Movie Monologue Assignment Name______Intro to Theatre/Play Performance
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Movie Monologue Assignment Name_____________________________________ Intro to Theatre/Play Performance Instructions: 1. Read the following movie monologues on the pages which follow and choose one monologue. 2. Memorize and rehearse that monologue for presentation to the class. 3. Complete a monologue analysis form on your performance piece below. Monologue Analysis Please write your answers to these questions in the space provided or on a separate sheet of paper. Please write answers in complete, grammatically-correct sentences. TITLE___________________________________ CHARACTER______________________________ 1. In detail, decribe the events of the monologue. Who is the characters involved? What other characters are present? Where are the characters as the scene begins? What is the conflict? 2. What does the character desire? (What is it that the character wants – think of it in terms of “at that moment” and “overall”.) 3. What is the character’s will (inner strength)? Is the character capable of getting what it is that he or she wants at that moment and overall? 4. Describe the character’s moral stand. What does the character believe is right and wrong? How far would the character go to get what it is that he or she wants? 5. How does the scene resolve itself? Has the conflict been solved, or has a new conflict developed? 6. What does the character look like? Include physical characteristics, dressing style, etc. 7. Draw the set for your scene, including any needed furniture and props that you might need. MEN’S MONOLOGUES Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind written by Charlie Kaufman Joel: Random Thoughts, for Valentine’s Day, 2004. The day's a holiday invented by greeting card companies, to make people feel like crap. I ditched work today. Took a train out to Montauk. I don't know why. I'm not an impulsive person. I guess I just woke up in a funk this morning. I have to get my car fixed. "Hi Sydney? It's Joel. Listen, I don't feel very well today. No. Food poisoning I think." It's freezing on this beach! Montauk in February. Brilliant, Joel. (referring to his sketchbook/journal) Pages are ripped out, don't remember doing that. It appears this is my first entry in two years. Sand is overrated. It's just tiny little rocks. If only I could meet someone new. I guess my chances of that are somewhat diminished, seeing as I'm incapable of making eye contact with a woman I don't know. Maybe I should get back together with Naomi. She was nice, nice is good. She loved me. Why do I fall in love with every woman I see who shows me the least bit of attention? Joe vs. the Volcano written by John Patrick Shanley Joe: I should say something. This life... "life," what a joke. This situation, this room. You look terrible, Mr. Waturi. You look like a bag of crap stuffed in a cheap suit. Not that anybody could look under these zombie lights. I can feel them sucking the juice out of my eyeballs, suck suck suck suck. 300 bucks a week. That's the news. For three hundred bucks a week, I've lived in this sink, this waste dump. Don't you think I am aware there is a woman here? I can smell her, like a flower, I can taste her like sugar on my tongue. When I'm twenty feet away, I can hear the fabric of her dress when she moves in her chair. Not that I've done anything about it; I've gone all day -- every day, not doing, not saying, not taking the chance for three hundred dollars a week. And Frank! The coffee! It stinks! It tastes like arsenic. These lights give me a headache, if they don’t give you a headache, you must be dead. So let's arrange the funeral. Why, I ask myself, why have I put up with you, I can't imagine. But I know it's fear, yellow cowardice fear, I’ve been too afraid to live my life so I sold it to you for three hundred freaking dollars a week. You're lucky I don't kill you. You're lucky I don't rip your throat out. But I'm not going to. And maybe you're not so lucky at that. Because I'm going to leave you here, Mr. Wahoo Waturi. And what could be worse than that?! (pause, now addressing the secretary) Deedee, how about dinner tonight? School of Rock written by Mike White Dewey Finn: You want me to teach you something? What? You want to learn something? Alright, here's a useful lesson: Give up! Just quit! Because in this life you can't win. Yeah, you can try, but in the end your just gonna loose, BIG TIME! Because the world is run by the man! Who? The man. Oh, you don't know the man? The man's everywhere: in the White House, down the hall, Miss Mullins; she's the man! And the man ruined the ozone, and he's burning down the Amazon and he kidnapped Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank! Okay! And there used to be a way to stick it to the man, it was called rock 'n roll. But guess what? Oh no! The man had to ruin that too with a little thing called MTV! So don't waste your time trying to make anything cool or pure or awesome 'cause the man's just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So do yourself a favor and just give up! The Sure Thing written by Stephen L. Bloom and Jonathan Roberts Gib: I'm flunkin' English. I – I was wondering if maybe you could help me out. I flunk English, I'm outta here. Kiss college goodbye. I don't know what I'll do, I'll probably go home. Gee, Dad will be pissed off. Mom will be heartbroken, and if I play my cards right, I get MAYBE a six months' grace period and then I gotta get a job, and you know what that means. That's right, they start me off at the drive-up window and I gradually work my way up from shakes to burgers, and then one day my lucky break comes: the french fry guy dies and they offer me the job. But the day I'm supposed to start some men come by in a black Lincoln Continental and tell me I can make a quick $300 just for driving a van back from Mexico. When I get out of jail I'm 36 years old. Living in a flop house. No job. No home. No upward mobility. Very few teeth. And then one day they find me, face down, talking to the gutter, clutching a bottle of paint thinner and why? Because you wouldn't help me in English. No, you were too busy to help me! Too busy to help a drowning man! Used Cars written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale Rudy Russo: (looking at a customer who is looking at a car) Oh, just browsing? Hey: Terrific. Terrific, Stan, that's what we're here for. Here you can look, browse, peek, touch, feel, taste, smell--do anything you want, take all the time you want. Nobody's gonna pressure anybody around here, Stan. You know something though, Stan? I really think you ought to buy this Buick. I think you ought to buy it today, right now, you wanna know why? 'Cause that Buick is You. The color is you. Look at it: That Is Your Car. Stanley Padowski IS Buick Centurion Convertible. Now, I know what you're thinkin' Stan. You're thinkin', "Can I afford to buy a car like this?" Huh? Am I right? Seriously, Stan, you can't afford NOT to buy a car like this. Now, I'm gonna make it easy for ya...You add this whole thing up, you take in account inflation rates, insurance savings, gas savings, ease and comfort, and you're gonna come out ten thousand dollars ahead just for making this deal--Well, Hell! The prestige alone at owning a Buick Centurion Convertible can't even be measured in terms of dollars and cents, am I right? The American President written by Aaron Sorkin President Shepherd: For the last couple of months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being President of this country was to a certain extent about character. And although, I have not been willing to engage in his attacks on me, I've been here, three years and three days, and I can tell you without hesitation, being President of this country, is entirely about character. For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is, 'Why aren't you, Bob?' Now this is an organization, whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights so it naturally begs the question: 'Why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution?' Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am because, I didn't understand it until, a few hours ago. America isn't easy. America, is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center-stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.