Open Forum

Hello! This is my first year of teaching drama, and I was wanting to do a monologue unit with my Drama classes. I want to make sure I do this right, where kids get the most out of the unit and are actually engaged, so I was wondering how other people have structured their monologue units. What activities do you do in this unit and how long do you make it? What do you do to scaffold Drama 1 students so that they feel ready to be on stage by themselves and memorize a 1-3 minute monologue? How do you structure rehearsal time so that kids are actually rehearsing their monologues? Any and all advise would be welcome. Thanks!

I have done this several ways. In an ideal situation, have students select their own monologue. Or I have also printed out a large selection and they "speed date" the monologues. They then select from those. Students have one day in class just to go over and work on memorization/familiarization on their own (usually just remainder of the class where they select). Then I do a short primer (middle school teacher here) on marking their monologue. They spend class doing that. Then I assign partners for a day and they run with partner, giving each other feedback. During that time I go around and provide side coaching. If it is a small class, I might even have them go one at a time in front of everyone and provide feedback in front of the class.

I also have a cool scavenger hunt sheet that I came up with last year that is fun. It has them do their monologues in lots of different ways in front of different classmates. Helps with memorization and connection to material. Present for class for a grade... Then done.

Sent from my iPad


Original Message------

Hello! This is my first year of teaching drama, and I was wanting to do a monologue unit with my Drama classes. I want to make sure I do this right, where kids get the most out of the unit and are actually engaged, so I was wondering how other people have structured their monologue units. What activities do you do in this unit and how long do you make it? What do you do to scaffold Drama 1 students so that they feel ready to be on stage by themselves and memorize a 1-3 minute monologue? How do you structure rehearsal time so that kids are actually rehearsing their monologues? Any and all advise would be welcome. Thanks!

Here's a rough sequence that I find helpful (over multiple days of class)

1. Identify objective/obstacle/tactics

2. Explore the physical possibilities and (this is key) tie it to the previous work so that movement and gesture punctuate the natural shifts in the character/story (this helps both those who stand stock still and those who are constantly in meaningless motion.

3. Explore the vocal possibilities (what hapens if I emphasize a different word?  Where could a pause be useful)

4. Students do a practice run with notes from the teacher

5. More rehearsal to cement memorization.

6. Final performance.

------------------------------
Ryan Moore
Theatre Teacher and Forensics Coach
Royal Oak MI

Original Message:
Sent: 02-29-2016 06:53
From: Jennifer Simmons
Subject: Structuring Monologue Unit

I have done this several ways. In an ideal situation, have students select their own monologue. Or I have also printed out a large selection and they "speed date" the monologues. They then select from those. Students have one day in class just to go over and work on memorization/familiarization on their own (usually just remainder of the class where they select). Then I do a short primer (middle school teacher here) on marking their monologue. They spend class doing that. Then I assign partners for a day and they run with partner, giving each other feedback. During that time I go around and provide side coaching. If it is a small class, I might even have them go one at a time in front of everyone and provide feedback in front of the class.

I also have a cool scavenger hunt sheet that I came up with last year that is fun. It has them do their monologues in lots of different ways in front of different classmates. Helps with memorization and connection to material. Present for class for a grade... Then done.

Sent from my iPad

For me the kids are given a week's warning to find, and physically have, a monologue. They are allowed to choose either comedic or dramatic. They begin by writing an internal monologue so that they can really delve into the subtext of the situation. This is also when they are expected to do appropriate research (reading the play, doing actual research if the character is based in history, etc).

I don't really provide time to work on memorizing the lines. That's what time at home is for. I do have them perform in small groups (3-5) and provide a peer review that is graded at the end of the performances. The grading is based on the form the the student turns in not on the person performing. I do it double sided and have them grade at least 2 people in their group. 

This entire process takes about 2 weeks (including some rehearsal time in class where they are allowed to work individually or with partners who watch and comment as they work). After this they have a first performance (with grade) where I take individual notes for each person. They have another week or so to work and then they perform again. After this happens I have them begin work on a contrasting monologue and the next performance includes the 2

------------------------------
Shira Schwartz
Chandler Unified School District
Chandler AZ

Original Message:
Sent: 02-29-2016 07:55
From: Ryan Moore
Subject: Structuring Monologue Unit

Here's a rough sequence that I find helpful (over multiple days of class)

1. Identify objective/obstacle/tactics

2. Explore the physical possibilities and (this is key) tie it to the previous work so that movement and gesture punctuate the natural shifts in the character/story (this helps both those who stand stock still and those who are constantly in meaningless motion.

3. Explore the vocal possibilities (what hapens if I emphasize a different word?  Where could a pause be useful)

4. Students do a practice run with notes from the teacher

5. More rehearsal to cement memorization.

6. Final performance.

------------------------------
Ryan Moore
Theatre Teacher and Forensics Coach
Royal Oak MI

Hello,

I wait until second semester to introduce monologues with my Drama I students.  I imbed the monologues in our "characterization" unit where we study leading centers and other physical characterization and staging techniques.

Students write a short, personal monologue...maybe a rant on something they really dislike, or recalling a childhood memory.  It needs to be something they can share with the class and cannot include other people in the class.  Then, here's the twist:  students turn in the their monologues to me and then I "randomly" assign the monologues to the classmates.  They cannot share whose monologue they have; it's like this big secret :) The kids write a character sketch based on the monologue they receive. Then, during the presentations, the class guesses whose monologue it is based on the physical and vocal characterization.  

It's something that the kids really enjoy, and it gets them to learn so much about one another as well as how to perform a well-characterized monologue.  

Best of luck :)

------------------------------
Lisa Dyer
Henrico VA

Original Message:
Sent: 02-29-2016 06:53
From: Jennifer Simmons
Subject: Structuring Monologue Unit

I have done this several ways. In an ideal situation, have students select their own monologue. Or I have also printed out a large selection and they "speed date" the monologues. They then select from those. Students have one day in class just to go over and work on memorization/familiarization on their own (usually just remainder of the class where they select). Then I do a short primer (middle school teacher here) on marking their monologue. They spend class doing that. Then I assign partners for a day and they run with partner, giving each other feedback. During that time I go around and provide side coaching. If it is a small class, I might even have them go one at a time in front of everyone and provide feedback in front of the class.

I also have a cool scavenger hunt sheet that I came up with last year that is fun. It has them do their monologues in lots of different ways in front of different classmates. Helps with memorization and connection to material. Present for class for a grade... Then done.

Sent from my iPad

This turned out a lot longer than I expected, sorry!

I base my Monologue unit on the ESUUS Shakespeare Competition format (Teacher Resources - English-Speaking Union of the United States - they have some great activities linked down at the bottom of the page). I like doing Shakespeare monologues because the students have no choice but to do a deep analysis of what is being said, so it's easier to teach how to go about doing all the table work that's required for acting. You can still do this unit without it being Shakespeare, I just find it's harder for students to coast through if it's Shakespeare. This is also the first real unit I do with all of my classes. (We do ensemble building over the first couple of days, but I don't count name games and get to know you games as a unit.)

When the students walk in to the first day of Monologues, I've printed out all the monologues that I think the kids might take a liking to and have them spread all over the stage and house. We talk about making connections to the script and a little bit about what else to look for when choosing a monologue. Then I let them loose on the pages, walking around to give context of a monologue or help a student understand what's being said. They all have something picked by the end of class, and their homework is to look up the definition of any words they don't know. [I allow them two days to decide they don't like their monologues, but they have to do any catch up work on their own time.]

We then translate each monologue as a group, finding all the emotional dynamics of the piece, and then students do their first performance for the group (the amount of time between picking monologue and their first performance is 2-4 days, depending on how large the group is). This first performance is always the hardest for the kids, but I let them know it's just to get used to talking in front of the group. From there, I do a lot of the activities given by the ESUUS (the punctuation walk is always the favorite for the kids), along with talking about motivation and beats.

For actually rehearsing the monologues, I do Pair & Shares - pair the kids up, Student A performs, Student B critiques, and reverse. I make the kids stand when they perform, for two reasons - 1. I know that they're actually working, even when I'm on the other side of the room, and 2. it gets them used to performing while standing. If it's a small class, I have them in pairs until they've worked with everyone, then trios, and so on, until they're comfortably performing for the whole class. 

I also use this unit to teach basic critique skills. The students get the rubric after the first performance, and I encourage them to use the wording from there as much as possible. I also refuse to accept "I liked it" and "It was good" as responses, unless they are followed by a reasoning ("I liked it because you added a lot of movement this time" etc). By knowing that they have to give feedback, they more actively listen to each other. I've only had one student refuse to do any work during this unit, but she dropped out of the class the day before the performance anyways.

Congrats and good luck on your first year!

------------------------------
Allison MB
Theatre Teacher / Director
Nashoba HS

Original Message:
Sent: 02-28-2016 00:33
From: Kyle Kesatie
Subject: Structuring Monologue Unit

Hello! This is my first year of teaching drama, and I was wanting to do a monologue unit with my Drama classes. I want to make sure I do this right, where kids get the most out of the unit and are actually engaged, so I was wondering how other people have structured their monologue units. What activities do you do in this unit and how long do you make it? What do you do to scaffold Drama 1 students so that they feel ready to be on stage by themselves and memorize a 1-3 minute monologue? How do you structure rehearsal time so that kids are actually rehearsing their monologues? Any and all advise would be welcome. Thanks!

I sneak up on them with the monologues. 

The first thing Theatre I students memorize for me is 8 to 20 lines of Shakespeare.  This is about 10 weeks into class.  Our English teachers do a great job with the Bard, and we have an outdoor Shakespeare company in town, so the students are eager to try Shakespeare.  I lay out about 60 to 70 sheets of paper, each with a monologue and some surrounding dialogue.  I let them choose one each, then write the monologue on the left of a piece of paper.  Then they paraphrase on the right. Of course, I move around the class helping with that.  I give the same credit for 8 lines as for 20, because my students are all ability levels in Theatre I.  We rehearse in class for a few minutes on 3 or 4 different days while we are doing our Elizabethan unit, then performing is the culmination of that unit.

Then I have them write one-minute monologues stemming from a conflict they have actually experienced.  I ask them to disguise people other classmates might know.  This monologue is all about teaching what a character objective is.  I ask them to put themselves back at the moment of the conflict and then imagine having 60 seconds to talk the other person into doing something for them that will resolve the conflict.  In order to have something that can be memorized fairly easily, they have to organize the monologue with separate tactics and sequencing that makes sense.  They read it once in class, and I give oral comments, then they revise and memorize.  I remind them that hyperbole is funny, and a great deal of comedy stems from a ludicrous premise pursued in earnest, and we often have some really funny monologues to balance the serious ones.

Finally, after they've spent a semester rehearsing very short scenes from the Ancient Greeks to the 21st Century and performing them for each other on-book, I have them do a one-minute audition monologue from a published play.  I've got binders of monologues that are from plays in our classroom play library.  They perform that monologue twice in class, with notes in between performances, then once as part of the final exam.      

------------------------------
C. J. Breland
Asheville High School
Asheville NC

Original Message:
Sent: 02-28-2016 00:33
From: Kyle Kesatie
Subject: Structuring Monologue Unit

Hello! This is my first year of teaching drama, and I was wanting to do a monologue unit with my Drama classes. I want to make sure I do this right, where kids get the most out of the unit and are actually engaged, so I was wondering how other people have structured their monologue units. What activities do you do in this unit and how long do you make it? What do you do to scaffold Drama 1 students so that they feel ready to be on stage by themselves and memorize a 1-3 minute monologue? How do you structure rehearsal time so that kids are actually rehearsing their monologues? Any and all advise would be welcome. Thanks!

Original Message------

I sneak up on them with the monologues. 

The first thing Theatre I students memorize for me is 8 to 20 lines of Shakespeare.  This is about 10 weeks into class.  Our English teachers do a great job with the Bard, and we have an outdoor Shakespeare company in town, so the students are eager to try Shakespeare.  I lay out about 60 to 70 sheets of paper, each with a monologue and some surrounding dialogue.  I let them choose one each, then write the monologue on the left of a piece of paper.  Then they paraphrase on the right. Of course, I move around the class helping with that.  I give the same credit for 8 lines as for 20, because my students are all ability levels in Theatre I.  We rehearse in class for a few minutes on 3 or 4 different days while we are doing our Elizabethan unit, then performing is the culmination of that unit.

Then I have them write one-minute monologues stemming from a conflict they have actually experienced.  I ask them to disguise people other classmates might know.  This monologue is all about teaching what a character objective is.  I ask them to put themselves back at the moment of the conflict and then imagine having 60 seconds to talk the other person into doing something for them that will resolve the conflict.  In order to have something that can be memorized fairly easily, they have to organize the monologue with separate tactics and sequencing that makes sense.  They read it once in class, and I give oral comments, then they revise and memorize.  I remind them that hyperbole is funny, and a great deal of comedy stems from a ludicrous premise pursued in earnest, and we often have some really funny monologues to balance the serious ones.

Finally, after they've spent a semester rehearsing very short scenes from the Ancient Greeks to the 21st Century and performing them for each other on-book, I have them do a one-minute audition monologue from a published play.  I've got binders of monologues that are from plays in our classroom play library.  They perform that monologue twice in class, with notes in between performances, then once as part of the final exam.      

------------------------------
C. J. Breland
Asheville High School
Asheville NC
------------------------------