Acting Workshop Fall 2019

Monologue Questionnaire

Please submit this questionnaire via email by midnight Friday 11/1

answering the questions listed below.
Please submit your script on Wednesday 10/30 by the end of class. The
monologue should include notations answering questions 2, 4, 5 from the
section below titled.
Character Analysis –
1. What do you know about your character from the text, i.e. what others say
about them, what they say about themselves, what they do?
2. Environmental facts: date year, geographical location, economic, political,
social, religious environment
3. Character (use adjectives):
a. Desire – what does the character want most? Often not material but
something less tangible such as power, dominance, love, self-integrity.
b. Will – strength in attaining desire, how strong or weak is his/her inner
strength
c. Moral stance – values, honest with self and others
d. Decorum – physical appearance, manner, poise. How does the character
walk, stand, speak, quality of voice? Look at the character’s dialogue for
clues. List of adjectives.
e. Character mood intensity at the scene opening- heart rate, breathing rate,
perspiration.
f. Physical relationship to the world around them – what do they see, how
do they feel about their physical environment?
The scene:
1. What just happened – prior to the start of the scene?
2. What are the beats of the scene? Beats are formed by an interruption (an
entrance etc.), a change in tactic, subject or character driving the scene or a
resolve (exhale) by capitulation or rejection. Each character shapes their own
set of beats, sometimes aligning with the other character and sometimes not.
Please mark the beats in your script.
3. What does A want B to do?
4. What does A do (active transitive verbs) to B to get him/her to do it? List the
verbal actions with each line in your script. Verbal actions can repeat. Keep
an eye to see if the action is having the desired effect. If not, change tactic.
5. As we stated at the beginning of the semester acting is a series of “give” and
“take” between characters or self. In your monologue there are RECIVEING
MOMENTS not active “giving moment” and won’t have an active verb. Mark
receiving moments in your script with an “R” to denote the receiving
moment or text.