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I have to recite a monologue for my acting class, and I need some advice. Can you help me please?
I need to recite this monologue from the play The Trojan Women.
Athena’s monologue in: “The Trojan Women”
When the last ship hath bared her sail for home!
Zeus shall send rain, long rain and flaw of driven
Hail, and a whirling darkness blown from heaven;
To me his levin-light he promiseth
O’er ships and men, for scourging and hot death
Do thou make wild the roads of the sea, and steep
With war of waves and yawning of the deep,
Till dead men choke Euboea’s curling bay.
So Greece shall dread even in an after day
My house, nor scorn the Watchers of strange lands!
How should I act her out? I need tips for memorizing this monologue and any tips on how to act her out would be WONDERFUL! Thank you. ![]()
As far as memorizing…this is different for everybody. Try some of these methods and see what works best for you: writing it out without looking at it, tape record yourself saying it and listen to it, say it out loud over and over (get a friend to hold the paper and when you can’t think of the next part just say "line" and they can give you a few words to help jog your memory)
The acting of a monologue: I think the best way to approach this is to read it and look for the change in emotion. Put a slash everywhere that you think there is a different "feeling" or emotion coming from the words. What is the woman feeling but not saying? Once you have split the monologue into little sections (or beats) then you should write by each beat (or make a chart) what emotion is attached to it. This will help you think of ways to inflect the words in that particular section (what to emphasize etc.) You don’t have to move around much. Pick 2 or 3 times when the emotion changes to move…look at the words to MOTIVATE your character to move. Try not to shuffle your feet or pace around. Standing still with a few choice movements is far stronger. Finally, I would suggest letting the emotion show not only in your body movement but in your facial expressions as well.
Hope this helps! Break a leg!
This was the creepiest experience of my life…