, youngest monster. I think they represent the sisters because there are three each, and near the end of the monologue. Polly says:
"Except i do keep thinking, in every story i read, when i read stories, it's the third thing that matters. The young one, or the ugly one, or the poo one got the treasure.Things went in threes, and these three, they were things, weren't they. Two have gone...Nono?" Two have gone, two creatures, two sisters. Third thing, the young one, went in threes. They all appear to be hints to me that the three monsters, are the three sisters.
Also i think that Polly was talking about Nono from the very beginning:
"His dream is coming true...but his dream was down to us. We let that creature out, and Norman thinks it's the right creature, not the wrong creature..."
To improve this monologue i could change:
"poor Nono, stuck in there."
to
"poor Nono, stuck in here"
I think this because this is the only line that made me question where she was. As she said in there i knew she wasn't in the attic. However, it was the preferred setting and that is how i wanted to perform it. During a conversation with my peers about monologues, i brought up this here/there situation. My peer offered a different setting: outside in the garden of her house, sat on a garden bench with the statue next to or behind the bench. With a view of the house and street surrounding, and the attic at the top, with a large window so the attic and Nono were visible.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a modern monologue, from the play: Our Own Kind, written by Roy MacGregor.

This speech is about a 16 year old girl that has been forced into maturity, because she was raped and now is pregnant.

Setting: "a brutal reprisal for her father's testimony in a murder trial" (from description of speech)
Therefore, i believe she is in court.

The subtext of this speech, is that she believes and wants to convince people around her, that the child won't be like it's father. Lorna wants them (people that have spoken to her, example of a woman that has spoken to her/mentioned in monologue: Sylvie) to know, that just because its "genetic burden" is a awful person, doesn't mean the child will be. Also she wants them to see the other side of things, the baby will be loved by its mother. She wants them to think less negatively, and see that the father has the potential to be a good guy if he chose to, or he could have been:
"We don't know what he might have been if the witch doctors hadn't got hold of him".
Lorna's obvious motivation in this speech, it to convince them that she knows what she is doing. As well as, that she is determined that her child will live life like any other child: "I do know what i'm doing. I do. My child will start with a clean slate". She wants to prove that she is not affected by the incident:
"I do know what i'm doing. I'm not as touched as they think. I'm going to turn something ugly and vicious and make it precious and beautiful. That's what i'm going to do." She also wants to show the anger that they are causing by how they are acting/speaking to her:
"My Councillor says, 'Don't you think it'll you know, remind you?' And i say, 'Will an abortion help me forget?' No, they'd have to take my frontal lobes out." Here she shows that the question she was asked was a ridiculous question to ask someone in her situation, as either way...she would not be able to forget.

The movement that i included in the performance of this monologue was very minimal. I chose to perform it, sat in a chair, with my right leg crossed over my left. My clasped together and then placed on my knee. I chose minimal movement, and formal body language because, Lorna, is in control of her situation. So she would not be flailing her arms about emotionally.  I chose to put my hands over my stomach when she says:
"for going ahead with..." as she is talking about keeping the baby. Then she moves onto 'Old Mother Barnes' so i place my hands back on my knee. At times when she appears nonchalant about the situation, i added in a simple but casual shrug o the shoulders. For example, when she says:
"And now i'm cool about these things. Live and let live."
Mostly i look slightly down, or off to the side as if staring into the distance...as she recalls the conversations and actions of others, that are included in the speech.

I included, subtle facial expressions to show the characters calm approach, anger and opinion. For example, when she speaks of, Sylvie, she frowns as this rude thoughtless character. She puts on a big smile, like a Cheshire Cat, when she says:
"But i just smile my beatific smile and say, 'No thanks, i'll stick with the kid!'"

As i could not find the play itself, i am not sure of what happens next. My thoughts are, that she continues to stay headstrong and then she has the child. Then proves to the community that was against her decision, that everything she stated was/ is true.

Other/Original thoughts. Originally i thought she may have been talking to a councilor about her thoughts and feelings. However once i read:
"My councilor says" i realized she couldn't have been talking to once otherwise she wouldn't have mentions what the councilor said in that context. Next i thought that she may have been talking to a friend, but it seemed to me that she doesn't have many friends, as the people surrounding her seem to be against her decisions and the entire situation. Then i thought that she was just thinking out loud to herself, about everything as to her it made sense. Where as to others, it did not. My final thoughts, after reminding myself of the description by reading it again (as i hadn't read it since i picked the speech, as i knew what it was about) I reread the description to learn of the setting. I ended up going with the setting of a court. Hence the formal body language.

Below is peer (and Wyn) feedback, about my performance.

# data[].attributes.body
As i do with every monologue i took it line by line. I also took my time with this one.  With each bit i learned i understood the monologue more and more. Once i thought i knew the monologue enough i wrote them out a couple of times, to make sure they were steady and clear in my mind. So i had a very clear visual memory of the monologue.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned the second half line by line. To finish the monologue. Once i thought i knew the monologue enough i wrote them out a couple of times, to make sure they were steady and clear in my mind. So i had a very clear visual memory of the monologue.

# data[].attributes.body
I learned line by line, which i do with every monologue i learn. But i set my first Shakespeare leaning goal, to half the monologue so i knew what the monologue was about/main topic. Once i thought i knew the monologue enough i wrote them out a couple of times, to make sure they were steady and clear in my mind. So i had a very clear visual memory of the monologue.

# data[].attributes.body
This is my learning process for my modern monologue: "Our Own Kind". I leaned slowly, line by line, this also helped me understand the monologue and the character/her thoughts and feelings. Once i thought i knew the monologue enough i wrote them out a couple of times, to make sure they were steady and clear in my mind. So i had a very clear visual memory of the monologue.

# data[].attributes.body
I adore the ability to step into somebody’s else’s shoes; I love to be a character and step into their life and out of mine. There are many, many different tales to be told and I find it fascinating that someone like me can step between all these countless realities and perspectives. Especially when these realities have elements similar to my own personal experiences that I can draw upon to enhance my performance of a character.

I enjoy the process of unpicking a character and figuring out what makes them tick and how they think. From the age of four I have been acting in some form or other, whether it be in amateur drama groups or as part of school education – and now college education. I was always in the school shows and performances, mainly in background roles in the beginning but as I got older and more confident, I was given main roles and for my GCSE drama performance, I was cast as the main character, which I am proud of, although the play didn’t inspire me.

However, on my performing arts course I couldn’t wait to be cast in our FMP because it was a play that had more mature themes that I could connect with and explore. It was a twisted gothic-y version of Cinderella with the added element of the seven deadly sin, of which I was the lead sin – Pride(fly). This character was challenging for me because it pushed me further than I thought I was capable of achieving, in terms of the characterisation and portrayal.

I’ve had minimal dance experience when I was younger, but discovered quickly that my passion and talents were better suited to acting. I found that I could connect and express a situation or scene much better through acting the part rather than dancing it. Of course I am partial to the occasional dance in my room where no one can see me! I seem to get along better with the serious, naturalistic theatre as opposed to comedy. However, I do believe that an actor should be versatile and well-rounded, able to perform any scene given to them, be it a piece of Brechtian theatre or comedy or some Stanislavski. Which is why in my spare time I do my best to figure out what it is about comedy acting that doesn’t agree with me

# data[].attributes.body
I changed my contemporary monologue from Seventeen to The Black Remote because, Seventeen was not challenging enough. Also I could not find any background information on Seventeen, as far as the internet was concerned...it didn't exist. So I changed it to The Black Remote, as it stood out more to me and caught my interest. It caught my interest because it is based on the myth of Pandora's box. It is a fantasy play/monologue, with intriguing creatures that are released, and they bring things to life.

# data[].attributes.body
I think that the three monsters coincide with the three sisters. Polly is the youngest, as is Nono the third monster that represents indifference.

# data[].attributes.body
Nono is the third monster released from the big screen, he represents indifference. The other two monsters represent fame and snobbery.

# data[].attributes.body
Two people Polly and Norman, use a black remote for a big flat screen TV, they're not sure what it's use it but they play with it anyway. Polly was told that she was not to use it. However, she disobeyed her parents orders, and pressed buttons on it. The next scene is a fantasy of three creatures entering the world, one good one bad. Polly let's out the bad creature and Norman let's out the good creature. However, i'm not all too sure how the third got out. Possibly, when she says she let the wrong creature out...two could have been released without her noticing. As it is not explained in the monologue how a third one got out. Norman, let the right creature out, the right creature being, Nono.

# data[].attributes.body
Males: 4
Females: 3

# data[].attributes.body
Polly seems to be a young girl, who has been left alone at home. There is a new plasma television. It has four separate remote controls. Polly knows what the silver, grey and white ones do - but NO ONE knows what the BLACK REMOTE does. Her friend, Norman, drops by. He plays with the black remote. Then the television explodes, and strange winged creatures fly out of it.

# data[].attributes.body
Research

# data[].attributes.body
Research

# data[].attributes.headline
New monologue - switched with Seventeen to The Black Remote by Glyn Maxwell (TBR)

# data[].attributes.subject
New monologue - switched with Seventeen to The Black Remote by Glyn Maxwell (TBR)

# data[].attributes.body
Research

# data[].attributes.body
A link used to research the writer of Our Own Kind

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Roy MacGregor came late to writing plays and died all too soon. Here Dominic Dromgoole, who produced the author's first work at the Bush and presents his last work at the Old Vic tonight, pays tribute to a sweetly surprising talent

The first time I met Roy was in a squalid little meeting room at the Bush. He'd come up to talk about his first play, Our Own Kind. We'd read the first half and were fired up about it. A play about council estate racism - traditional territory for bleeding-heart victim plays - it had a scope, a rhetoric and an attack that was truly original.

Roy was a surprise. The play's fire and flourish seemed to find no equivalent in the faintly lugubrious, gentle man I met. His preternatural calm, and habitual hangdog expression always misled people. They under-estimated the amount going on inside. Unlike those playwrights who noisily advertise demons they don't actually possess, Roy had real demons, and he dealt with them, quietly.

But what became clear, even at a short meeting, was a quite extraordinary and very rarely met sweetness of spirit. Behind the stiff manner, the briefcase and the middle-management front, there was a genuine and particular grace. It was the grace of a man who has been to the end of despair, seen most of the squalor and torpor on offer, and then turned the corner. The grace of a man who, knowing all the bad, allows himself to be continually surprised by the good.

I'm probably being largely retrospective in my insight now. Probably at the time I just thought he was a talented writer. But, as our friendship grew, I came to discover his story. Roy led a life split into two separate acts. The radical contrast between the first and the second gives the largest insight into how he attained such an uncommon grace.

Act 1 was a long aimless drift, the restless wandering of a talented man out of touch with himself. There was a period as a blues guitarist, jamming all over Europe from the King's Head to American air-bases in Germany; there was a time as a graphic illustrator, using and developing his gift for sharp characterisation; there was everything else from selling insurance door to door round Highbury to hiring out ski equipment in the German Alps.

As with many whose sense of their potential fails to match their sense of achievement, something had to fill the gap. For Roy, it was booze, largely, although he dabbled fairly far and wide elsewhere. But booze was the No 1. He never bragged of his ex-drinking, although the hints he dropped implied a fairly Herculean intake.

Much of the Eighties Roy spent in Germany. It was at the end of that tawdry decade, when his marriage had collapsed, that Roy returned to England, locked himself into a bedsit in Bristol with a crate of booze and almost drank himself to death. For him it was the end of the road. He had tried everything, seen everything, been everywhere and found no lasting answers. Rushed to hospital in a state of internal collapse, Roy looked up and saw a priest reading the last rites beside his bed.

Act 2 began with his miraculous escape from the embrace of his own angel of death. With his recovery, a clarity broke through into Roy's life, and a purpose. He wanted to write. He didn't know what, but he knew he wanted to write. So, encouraged by therapists and counsellors, he started. And having started, he couldn't stop.

Writing filled the gap in Roy's life. All of the talent that had been there before found its natural outlet: the musician released itself into cadence and phrasing; the illustrator into accuracy and detail; the self- destruct mechanism coin-flipped into the most prodigious and determined creativity.

For a while he lived on cornflakes, and spent the rest of his pennies on writing materials. He read enthusiastically, picking up Ibsen and Priestley and Miller and Griffiths, and with the cheek of the auto-didact he took them on, on their own territory. He always liked big stories, weaving together private pain with public justice.

The Bush eventually produced two of Roy's plays, Our Own Kind and Phoenix. The first was a fairy-tale; a wonderful cast (including Kevin Whately), great reviews and a huge hit. The second - an extended parable about post- unification Germany - was a perfect consolidation. Both plays broke all the rules for their time - a time when small achievement in new writing was admired above large aspirations. Both plays also inspired many other writers to take on braver, bolder topics. They broke through the timidity that shrank new writing at the time. They said, "Look, you can do this."

The plays themselves were picked up and performed all over the world. Roy was garlanded with a few awards, including the first Meyer-Whitworth Award, and was liberally commissioned by other theatres. But the waiting and the dithering and the capriciousness got him down, and it wasn't long before he was seduced away by television.

For three or four years, Roy wrote a huge amount of popular television, stamping his hallmark truth, anger and grace on all he touched. But Roy was always looking and hoping to return to the theatre, his first love. He was beyond joy when we told him that the Old Vic would be producing Snake in the Grass this autumn.

But then life, which had given Roy such a magnificent second chance, decided to kick him in the teeth. Roy rang me in January this year and told me that he had cancer, and that it looked very bad. He hoped that he would make it to see the show, but he feared he wouldn't.

Through all our subsequent conversations and correspondence, Roy never once complained about his fate. He described his upcoming death as "natural", saying that all endings were natural, as natural as all beginning. He retired into the care of his magnificent mother, who endured many of his darker moods, and provided him with the unquestioning environment we must all hope for at our end. Hours before his death, his eyes were still bright with his remarkable calm.

Roy wrote large, clumsy plays. He was never strong on finesse or polish, but his work was always redeemed by large-heartedness and magnanimity. Always in his work, there would be a moment, a spread of compassion, that would remind an audience of what they always forget - that we should always remember how greatly we can surprise ourselves and each other by our warmth and our generosity and our courage. And that we are all capable of change, profound change, and change for the better. I think I'll meet happier men than Roy, but I don't think I'll meet any better.

Roy MacGregor died in June. His `Snake in the Grass' opens tonight, then plays Sundays and Mondays to 3 Nov, Old Vic, Waterloo Rd, London SE1 (017-928 7616)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Roy MacGregor came late to writing plays and died all too soon. Here Dominic Dromgoole, who produced the author's first work at the Bush and presents his last work at the Old Vic tonight, pays tribute to a sweetly surprising talent

# data[].attributes.body
Research

# data[].attributes.body
Research

# data[].attributes.body
Research

# data[].attributes.body
Then, I confess,
Here on my knee, before high heaven and you,
That before you, and next unto high heaven,
I love your son.
My friends were poor, but honest; so's my love:
Be not offended; for it hurts not him
That he is loved of me: I follow him not
By any token of presumptuous suit;
Nor would I have him till I do deserve him;
Yet never know how that desert should be.
I know I love in vain, strive against hope;
Yet in this captious and intenible sieve
I still pour in the waters of my love
And lack not to lose still: thus, Indian-like,
Religious in mine error, I adore
The sun, that looks upon his worshipper,
But knows of him no more. My dearest madam,
Let not your hate encounter with my love
For loving where you do: but if yourself,
Whose aged honour cites a virtuous youth,
Did ever in so true a flame of liking
Wish chastely and love dearly, that your Dian
Was both herself and love: O, then, give pity
To her, whose state is such that cannot choose
But lend and give where she is sure to lose;
That seeks not to find that her search implies,
But riddle-like lives sweetly where she dies!

# data[].attributes.headline
What Style Of Shakespeare Monologue Did I End Up With?

# data[].attributes.subject
What Style Of Shakespeare Monologue Did I End Up With?

# data[].attributes.body
I ended up choosing a comedy monologue. I prefer the plays that Shakespeare wrote, that have a happy ending. Also no other play from the other categories stood out to me like: "All's Well That Ends Well". I chose Helena's confession monologue, in Act I, scene iii. It stood out to me, unlike many others that I read of Shakespeare. The meaning of the title of this play is: the situation is happy, no matter what past endeavours have created. Basically, if all is well, it will end well.

# data[].attributes.headline
What Shakespeare Monologue Did I Originally Choose? 

# data[].attributes.subject
What Shakespeare Monologue Did I Originally Choose? 

# data[].attributes.body
I originally looked at Shakespeare's history plays for monologues, because I wanted to do a serious monologue. As well as, one I could learn from

# data[].attributes.body
William Shakespeare lived through: 23rd April 1564 until 23rd April 1616. Shakespeare was 52 when he passed. He wrote over thirty-six plays, sonnets and so on. His plays were divided into: comedies (happy ending), tragedies (bad ending), and history (based on historic events). Examples of such plays are listed the left. Many of Shakespeare's plays were biased (history plays), because Shakespeare wrote for queen Elizabeth the first. As he wrote for her, telling the tales of her and her family's history. Of course the Tudor queen wanted her family to look like the good guys, so her family had the upper hand. She wanted her family portrayed in a positive light, and her enemies (A.K.A Richard) to be the bad guy(s). Because of this Shakespeare wrote his plays in a way that made Richard look bad, and Elizabeth and her family looking good. Shakespeare was a free-lance playwright from 1589-1594, so he was self employed and wrote through his own choice and enjoyment. Shakespeare became the Lord Chamberlain's playwright in 1594, and he remained that way until 1603. He was the appointed the King's man/playwright in 1603, later in 1616 he retired.

# data[].attributes.body
All's Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
The Comedy Of Errors
Love's Labour's Lost
Measure For Measure
The Merchant Of Venice
The Merry Wives Of Windsor
A Midsummers Nights Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Pericles, Prince Of Tyre
The Taming Of The Shrew
The Tempest
Twelfth Night
The Two Gentlemen Of Verona
The Two Noble Kinsmen
The Vintners Tale

# data[].attributes.body
Romeo and Juliet
Coriolanus
Titus Andronicus
Timon Of Athens
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Hamlet
King Lear
Othello
Anthony And Cleopatra
Troilus And Cressida

# data[].attributes.body
King John
Richard II
Henry IV Part 1
Henry IV Part 2
Henry V
Henry VI Part 1
Henry VI Part 2
Henry VI Part 3
Richard III
Henry VIII