HUT 101: The Art of Theatre
Fridays, 1:00-4:25pm, C426
Professor Jay Polish
https://tinyurl.com/monologueasmt
Assignment # 1 — Monologue
For this first assignment, you will write a monologue of your own. We will engage in pre-writing exercises in class to help get you started with your topic. Through this monologue, you will both flex your own creative muscles and develop a deep understanding of monologue structure, history, tone, and delivery. You will be encouraged to perform this monologue during our class midterm celebration on Friday, April 20th.
Due Dates:
Friday, April 13th — Please post to the blog and bring a hard copy of your monologue rough draft (you will be peer reviewing them with your classmates). Include not only your monologue draft — which should take you about three minutes to perform (roughly 400 words) — but also please answer each of the following: What three things do you want to ask your peers about your work? What three things are your favorite about your monologue? What three things are you unsure of? What body gestures, facial expressions, vocal tones, and rhythms do you plan to use to perform your monologue? When? Why?
Friday, April 20th — Please post to the blog and bring a hard copy of your monologue to class, and be prepared to share it with your classmates. This sharing is not necessary for your grade (you are allowed to show red on your Personal Traffic Light!), but we are all going to be taking risks together, so perhaps you will feel inspired to perform it; if so, you should come prepared to do so. Try to have it as memorized as you can: memorization really helps the rhythm flow out better. In addition to your monologue, please write a brief reflective artists’ statement that addresses each of the following questions: What did you learn writing this monologue? What you didn’t learn? How you can use what you learned in the future? Did writing a monologue (as opposed to an essay) help you understand the place of monologues in theatre? If yes, how? If no, why not? How you think you could have pushed your writing and performance even further? What rhetorical choices did you make in your monologue — both with your words and with your body — and how did these choices advance the depth of your work? How did the process of peer review push your analysis forward? If it didn’t, why not? How can you and your partners conduct your peer reviews differently next time? What fresh rhetorical insights might you bring from this assignment into future assignments?