Through the Looking Glass: Aishlinn Parrinello Theater Notes/Reflections

  Monologue due -- post video on your blog and reflect on the process and product -- what did you learn? what did you do well? what was difficult? what do you need to work on?     After working on this monologue for the past couple weeks, I am pretty happy with the final product. When we first started looking for monologues I had no idea what I wanted to perform. I looked through several monologues on the internet and through some of the monologue books in the black box, but nothing that I was looking at necessarily felt right or felt like something that I could relate to. I decided to look through a couple more scripts that Ms. Guarino brought into the black box. The very first script that I picked up was Lost Girl by Kimberly Belflower and the first page that I flipped to was the first part of my final monologue. After reading over the first part of this monologue, I immediately felt like this monologue was one that I wanted to work with and make my own. The first thing...

                                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQeqxZBrgYY 

 - in class I broke down my monologue into different chunks as well as beginning middle and end - the beginning of the monologue Wendy is dull and is staring off into space as she talks  - a change occurs when she says "so I'm sorry you have a problem with sad," - she sits up more and talks more directly to the audience  - another change when she says the eight minutes a day part, then another change when she transitions into memory and stands up on the chair - another change when she comes back into reality, goes back to dull - another change when she comes more alert, but overall sad at the end  - I annotated my monologue with each change, pauses, chunks, etc.  - the given circumstances are that Wendy is in her room, just sulking and being sad curled up in a chair, what has happened is her mom has accused her of being sad all the time, the time is irrelevant because Wendy hardly pays attention to things like time, she is with her mom but in her own world at th...

120 - Breaking Down the Text  - break the text into manageable bits  - read over, looking for changes in what your character is thinking/doing  - mark changes  - changes in emotion, mood, atmosphere, tension  - want to illustrate your characters emotional journey  121 - What are the Given Circumstances?  - decide on the character's given circumstances: where am I, what am I doing, what has just happened, what is the time, who is there with me, or am I alone, what can I see  122 - What do I want?  - what does the character want in the monologue  - give your character an objective for each change in the text  - remind yourself of the objective, what your character is working towards  - dig deep into what your character really wants  - delve into your character's subconscious - put yourself in the circumstances then ask "what do I want?"  123 - What is my action?  - decide what your character is doing  - decide...

 - I imagine my character pacing her bedroom, lost in thought  - Wendy might hum to herself as she paces or stop to look out her open window (open for Peter)  - I imagine her checking her hand every so often to remember what it felt like to hold his  - my characters movements are influenced by her spacey-ness and how she is slightly removed from reality -- her head is often lost in thought or memory  - The movement that I would like to include in my monologue is Wendy examining and touching her hand, a nod to when she says his hand was the first she ever touched and really felt something  - one word/phrase that sums up Wendy is LOST (like in the title) --- lost in thought, lost in emotion, lost with her place in the world  - I can somewhat easily imagine myself as my character because I am familiar with some of the emotions she portrays in the show, the real challenge will be portraying her childlike way of talking (often just saying her thoughts/whate...

  Exercise # 116 - My Physical Self  - create your characters' physical self  - explore how you move around as your character  - pick an event from your characters' past and walk it through as you imagine it happened  - think about your character's past and what they would want in the future  find distinct movements that sum up your character  - find a movement that sums up what your character wants  - allow yourself time to find movements that sum up your characters' physical self  - becomes a trigger to help you get into character  - a way to get into character  Exercise # 117 - My Character's Germ  - create your character's essence from your knowledge of their past and future  - think of one word that sums up your character  - think of one thought that sums up your character  decide on one word that is the essence of your character - help you understand who you are and what your character is like  Exercis...

 Who am I? - Wendy Darling, young adult, character from Peter Pan with two Brothers who left with their father, she lives with her mother in her childhood bedroom, she is stubborn and sad and stuck in the past  What time is it? - the time period is somewhat irrelevant to this show as the underlying story of Peter Pan is timeless, but the show itself is set in modern day. She states that whenever Peter Pan leaves, it snows, though she makes it sound like she is in a continuous winter, so that actual season may be unknown  Where am I? - Most of the show is set in Wendy's childhood bedroom, which can look like the original set from Peter Pan, or more modern looking and more bare (two fewer children in that room). The country/city is not identified, but could really be anywhere  What surrounds me? - the people she interacts with most in the present of this play is her mother and the lost boys, though she has flashbacks where she is talking with peter, to a detective, to ...

 - time period: lost girl seems to be set in modern day but Peter Pan itself seems to be timeless but also looks old fashioned  - the show is set in Wendy's childhood bedroom, which in Peter Pan looks as if it's from the Victorian Error  - there are references to modern day things in Lost Girl though, I'd like to interpret the play as modern day with aspects of the timelessness and magic that is in Peter Pan  - Because Wendy is in her own little world she seems completely removed from everything else that is happening in the world around her, literally everything outside of her bedroom - the show also seems to be modern day because of the separation of the real world that the play takes place in: there are detectives who are trying to solve the kidnapping case and her story is out to the world, which seems like more modern day media coverage  - she is living in reality but her head is stuck in memories of Neverland, so she is not present, therefor the time perio...

112 Research  - research the period the play is set in  - images/photographs from that period, build a mental image of your surroundings  - photos for family members/other characters in the play  - decide on social, economic, political and cultural influences  - get impressions of what the time period was like  113 My Character's Past  - create a past for your character  - imagine the life of your character from their first memory relevant to the monologue  - key events in your character's life  - imagine a typical day in the life of your character  114 My First Main Memory  - based on your character's experiences in the play and their past, decide on your character's first memory  - tie in the memory with an event that happens in the play  - imagine yourself in the situation of the first memory  - how that first memory has affected your character's life 

 - I imagine play is set in modern day - a twisted story involving Peter Pan following the life of Wendy Darling several years after returning from Neverland - Wendy has grown up, but she is still a child at heart, she seems to wish she never left Neverland  - she is very sad and depressed even after so many years - the real world was kind of life a shock to her  - her story is famous because she brought back the lost boys (story of Peter Pan taking kids posed as a kidnapping to the rest of the world)  - Wendy is stubborn, sad, confused, stuck in place - she is still determined, she still has her heart set on Peter  - the playwright wanted to show how complex a single story can really be and what it is like to be stuck in place, maybe not wanting to grow up - thinking you want one thing and realizing you actually want another, but at the same time you know deep down you made the right decision - she seems constantly dazed and in another world in her head, I imag...