scoring a monologue, finding the beats, playing the action, and why you gotta do it

[contentlove]

One of the main techniques I use to get inside a script and prepare it for performance is text analysis. Text analysis is a method of interpretation that relies on the meaning and to a certain extent the rhythm of any given block of text. In brief, you break the text into thoughts, or 'beats'. When the thought changes, or when the action changes

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[contentlove]

A 'rest' is a pause. It happens when the beat changes, because a rest takes place when you complete one thought, before moving on to the next. How long the rest needs to be has a lot to do with the rhythm of the piece, but the standard is about 2 seconds. "Rest" means what it says. Take a rest. Then move into your next beat, letting the action you've chosen be your guide as how to move. So, a rest is what we do in between beats, and another way of saying that is, we pause. But it's truly a rest. You have to finish one beat and rest before moving into the next beat, or things aren't as coherent as they might be for either the listener or the person delivering. And you'll know if you're doing it right, because the audience will hold really still when you take your rest, and then they'll move (or let their breath out, even), when you move. That's entrainment. There is a lot of potential tension/interest in those little pieces of stillness. Worth cultivating!

This stuff will make you about 1000% more effective as a storyteller, imo In my direct experience as a life long devotee of stories and tellers, ALL really good story tellers do this. Otherwise, the story is mucky. They may not think of it in these exact terms, they may never do text analysis, but they do it. Rest in between thoughts. It seems kind of artificial at first, and I had a lot of problems with it...until I got it. Then it was like the best voodoo in the world. Stick with it!