Thursday, September 6, 2012

Jane Martin & Talking With

Read about Jane Martin here.

Please view the following clips and refer to the script Talking With.

As you watch these scenes from Talking With, pay attention to how the playwright engages the audience and tells an interesting story that develops the single speaking character.

Clear Glass Marbles (monologue, page 19-22)

Audition. (monologue, page 25-27)
Notice how this one uses nice camera work, although cuts part of the monologue text.

Rodeo (monologue, page 31-34)

French Fries (monologue, page 61-63)

Marks (monologue, page 67-69).

After viewing and reading this play, please post a response to it on our Creative Writing Forum. Posts to our forum should be completed by the end of class.

Your response can include answers to any or all of these questions:
  • What did you think about the play as a whole? Did it surprise you or please you or frustrate you? Explain why you reacted to the play in this way.
  • What is the premise of "Talking With"? In a sentence or two, explain what you think is the premise or main idea/theme of the play. Is this premise interesting? Do you think people would pay to see this play?
  • The "audience" for each character changes as the play continues. How does the author help a viewer or reader understand who the character in question is "talking with..."? Overall, by the end of the play, who do you think the playwright Jane Martin is "Talking with...?" Support your opinion.
  • What challenges and stage requirements are necessary to produce this play? How has Jane Martin anticipated a low-budget, black box theater being able to produce her play? What did you learn about staging from the monologues you read and watched?
  • Why are the monologues in the order that Martin puts them? What is the reason to start and end the play with the monologues she does?
  • After reading about Jane Martin, what amuses or interests you in her as a writer? How might the idea of "Theatricality" (artificial life involving conflict) infuse the script and the whole experience of seeing this play on stage.
WRITING/HOMEWORK: Please choose a WHO from the lists and exercises we have been doing in class, and a WHERE, and a WHAT. Use your WHO WHAT and WHERE to create a monologue. The length of your monologue is completely up to you, but it should reveal the character, perhaps tell a story, or involve a plot or goal for that character. It should have a beginning, middle, and end just like a good short story written in 1st person should.

Begin your brainstorming and pre-writing first, then use the rest of the time in the lab to complete the assignment. Whatever you don't finish, please complete as homework. The monologue DRAFT is due Tuesday, September 11.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I read and watched the monologue "Audition" because of the way it stands out from the other monologues in Talking With. I assumed that all of them have a story to tell somehow because that is the norm but reading "Audition"made it seem different and i had to really see where is she going with this one. Is the lady a nut or just nervous? Scared maybe? Why does she ramble and repeat so much? I needed to know. This monologue truly seems to be the most difficult to remember as well as perform because the words that the character blurts out should really go hand in hand with her actions. It did tend to frustrate me because i thought of myself as being a member of the audience or being a judge thinking "When is she going to start?" or "What the hell is she talking about?" i think that the character from this monologue is helpful to the play as a whole because she's apart from the usual story of a person.

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