Larp danger 2217: My sheet is writing checks my mouth can't cash!

[drowsy_poppy]

My character has Acting x4, and someone has requested a Shakespeare monologue. Would anyone with more knowledge about such things than me be willing to help me pick a suitable monologue for Katherine and help me perform it in a way that doesn't suck?

Comments

[drowsy_poppy]

Is that the bit about alas poor Yurik?

[whiteymcdrow]

the last rant in Taming of the Shrew by, coincidentally, a character named Katherine.

[fallenalbatross]

But it's about how wives should submit to their husbands. Not very cool with young, rebellious girls.

[whiteymcdrow]

That's what makes it funny...

[drgnsyr]

Puck's monologue about the pranks he pulls with his shape shifting powers! You see he's trying so seduce a young faerie lady ...

[drgnsyr]

Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon

[fallenalbatross]

Do you want comedic or dramatic? Personally, I like the "quality of mercy" speech from Merchant of Venice. I also like Lady Macbeth's "unsex me here" soliloquy. Tamora's speach from Act V, sc. 2 of Titus Andronicus is a nasty little bit.

My favorite speech from Midsummer was the "Oh spite! oh hell" speech from Act III scene 2. Of course, I was playing Helena, and there are many monologues from that play that are good.

If you are going to go with Hamelt, I like the "what a piece of work is man" one better than the "to be or not to be" one.

[fallenalbatross]

Also, as a general acting tip, make sure you don't work awkward pauses into your performance. Typically, this mistake happens because of line or page breaks in the script where it is natural for the actor to break while memorizing lines.

Watch out that your words don't become overly sing-song, especially with Midsummer. It is one of the most rhyming plays and it can turn into droning if you aren't careful.

Try to remember that although you've memorized the speech and said it over and over, the character saying the words is saying them for the first time.

Finally, act in your pauses.