Monologue Draft Due; Talking With Discussion; Spic-o-Rama

LAB: (from 7:30 - 8:00 only)

Complete your monologue. When you have written your draft, look back over your work and try to address some of these editing tips:

• Make sure your speaker has a reason to speak. If you don't have one, give your character a good reason (or motivation) to speak. Why must what is said be said--what's at stake for this character?
• Revise and shape your speech to use anaphora and epistrophe: two types of rhetorical sound devices using repetition.
• Revise your sentences to make them more concise and declarative. Remove long, complex sentences and replace them with short declarative ones. 
• Use fragments.
• Add tactile, gustatory, and olfactory imagery by carefully choosing your diction to appeal to one of these senses.
• Add visual imagery by introducing a metaphor, figure of speech, or simile. Allusion and personification work too.
• Add sound imagery by using alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, euphony, cacophony, and so on.
• Make sure you have given your character a specific prop and costume piece. Make sure the prop and costume piece help characterize the character and/or the situation your speaker is delivering.
• Feel free to give your speaker a clear speech pattern that is unique to this character (for example a stutter, a certain repeated phrase, or a manner of speaking)
• Build your monologue so that it has a definite hook, rising action, complication, climax, and a quick and memorable resolution (or ending). 
• Correct your grammar and syntax. Read your work out loud to a peer or yourself to catch any errors or difficult lines. Revise as needed.

If you finish before time is called for the lab, make sure you have completed your homework for Talking With.

Print out your monologue draft and turn it in for credit.

CLASSROOM: (8:00 - 9:03)

We will conduct our discussion on Talking With and begin reading Spic-o-Rama by John Leguizamo.

Your response on Talking With can include answers to any or all of these questions:

• 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 written by this particular author?
• Other observations? As a writer, what did you notice? What do you want to talk about in regards to this play?

After our discussion, let's begin reading the play Spic-O-Rama by John Leguizamo. This is another type of monologue play. As you read, compare/contrast this script with Talking With. How is it similar/different? What staging effects does Leguizamo use (and to what effect?)

EQ: Why write a one-actor show? What do mono-dramas (1 person plays) or monologue plays offer an audience? How are they similar or different from other plays, other genres of writing (slam poetry, fiction, novels, audio-books, films, etc.)?

In regard to Spic-o-Rama, explain in writing and turn in next class (Thursday) answers to these questions. When answering homework questions on the readings we do in class, please make sure you use textual evidence to support your answers:

1. How does the play showcase John Leguizamo's talent as an actor and writer? Be specific, using specific examples from the text. 
2. Why might Leguizamo have chosen the characters he did to portray in the play? Are some characters more vivid and interesting than others? What might be missing or what would you have liked to see more of or less of? How does the language of each monologue help characterize the speaker? 
3. How does Leguizamo structurally put the play together to create an effective theatrical experience? Examine how the play is thematically connected or how it "moves" from story line to story line. How effective is this in your opinion? What strategies does Leguizamo use to keep a coherent whole for his play?
4. Discuss the importance of minority voices in theater. In your opinion do we need more minority voices--or is Leguizamo's portrayal of "spics" degrading or stereotypical?

HOMEWORK: Complete Spic-o-Rama on your own. Answer the 4 questions posed here in complete sentences. Use the text to support your answers. This is due Thursday, September 15.