I'm at a bit of a sticking point with this monologue right now. As I stated below, I'm turning a song into a monologue. This has it's challenges. Like the fact that the whole piece rhymes. Or that it's 3+ minutes long.
The first step for me was to write the entire thing out word for word, as if it were a monologue. Right away, I had problems because I couldn't figure out where to put the punctuation. "Calm" is what is known as a patter song. Think of it as a stream of consciousness song. The character is speaking (singing) whatever comes to her mind, as it comes up. It's sort of like one giant run on sentence. I finally gave up on the punctuation and decided that once I had the entire piece written out, I would speak it out loud to see where the natural commas and periods fell.
As I started to speak it out loud, I realized that it doesn't sound entirely natural. As a song it works because it's supported by the music and the rhyme scheme, but as a spoken piece it doesn't work. This was where I realized I was going to have to cut some lines and that made me sad. I've known all along that lines were going to have to be cut (after all, the piece is over 3 minutes), but I didn't want to let go. I think the entire thing is so hilariously written that I was very hesitant to give up lines.
When I began speaking the piece out loud, I started to realize the jokes were sounding repetitive. Once again, in song form it works, but not so much in spoken word. This was helpful because I was able to cut jokes that I found less funny and rearrange some things that I thought would land better in other places.
Here's where we get to the sticking point.
When I graduated from college (Hope College class of Aught 7! Go Dutch!), the theatre professors presented each one of us with a book that they had all signed. I received a book by Uta Hagen, a famous acting teacher. In her book, she briefly addresses the subject of auditioning. One of the things she stresses is that monologues need to be learned word for word. No paraphrasing or making up lines.
This is something I learned early on in my theatre career. In the beginning, I was taught that it was for all of the people working backstage. If you say a line wrong or make up a line, the light board operator might not know when to change the lights, or the sound operator might not press "play" at the right moment. As I got older, I realized that memorizing word for word was important for the crew but it was also a sign of respect for the playwright. There is a reason he wrote
those words and to make things up or paraphrase is a great sign of disrespect. I have a HUGE amount of respect for authors, playwrights, lyricists, etc., who are able to write exactly what I'm feeling, when I am unable to express it.
The problem with "Calm" is that I keep paraphrasing! Not only do I keep paraphrasing, I keep adding in or substituting lines that I've already decided to cut.
I think that this is because the speech doesn't feel natural to me. But it's not supposed to feel natural to me. It's the character, Deb, who is saying it, not Kristi. The words are totally natural for Deb.
I need to figure out who Deb is. I need to do some character work. I've only seen bits of the musical that this song comes from, so I think I'm going to need to do some more research. I've already checked to see if it's playing anywhere near me, but unfortunately it's not. It's a rather obscure musical, so I wasn't really expecting much.
I'm going to use this monologue for an audition tomorrow, but I know it won't be as spectacular as I want it to be. However, I want to see what happens when I use it for an audition. Where I get laughs, what nerves do the performance and how I feel when I'm performing it.
I'll keep you posted....
-Kristi
*This is an actual line from the monologue. And one that's really resonating with me right now. :)
