Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mrs Bradley.

Welcome back to Drama and to your third lesson, in the Narrative Structures Using Poetry Developing Monologues unit.

So in this third and final lesson, we will turn your narrative, into a polished performance.

So if you're ready, let's get started.

Okay so for this lesson, you'll need a pen, an exercise book, paper or a notebook to write in and some space to work in most importantly.

Because, today we will be developing, polishing and performing your monologues.

So make sure you've got the space, so you can stand up and deliver your monologue, rehearse it a little bit, just make sure you can stand up and stretch your arms from side to side.

You might want to think about any other things you need for your monologue, such as, a chair any particular props or items of costume.

So when you've gathered the things you need, let's look at what we'll do today.

So I hope you've done the intro quiz, because that will have recapped some of your prior learning.

We will then focus on, what we did last lesson and how that leads into today.

We will also then, introduce some further devising techniques and they are going to help us, polish and prepare our monologue for performance.

Then, the final stage is to polish and perform them, so you end up with a finished product.

Then that will take you to the exit quiz which will just confirm and check your progress and learning for today.

So looking at our keywords then for this lesson today we will be looking, at flashbacks.

So a flashback is a scene, which goes back in time and we'll look at adding those in, to our monologues today.

We'll then look at another technique which is called marking the moment.

So this is a particular devising technique, where we can highlight, a scene or a moment in our performance by adding in some more techniques to make this more effective for the audience.

We will then also look at use of sound effects today and particular, underscoring, which is where we place music or sound effects underneath the dialogue on stage.

So they're all techniques today, which are going to polish and improve our monologues for performance.

Okay, so in the last lesson, we used role on the wall and hot seating and they were both devising techniques.

So we're going to build on that character development today, by adding in more devising techniques.

And they are flashbacks, marking the moment and sound effects.

So, we talk about devising techniques as strategies that we can use to develop our work as it's in progress and keep improving it and making it better.

So it's all about focusing today on those devising techniques to strengthen what you've got, improve it and turn it into a final performance.

Okay, so let's start by doing a bit of a warm up because today we're going to be doing our performances of our monologues, so let's warm up on these up for a few minutes.

As you can see, I put my hair up to stop my hair from getting in my way.

If you've got long hair, put it up just for a moment.

We're going to start by just, rolling our shoulders back.

Okay, so put your arms by your sides, and just roll your shoulders back.

This is useful, if you've been sat down for a while.

Okay and then just reverse that, roll your shoulders forwards.

Roll those shoulders just forwards now.

Good, put your arms out by your sides, and you're just going rotate your arms. So they're moving forwards as well.

If you've got some music, you could put some music on for this.

Sometimes that helps.

Something that's got a good beat or something that's lively and energetic.

Just rotate your arms backwards.

It sometimes makes your shoulders burn a little bit but it just means that you're working your muscles.

Good, just then, stretch out completely okay? So big circles with your arms, stretching those completely.

One more time, stretching that all the way round, reaching to the ceiling, and then back down again.

So we're doing the physical warm up now aren't we? So, with your neck, we need to make sure it's nice and relaxed.

So, put your chin down to your chest.

Nice and slow movements.

Back up to the centre.

Over to the left.

Not going too far, back to the centre, over to the right.

Back to the centre, up to the sky.

Back to the centre, down to the chest again.

Excellent, put your hands on your hips.

Okay, and just do big circles with your hips.

So a big circle with your hips.

I'm going clockwise, I think at the moment, big circles round with your hips.

Other way, big circles round with your hips in the other direction.

Good, fantastic.

Shake your hands out.

Shake your hands out, like you're tryna get them off your arms altogether.

Shake hands out so they become really loose.

Good.

Okay with your knees, if you can balance, that's fine.

If you can't, just hang on to something, I've got a table just in front of me here.

So, put your right leg in the air.

See if you can bring your right leg up.

So it's sticking out like that.

That's a horizontal angle.

And just from the knee rotate it.

So, from the knee, you should rotate it around like that.

So you're keeping thigh still and just from your knee, you're rotating your lower leg round.

Now just stick your leg out and rotate your ankle round.

So it's just your ankle that's moving.

If you can hold your balance, that's great.

If you can't just touch something, or hold the wall.

Rotating your right ankle round.

Good, same on the other side.

Left leg in the air up to your knee.

Just rotate from your knee round.

And then just rotate your ankle.

Left leg, just rotating your ankle.

Just go in a circle like that.

The reason we warm up in drama physically, is just to make sure we don't injure ourselves.

You might be doing some really, really energetic monologues.

So it's just to make sure there's no injuries.

Good, right leg then just shake it out completely.

So shake your right leg like you're tryna get it off your body.

Shake your right leg out totally.

Do the same with your left.

Shake out your left leg.

Don't fall over, hang on to something if you feel wobbly.

Good, that's our bodies warmed up, let's do a bit of a vocal warm up as well.

So let's start by rubbing our faces.

The reason we do this, I know it feels a bit strange, is we release tension from our face.

So we release all the tension that might be in our jaw.

So we're given that a good massage there.

Just get rid of any tension.

Now, let's do a really wide face.

I can't do this and talk at the same time.

Wide face.

And then scrunch up your face.

Wide face.

Scrunch up your face.

Wide face again.

Brilliant, beautiful.

Imagine you've got a giant piece of toffee now.

Okay, giant piece of toffee, put it in your mouth.

We're going to chew it.

It's so big, you can't close your mouth.

Giant piece of toffee chew it.

And then it's slightly smaller now, so you can close your mouth.

So you're warming up your jaw still.

It's really small now.

No chews.

And then swallow it.

It's gone, brilliant bit of miming okay, good.

We're just going to hum a little bit now.

So pick, just a normal pitch.

Okay, in your mid-range.

And you're just going to hum, so hum and feel the vibration in your lips.

Off you go So your lips should be tickling a little bit I hope that And then we're going to hum this time, and open that into an aah.

So it's going to sound like mmh aah okay? Just take a big deep breath in.

Hum.

Nice and wide, open that nice and wide on the aah.

See if you can hold that instead of your breath.

I can't do that and talk at the same time either.

Very good.

And, we're just going to blow out our lips like a horse.

So, don't spit everywhere, I'm sure you won't.

But we're just going to take a big deep breath in.

And blow our lips out like that, so it tickles a little bit as well.

Let's do that a few more times.

One more time cause it's fun.

Lovely, very very nice.

And let's just finish with a bit of a tongue twister.

Okay, so let's go with, one of my favourites, "Unique New York" "Unique New York" So stretch my mouth that way, and then that way.

So it's a good one.

Unique New York is what you're saying.

And we'll just do that five times.

All together? Unique New York, unique New York, unique New York unique New York, unique New York.

Well done.

So that's worked your mouths, a little bit.

And what that means is you'll be able to articulate your words, a little bit more clearly.

And that hopefully will make sure your dialogue comes out nice and clearly.

And we are fully warmed up.

Starting then, with flashbacks.

So as I said in the keyword section, a flashback is a scene which goes back in time.

So it takes place in the past.

So if we have a linear narrative, everything happens in chronological order.

But if we have a fractured or a cyclical narrative, you might already be using a flashback.

So flashbacks can be a great way to engage your audience.

Today we'll look at, how by adding in a really dynamic, exciting flashback, it can make your performance better and it can be a great way to engage the audience.

So, I want to share with you a narrative that I've come up with.

And it's based on the poem, "When the colours spoke" This is based on the colour pink.

And the verse, which is about the pink colour.

And because that particular verse inspired me because it involved a flamingo.

And I thought it'd be fun, to have a narrative about a flamingo.

So I developed a character, based on the colour pink, called Flo.

So my narrative looks like this, It starts with Flo being sat in detention at school.

She starts to explain to the audience, how she got there and why she's in detention.

And then, this is a cyclical narrative because then it goes back to the beginning.

So Flo was on a school trip to the zoo.

She wanted a pet desperately so she stole a flamingo.

But the flamingo caused havoc and escaped at school.

And that's why she ended up in detention.

So already this narrative is cyclical.

And so really, the flashbacks start here, where we flashback to, Flo being on a school trip to the zoo.

Because we start our, narrative at the end really with her being in detention at school, which is the end of the story.

Then we go back to work out how she got into that situation.

And we end up back at detention.

So, the school trip to the zoo really, is the chronological start to the narrative.

So there is already a flashback in this narrative but, I want to play around with, how I can add another flashback in, at the very very start, to make this a really engaging dynamic opening to this performance.

Okay, so the story I've just shown you, is about a character and she's called Flo and she's in detention at school.

So we could start this story, sat in that detention.

So maybe, this monologue could open like this, In detention, again, watching the clock ticking, slowly.

I suppose I could tell you how I got here this time.

Well, and then we could go into the story couldn't we from there? So that would be one way of opening that performance.

But, maybe another way, would be to pick a different moment from that story, because, really, if she's in detention that's happening at the end of the story.

'Cause everything in the story has already happened.

So we could go back and pick a particular point and pick that out as a really exciting flashback.

Maybe starting with a bit more movements and making it a bit more dynamic and exciting for the audience.

So another way of starting this monologue might be like this.

And I was running, down the corridor, full pelt, as fast as I could, my heart beating in my chest, I had to get there.

I had to get to that bird.

I had to get to that flamingo before it sunk its beak into Mrs Bates' leg.

In detention, again.

And then maybe that's how we start.

So that could be, a more interesting maybe, a more dynamic, way of grabbing your audience at the very start.

And that's what we would call a dynamic flashback.

Okay so, I've demonstrated that for you and we've had to look at how by thinking about something really active and dynamic and that's a flashback so that it doesn't immediately have, lots and lots of context.

We can really engage our audience and bring them in and draw them into our story.

So what I'd like you to do now, is think about your monologue that you improvised, at the end of the previous lesson, and now add a really dynamic flashback to that.

So it would work well at the beginning, but you can place this anywhere in your monologue that would work.

You could even invent a brand new scene, which isn't part of your performance at the moment, which is a flashback so it's a different time completely.

But just play around with now, adding in a flashback making sure it's dynamic has some movement that's exciting and see what that does to your performance.

Pause the video while you step away from the screen and do this task and then resume when you're ready.

Okay, well done.

So, we're going to move on now, to another technique, and this is a devising technique called Marking the moment.

So, marking the moment means, highlighting and drawing attention to a specific part of your performance that you want to really highlight for the audience.

What you can see on the video are four ways of marking the moment.

There are lots of ways of marking the moment, but here are some examples.

One way we can mark the moment is by using slow motion so we can slow the action right down, to really draw the audience's attention to what's happening on stage.

So slow motion is one option.

We can also use a freeze frame.

So a freeze frame is where we just stop and freeze the action completely.

Hold it there, and then restart the action again.

And what that would do is draw the audience's attention to what we've shown them, what we've frozen on stage.

Showing them that stage picture.

Another technique would be to add in, lighting or sound effects.

So we might not be able to do this really in this lesson.

Depends on what equipment you have at home.

But, if we want to shine a spotlight on a particular character, that might highlight their part in the moment, and that might mark the moment.

Or we can add in sound effects.

Or we can flash the lights to red.

And so adding in something else, like lighting or sound can mark the moment really effectively as well.

The final option is thought-tracking which you might be familiar with already, but thought-tracking, is when we freeze the action, so we could use this in combination with a freeze frame.

And then we step out of the scene, and we speak our thoughts to the audience.

Still in character, so it's our character, that stops looks at the audience and then speaks to them directly.

Then they can go back into the scene and carry on.

So they are all ways, of just making one particular moment that little bit more exciting more engaging and more intriguing perhaps for the audience.

So let's have a look at how we can do some marking the moment.

We've looked at four ways there to mark the moment.

Let's have a look at what they might look like in practise.

In my narrative, I've got Flo, my character running down the corridor at school to try and stop a flamingo from getting to the head teacher.

So let's see how I could mark the moment here.

And I was running, as fast as I could down the corridor.

My heart beating in my chest.

I had to get there.

I had to get to that bird.

I had to get to that flamingo, before it sunk its beak into Mrs Bates' leg.

And just, as I was getting there, as I was getting closer, beak, made contact, with leg.

Nooo!! Okay.

So, I marked the moment, by using which technique? I used slow motion.

So the peak, the climactic moment in that particular scene, I slowed right down slowed my physical movements down and slowed my lines down to match at the moment when the beak made contact with the leg.

I could stop there or I could speed back up again.

But I've just marked that particular bit.

So that's one way there of marking the moment, using slow motion.

Let's look another way, same scene.

So, and I was running, down the corridor as fast as I could.

My heart, pounding in my chest.

I had to get there.

I had to get to that bird.

I had to get to that flamingo before it sunk, it's beak into Mrs Bates' leg.

At that particular moment, I thought, "How has my life come to this?" "What have I done to deserve this?" And I thought, "This is not my fault." "I am not to blame here." "My mom never bought me a dog." "And since then, I've been obsessed, with having a pet." "I did not know this flamingo was going to be mad." And then, as I was getting, just to, where Mrs Bates stood, it happened, beak made contact with leg.

Okay.

So there, I marked the moment again, but I used two techniques.

Which two techniques did I use there? I used a freeze frame, so I had to stop the action and hold it.

But then I stepped out of the scene and I spoke directly to the audience.

And that's called thought-tracking.

So there, I spoke my thoughts and my feelings about the situation, to the audience before then going back in and carrying on.

So that marked the moment again, because it encourages the audience to think about that moment in more detail.

It maybe add a bit of comedy.

It shows, how my character feels about that moment as well.

So there we've got three different techniques.

Slow motion, thought-tracking combined with a freeze frame.

So that's what marking moment might look like.

It's now over to you, to put that into your own pieces and just have a go and see what works.

Okay, so we've had a little look at that.

Let's try that yourselves.

So, what I would like you to do, is choose one place in your monologue to mark the moment.

So have a go now.

And either using freeze frames, thought-tracking, slow motion.

You could think about sound effects, but I imagine you don't have the equipment to think about lighting effects.

But choose one of those techniques to highlight a really significant moment, in your monologue performance and mark that moment, by adding in one of these techniques.

Take your time.

Take as long as you need to try this technique.

You might want to do it a few times to make sure you've got it right.

And then resume the video when you're ready.

Right, so let's think about sound effects then because sound effects, can make a performance more effective.

So they can add a whole range of effects.

They can add tension, they can make a moment more frightening, they can add comedy, if it's a comic sound effect.

And they can create this all important feature of atmosphere.

So, a really slow spooky chilling sound effect, might make the atmosphere very tense, scary or frightening for your audience.

So sound, can be really powerful in changing or creating the atmosphere.

And it can be really easy to add in sound effects because you might have a phone with you and you can use sound on any device.

Just by playing it out loud and speaking over the top of it.

This is something really simple, that you can do at home.

Let's look at, some different ways of adding in sound now.

So one way is called Underscoring.

So underscoring means, playing music or sound effects throughout your monologue.

So you speak over the top of it.

What you would need to make sure here, is that your sound isn't too loud, so that your dialogue can still be heard.

You could try, changing the music to suit different parts of your monologue.

So there might be different parts where the action is more exciting and you want some really exciting music.

Or where the action becomes slow, and maybe it's sad.

You maybe want some sad music or for a happy ending, you maybe want some happy music.

So underscoring means playing the music underneath your dialogue.

Another way would be to find sound effects.

So, the internet is a great resource for finding free royalty-free sound effects.

You could, have a look for some and use these at specific moments in your performance, to create a dramatic effect.

Do make sure if you are visiting external websites, that you do have a parent or carer with you.

But this is something which you could try, to add in specific sounds to your monologue.

Another way, if you don't want to use the internet or can't find the sound that you need, is by recording your own.

So you can try making your own sound effects and recording them.

Which would be really easy to create.

Things like footsteps, a door slamming, a running tap a chair scraping.

And these such are called Foley sound.

So we have people in the industry called Foley artists.

And their job is to make realistic sounding sound effects.

That you might hear on TV programmes, on the radio, or in theatre.

So that's another option.

So you could underscore your piece.

You can find some specific sound effects for individual moments.

Or you can try to record your own.

So let's have a go then.

So you've got a monologue.

You've improvised this, you've developed it.

We've now marked the moment and we've added in a flashback.

Can we now polish that even further, by adding in some sound.

So you can do this by playing music underneath your dialogue, or by pausing speaking and playing a specific sound effect.

There's lots of different ways as we've discussed.

Play around with different ideas, and then we'll just see what works.

So pause the video, while you play around with adding in some sound effects.

And then resume when they are ready.

Well done, so we're getting there.

We have nearly a finished, polished piece.

So we're going to just finish this process by performing the monologue To perform this, I want you to focus on your acting skills now.

So I've just summarised these for you.

I want you to think about your vocal skills, and your physical skills.

So for vocal skills, we need to always make sure our voice is loud, clear and not too fast.

But we can vary our pace, our tone of voice and our volume.

So varying our pace, means we can speed up quickly if we want to, or we can slow it right down as well at individual moments.

Tone is the different emotions that come through your voice.

Such as an angry tone or a calm tone.

And they can convey different emotions as well.

And we can vary our volume by speaking louder or quieter at specific moments.

So think about, how you can vary your vocal skills, throughout your monologue.

And practise that, before your performance.

What we can also focus on, is our physical skills.

So we've done quite a lot of physical work already.

Looking at still images and different ways of marking the moment.

But again, always think about, throughout your performance, your body language, making sure that it's sharp, clear and expressive.

If you're using gestures, make them big and expressive and clear.

And so I've just recapped that for you here, we're looking at clear vocal skills, expressive physical skills and when you're marking the moment make sure you do that clearly.

So I've put a pause point here for you to take your time, polishing, and then performing your monologue.

If you can't, it might be a really nice idea to ask someone to film this for you, because then you can have a look back, and look at your own use of skill.

So pause the video to complete your task.

And this is performing your final monologue.

They should now contain, a clear devised narrative, flashbacks, marking the moment and sound effects.

What a lot of stuff we've put into these monologues.

So, do ask someone to film it if you can, because what that means is you can watch it back and get a good idea of how you used your skills successfully.

So take as long as you need now to polish, just practise a few more times and then perform your final monologue.

And then we will resume when you are ready.

Well done you've done it.

So after any process, it's always just a good idea to reflect a little bit on how that went and how successful it was.

So on the screen now are six questions that you could use, to reflect on your performance.

So thinking about your voice, your body language, the parts of the performance that stood out.

Did the structure work successfully? Where your techniques for marking the moment successful? And finally, Is there anything else you would do differently? If you did film it, now is a chance to watch it back to answer these questions.

But if you weren't able to, that's absolutely fine.

Just think about the process and think about it if there is anything that you would do differently.

So when you've had, a bit of a chance to reflect here, we'll move on to just finish our lesson.

Well done saw some fantastic work and that's the end of our unit.

So in these three lessons, you've created a performance completely from scratch.

Starting with a really fun poem "When the colour spoke." And then from that, quite abstract poem really.

Developing ideas, characters and narrative.

Adding in more techniques, learning lots of new drama terminology.

And turning that into a polished performance.

So great work that's a fantastic achievement.

If you want to share your monologue performance, you can do if you ask your parents or carer and they can do that for you, by tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

But really well done.

On some fantastic drama work.

Take care, Thank you.