Talking With; Loveliest Afternoon of the Year

Together, let's read the play: The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year by John Guare.

Theatre vocabulary to know:

• Monologue: an extended speech delivered by one person/character.
• Dramatic Monologue: a long or extended speech delivered by one character addressing another character or group of characters.
• Interior Monologue: In fiction or prose, the description or speech (in 1st person POV, for example) where a character exhibits (shows/tells) the thoughts, feelings, and associations passing through a character's mind.
• Soliloquy: an extended speech by one person addressed directly to an audience. Usually the character is alone on stage.
• Monologue Play (one-person show; monodrama): A solo performance, featuring an actor, comedian, or entertainer.

Please read the handout about Jane Martin this morning. Follow up your reading with a 15 minute period of reading. After reading silently (alone) you will form small groups to conduct some analysis of the characters in the play.

NOTE: If you completed the play on your own, spend your time writing a monologue draft. Use Jane Martin's script and the monologues in Talking With as a model.

If you missed it, read about Jane Martin here.

Let's view a few of the following clips from 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. Notice how the actor portrays this character. Is the author's words more effective or is the performance more compelling to you as an audience? What does this suggest about the nature of performance?

Clear Glass Marbles (monologue, page 19-22)
Clear Glass Marbles (monologue, page 19-22)

Audition. (monologue, page 25-27)
Audition

Twirler (part)

Rodeo (monologue, page 31-34)

French Fries (monologue, page 61-63)

Marks (monologue, page 67-69).

Let's conduct a class discussion. 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: If you did not complete your reading of this play, finish it up and bring your script back with you next class. In your journal (not to be turned in) write a monologue of your own. We'll use this draft later in the course.