Origin Story: Monologue

Published on: February 4, 2022

Reflect on the process of working as a creative artist: from nothing to something! Consider recalling the first steps of coming up with your "brainstorm" and using that to develop a story. Tell about your process writing and revising. Then inform us about the process of scoring, rehearsing and ultimately performing your monologue. Discuss moments of trouble through to Ah-has, and the take-aways you'll be moving forward with.

195 Comments

Ian Breen - 4 years ago

my monologue is amazing but i need some more ideas & putting it at a google docs but as always it takes time

Abraham H. - 2 years ago

My monologue is great but I need some more to really put it all together

Ladel - 4 years ago

It took me a couple days to come up with an idea for my monologue and I ended up scrapping that idea and decided to tell a story of what happened to me a while back which was a last minute change. But while performing my monologue I didn't feel nervous or anything as I thought I would. But overall I had fun doing this project 👍

alaina torres - 4 years ago

The process of writing my monologue was actually kid of difficult. Every time I had something I thought I liked, I rehearsed it and ended up rewriting the whole thing. I rewrote my monologue about three times before I felt good about it. When I was rehearsing, I found out I preformed better without my script. I really let myself be the character instead of reading a bunch of words on a piece of paper. Overall I really liked this project and I think I did a good job.

Meison Sichi - 4 years ago

It was interesting cause not really other then like 3rd and like 5th grade or sometime around their did I write anything that was creative and not fully have guidelines of how to write them. When it comes to writing I'm not the most creative person but for this project I got it started and then just let my mind wonder to stuff that makes sense. It was tricky starting and coming up with an idea but I enjoyed this project though.

Brianna - 4 years ago

I really liked getting to perform and see others perform as well. The writing process was hard at first, I didn't know what to write about, but it was a little easier once I had an idea of what I wanted to write about. It felt different to actually perform it instead of just rehearsing. But I still really enjoyed it.

Abygale - 4 years ago

I feel like the monologue really helped get to know people like for my monologue I wrote the story about some of my emotions, I really wanted my story to be deep because I knew that it would fit me best. I feel like once I rehearsed it, it became real. I think I had some struggles on figuring out what I wanted I say cause I felt like I was just repeating myself. Overall the project was fun.

Ben - 4 years ago

I see myself as a "some what" creative person, but I wasn't a big fan of writing. But when I found the perfect focus, the words just flowed. I made a monologue that I was so proud of and I think the focus is what helped me.

Shabnam - 4 years ago

The process of writing the monologue was pretty difficult. It was difficult for me because I had no idea what I was doing, so I just wrote something down and then at the last day I changed that as well, so there was lots of revising and editing. I liked watching other people's monologue's and seeing how they did theirs and what their ideas were.

Noah - 4 years ago

Honestly, this whole monologue assignment was harder than I thought. Being a writer, I thought I'd be able to finish a draft in just a couple hours, but it's a lot more difficult when you're not writing for just yourself, by yourself. Also, I tend to make it harder for myself by switching topics less than a week before said project is due. :) In the end, it was worth the effort, and it was cool seeing what other people wrote. In summary, a bit stressful at times, but fun

messina - 4 years ago

I was really comfortable writing my monologue, I did struggle a bit getting it the way I wanted but the writing process overall wasn't new to me. I like writing, I do it a lot so this wasn't too hard for me. Presenting it is where I struggled, I'm not an actor I don't seriously perform anything ever because I have super bad stage fright. I'm fine with presenting and public speaking but acting and performing is what freaks me out. I didn't even do it live but I still struggled recording it because it gave me so much anxiety. I really enjoyed seeing other people perform and seeing how they chose to present their work, it was really enjoyable to watch. Overall it was interesting to have to present but I don't think I'd ever do it again on my own I rather just stick with crew.

michelle - 4 years ago

The process of me working on my monologue was a bit hard because my mind was blank even though i had the brainstorming ideas until my friend helped me with it and gave me an idea to write my monologue. Rehearsing it wasn't so hard because i had most of it memorized. When I had to perform it i preferred to do it by a recording i just didnt like hearing my voice or the way it sounded when i had to present

xavier claxton - 4 years ago

i redder the modern yesday

Vincent - 4 years ago

For my monologue I mostly wanted to go for more of a funny approach instead of a serious one and I wanted to tell a relatable story to help people understand and get my story.Scoring was easy for me to put jokes in and help myself get some laughs to help my self esteem.Rehearsing was weird speaking to nobody but yet helped practice what i wanted to say and Performing was kinda nerve racking but I still did it and felt good doing something out of my element.I do have to work on myself on being calm and helping myself breathe but seeing all my classmates preform definitely helped me because it made me think "If they can do it,I cand do it".

Lyla Yip - 4 years ago

When I made this from scratch I was really confused on what to do and to be honest it wasn't easy cause you had to make things about one topic and had to make sure you didn't flow off. After thinking about all this and seeing the end revolution of this monologue.. I've come to the decision that I at least put effort into it, yes it might've been something where I think I could've done better but it was a first for me so yeah. The monologue was actually interesting too because you had to think why you wrote this and how it could relate to others who might have gone through the same thing. However, from this experience I now know how it feels like to in front of a crowd speaking and I got to say it was quite nervous-recking but the faster you get it done the less pressure there is.

polina - 4 years ago

When we first started answering the brainstorm questions for the monologue I felt like there was NO WAY that would become anything that I could present. Then the process of writing my monologue and just coming up with ideas of what to write, I felt kind of nervous and already didn't want to present. When It came to actually rehearsing it and scoring...that is when I started to actually HATE this. I felt so nervous and didn't want to present. Then when we came to then theatre and some people decided to present early, I felt very comfortable and ready to present. After I performed my monologue I realized that I was nervous for nothing and that it was actually really easy. :)

Sara - 4 years ago

The first steps of brainstorming, I didn't know what I wanted to do at all. The first assignment, I mainly just did it because I had to. It took me a while to complete the assignment where we had to put what it was about because I didn't know what I wanted to do. All I could think of were sad stories, and I didn't want that. Then, one time I just laid on the floor of my room and looked up at my light and thought of the sun. That's how I got my idea. I knew some elements of what I wanted to write, but not how to put it all together. I was procrastinating on putting it together in the end. I finally wrote, and then scored it very little. On Thursday night, I rehearsed it a lot in my mirror and realized how I wanted to perform it. When I was performing it, I was shaking a lot, and hopefully it didn't show. I messed up the tiniest bit in the beginning of performing, but the rest of it went really well. Overall, I really liked the experience. More the rehearsing and performing than the writing, but still really fun in the end.

Ginger - 4 years ago

I ready made this story around 3 years ago to this day. It has given me another start to where it goes and continues in the story. It also shows me that the story makes more sense and doesn't fall off to a random problem or event like before, I couldn't understand anything. It also shows the emotions I put in it to make it sound like a good actual story I've been carrying around for years. The more conflicts I realizes this world holds with all its ups and downs the more I try creating my story into something way more than just characters existing.

Dylan Simpson - 4 years ago

I really enjoyed telling this story because it's so similar to actual events that happened in real life. This entire piece was made from all of the pressure I was feeling at that time, just a few months ago. When writing the monologue I wanted to be vulnerable because being open makes for great writing, but I also didn't want to make this about me. I think that really shows in the way the character (Mark) acts. What I learned from the whole unit is that I need to think deeper about each line said and how they need to be said. I also need to practice more and not rely so heavily on the script.

Julia - 4 years ago

Writing this monologue was pretty interesting because it went from a couple ideas that I had jotted down in my notebook, to a full on performance. Brainstorming was a fairly easy process because I just got to splatter my thoughts everywhere, but finally honing in on an idea was a little challenging. Once I figured out exactly the story I wanted to portray, the rest of the performance came sort of naturally. Scoring my monologue was honestly really quick since I had an idea of how I wanted to perform it. Rehearsing was really fun because I got to just shout out what a wrote and see what ever tone fit. I liked trying it out in different tones and volumes. When it came to the actual performance, I really enjoyed performing live and it was definitely a new experience. I also liked watching other people perform, so all and all, this project was very fun.

Paige - 4 years ago

When brainstorming I came up with a lot of ideas. Some good some bad, all part of the process. I started writing. Just putting words on the page, letting it free flow. When I got a feel of what was written I went on with it. I wrote some and thought I had it but then I found a better idea I wrote much easier on, so I went with it. I soon had a script. I started reading though, I looked around other peoples scripts and that helped me reflect on mine.

Penelope - 4 years ago

I think my monologue turned out well. I struggled at first because I was unsure of what I wanted my monologue to be about. I thought my topic wasn't going to be as serious or dramatic as everyone else. I realized that it was okay because I made it and that is still important. My monologue turned out the way I wanted it to be. I enjoyed being creative and I had fun trying something new. I think I gave my best performance for everyone and worked hard so that is all that matters to me.

Karys - 4 years ago

The first steps of the brainstorming process was tough. You have to figure out what you want to do, how you want to do it and what characters need to be portrayed. You need to get into a headspace and jot down anything that comes to mind. Then you have to create a story from nothing. I'd say that it was hard for me to think of interesting topics. I wanted to do something that an audience hadn't seen a lot of, and piecing it together was hard. For instance, I had a really good topic and what seemed to be a good story, but once I read it aloud, it sounded choppy and all over the place. Eventually I decided on an argument I had with my mother several times before, and I thought it would be funny for the audience to experience that with me. In the end it comes down to the execution of the monologue. You could have a really good monologue written and revised to perfection, but executed wrong, or you could have an average monologue, performed to perfection, and have it be really good. I think the experience was something outside of my comfort zone and performing it was nerve-wracking, but in the end you get to dive deeper into your creative mind.

Molly Cochrane - 4 years ago

When I was first doing my monologue I was trying to make it about my life but I couldn't think of anything so I made up my own story. it was much easier to write a story than to write about me so I just went with the made up story. I didn't revise much of my story because it was how I pictured it. The writing and editing part of the monologue was really easy. Scoring was a little bit hard because I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. Rehearsing was hard because I didn't like re saying it over and over again. But I think that the performance went really well. An aha that I got from this experience is that you should go for what ever monologue flows really well for you first.

Ysabella - 4 years ago

When working on the assignment it was easy. I didn't know what to write until I got some ideas. Once I started writing it was pretty easy after. Everything was fine until I had to present. I don't really care much for presenting a slideshow but this was different, but once I was up there I was fine.

Samantha Smith - 4 years ago

The assignment was definitely challenging, i was very confused and wrote a not so great monologue then i heard people perform and i stayed up all night rewriting an even better monologue. It was a long process but in the end it was really fun.

Lily Dempsey - 4 years ago

I found this experience so interesting. We all started off in the dark. Our ideas and our experiences led us to make something amazing for each of our monologues. It was so much fun to collaborate and work through problems. We all ended up on stage and the best part about it was it didn't feel hard, or like a big challenge. It didn't feel like a chore. This assignment was fun, and I enjoyed the outcome.

Maki - 4 years ago

Being a writer and loving writing myself, i thought this would be a super easy assignment. Turns out writing a monologue and script is harder than writing a book or a poem. It's a lot harder when you're talking about yourself and your instead of some made up character. Overall though, this assignment was very fun and I really enjoyed it. I also think doing it will help me with writing in the future, so I'm very grateful for getting to do this assignment. :)<3

Eli - 4 years ago

During the process of creating the monologue, I was a bit nervous. I had a ton of ideas that flowed, and I could choose from, so deciding was the toughest part for me. I enjoyed creating the monologue the experience was very fun and interesting. I would for sure do it again. I did not perform it, but i think the process of recording it will be a little scary considering I'm sharing my own personal experience, and writing , which is a very vulnerable thing for me. Overall the process was enjoyable.

Boa Bajwa - 4 years ago

When I started my monologue I was all over the place, I never knew what I was going to do, but as I progressed and found a deeper meaning to why I chose the topic I chose in the first place, it got me somewhere I liked. The brainstorm for me for me was easy, and so was the scoring. Writing the monologue was different, I had negative feedback in my head which made me really not like my monologue, so I had to push it away. Scoring really helped me not act the monologue out like I was doing popcorn reading, but it helped me humanize the character and make her seem more like us, more dependable, more human. Acting it out in the audience was tough but it really made me confident afterwards. You have to just go for it, and do the performance. In conclusion, this creative pathway really brought something more of me, and it was really fun.

skylar cooks - 4 years ago

The thought of making a monologue I was willing to share was kind of difficult, but then I thought of some of the small things that happened to me, like having the absolute need to have all As otherwise I panic. So getting a bad grade on something and being upset was something I could relate to in some kind of way. Then I started with the first thing I do when I panic is i ask questions, and i question my self, and i doubt myself, but in the end i practice i got some great criticism and in the end i think i did good.

Janessa - 4 years ago

When I first started my monologue I tried to make ii something I could to relate with... Then I gave up, BUT I ended up trying to read from a script, which gave me my final product ("Why Are You Here"). I literally stayed up all might the night before it was due to finish the monologue and record it because I was behind due to covid, but I think I did pretty ok for my first go at this stuff. I literally just turned a sad script about mental health into a kind of funny where I'm angry at some loser. The rest of it was pretty easy for me, I did ruin my vocal cords because of how many times I rehearsed my lines, but it wasn't too bad. A take-away I got from this was, maybe don't rehearse my lines so many times in one night.

Natalie - 4 years ago

In the beginning, I didn't really know what I was going to write about, but I wanted it to be emotional. Soon I figured out my topic and it really resonated with me because it almost felt like a journal entry. It was really nerve-wracking reading it to someone for the first time because I haven't acted in front of anyone while using dialogue before. The editing and scoring of my monologue was pretty easy and felt confident doing that. I feel like I could've rehearsed a bit more, but overall I am happy with my performance. It felt freeing to let out those emotions in the form of art. Watching the other students perform was very inspiring, so many of them are so talented and it made me really excited to perform my monologue. I loved hearing everyone's stories, whether they were true or not or funny or emotional, it was such a fun day.

Vika - 4 years ago

My monologue experience was really stressful, I felt like I couldn't get it right. I really needed an example at first, I didn't want to end up sounding stupid, or stuttering on my words. But it was really fun watching other people preform. I loved all the emotion people put into their monologues.

hope - 4 years ago

I did not get to perform or record my monologue, but I hated the process of writing the monologue. I found it so hard to be creative while writing and I was always worried about what the audience would think. I also felt like I wasn't portraying the emotion right. Overall I did not enjoy writing my monologue and I wouldn't say that I am proud of my work

Sammie - 4 years ago

When I was first creating my monologue, I was completely stuck, for I had no clue what to write about. At first I was leaning more towards a serio-comedy monologue, but I still had no clue what to write about. It wasn't until the week that we had to start scoring our monologues when I finally knew what I wanted to write about. I wrote my entire monologue in twenty minutes with no break and no revisions. Once we started scoring and rehearsing our monologue I then wanted to change my entire story. Since my monologue was a comedy monologue and I wanted to perform live, I was afraid that I wouldn't get any laughs. It wasn't until the night before when I decided to just go through with performing my monologue despite my nerves of getting no laughs, because even if others didn't get the jokes, I knew that I did, and I was proud of my work in the end.

Lily - 4 years ago

when i was performing i was really nervous but once u start doing it the hard part is over with and it becomes easier.

Jordan Torrente - 4 years ago

So what I first had to brainstorm was what I wanted my monologue to be about. I decided to make it about my life as we had already done an assignment digging deeper into ourselves. After that, I just started typing out my monologue about myself and that's how it came to be. In order to edit it, I just kept rehearsing and changed the parts that didn't feel right. Being an audience member was a lot better than actually performing since as an audience member I could get caught up in the story but I didn't prepare well enough for performing so I got a little freaked out about it.

ezaynia - 4 years ago

At first I was thinking on what to write about because I did mine last minute, but than I figured out what to say so I wrote some things down than I rehearsed it, but the thing is I'm indecisive so it takes me a while to actually write something down that I would like so I guess I liked my scripts although it was pretty short. I did like everyone else scripts they expressed their emotions while acting it and that was really amazing.

Isaiah - 4 years ago

Writing and directing my monologue was by far one of the most fun and most creative works of art I ever made. I'm well aware of the criticisms of this sounding more like a trailer to a movie, or an actual play, but my performance was to capture the essence of a theatre play with a monologue performance present. As well as the fact that the second character "The Father" was added to bring out the main character's feelings emotions, and set all the points for your standard monologue. Along with the voice acting, it was fun adding sound effects and music to really capture the drama and bring this audio alive. With how this turned out, I don't really see myself doing a monologue in a different way.

Joy - 4 years ago

When I first thought of what to do for my monologue was based on real life situations that happen with every teenager. To me it was in some kind of comparison to what dealt with in my teen year now. A lot of this stuff is based round a high school where most of the teens have know each other for a long time and had problems with school like friend, teachers, and parents. When I was reading it I've noticed that I did use a lot of but plus a lot of and's. A aha was that when you do it the first time so do not wait until the end to do you monologue.

alexa - 4 years ago

Doing this monologue was scary because it made me a little bit vulnerable and made me doubt my ability's and the things that I can do. I felt as though I wasn't ready to have people watch my monologue and I wasn't ready to preform it. I was pretty scared and nervous about showing it up until I was doing it and then my fears started to become more about what people would think. I was very critical about how I preformed my monologue and I redid it a bunch of times. I wanted it to be perfect so that when other people saw it they didn't have anything negative to say but I don't think I achieved that level of perfection because unfortunately wanting to go to sleep won the battle of whether to keep refilming or go to sleep and submit the best take I already filmed.

Iden Teangh - 4 years ago

When starting the process of creating a monologue, it was quite difficult. I didn't have an idea on what topic I should do for my monologue and I was stuck for 2-3 days on this. After that though, it was smooth sailing from there. I finished the writing and revised the script to fit better for the performance. I put tick marks for words that I really wanted to emphasize and for when I want to pause. While rehearsing for the performance, I tried to be in the mindset of my character and act frustrated and sad while reading my script. Overall, the project was a great learning experience and I got to know more about what I want to do in the future.

India - 4 years ago

I had a lot of fun doing the asingment. at first the whole brain storming thing was hard for me and i couldnt think of anything. but then I started working with some other people and we all conected our monologues. once i had an idea it wasnt that hard to write the actual script. It was hard to do the scoring part because I wasnt sure how to show the emotions that my character was feeling but once I thought about it for a while i was able to do it. Once I got to the performing part I was nervius and i acsedently messed up but i think i did ok over all.

Shelbee - 4 years ago

The process was differant because I have never done anything like it before. It was difficult brainstorming what to write about. i just wrote what came to my mind and went from there and came up with more ideas to write about. My monologue turned out okay. Overall writing my monologue was a good experience. I have never really acted anything so rehearsing my monologue was interesting.

sienna - 4 years ago

I ended up making my monologue about a random person named Jess. With my monologue I did add some personal touches which when I practiced readiny the monologue came into play. Im not sure if others could tell but I could feel me being a little more vulnerable talking about some of the things in my monologue. At first I tried making it like a very stern straight foward speech, but with a monologue you need feelings to be involved so I ended up editing it and putting that all together. The experience of writing the monologue was new and very fun, I enjoyed riting and because this way of writing was newer for me. Mainly because I had relateable things I talked about so it wasn´t my favorite thing to be vulnerable but I think it may be good to open up a little.

wayne newman - 4 years ago

I enjoyed being able to watch people preform there self written monologue. as I was watching the plays I peeped how actors were showing true emotions with there character as they were acting.

EDWARD - 4 years ago

it was good to seeing people doing there monolog sharing there express they feel

Drew - 4 years ago

The writing process was not an easy process, but nevertheless it was enjoyable. I find peace in reflecting on my life, to then pulling pieces of me to formulate a story. My monologue originated from a secret desire, something I want to pursue, but am always hesitant to reach towards. I then found ways to connect this struggle to feelings that overwhelmed me as a younger child in order to find relation within my work. My monologue tells the story of me, today, speaking to my younger self with the intention of being a push for her. Years ago I never paid enough attention to my needs and passions, I was always one to overlook myself in order to look out for others. A distraction. My monologue speaks a message or ridding self-doubt and allowing self exploration. Unfortunately during performance week I was sick and did not have the opportunity to complete the steps following the writing portion of this project. I am in the process of finalization now and can't wait to share what I've created.

Maricela - 4 years ago

Writing this monologue was cathartic in way because i got express how i felt towards my exes. Writing and preforming the monologue reminded me how much i love acting and the theater.

Sara - 4 years ago

The process of writing my monologue was very difficult. It was hard at first to come up with ideas about what to write, but once I had an idea going it all kind of came together and just started to flow. The brainstorm was the hardest part but after that it did get better. I did not get to see anyone preform or preform myself, but from what I did see I liked how every ones stories ended up coming together.

Eden - 4 years ago

Writing and creating the monologue was definitely not easy but I took a passion that I have an used it to write a monologue that I'm proud of. I started off with nothing to something great.

India Veylupek - 4 years ago

I knew that from the start I was going to write my monologue about an old woman. But when I started I wasn’t really sure what it was going to be about. Then I joined the group of other people and we all connected ours and it made it a lot easier. I’m the end I thought it was really fun and a good experience!!

edward - 4 years ago

My creativity comes from my clothing choices, the creativity starts in my head then I can execute the idea onto a project.

manizha - 3 years ago

My creativity comes from my clothing choices, the creativity starts in my head then I can execute the idea onto a project.

Juniyah - 3 years ago

The process of creating my own monologue was very fun. At times it was difficult to think of what to write or if the audience would enjoy the story, but in the end it all came together. I was nervous to perform my monologue but after watching fellow classmates do it I didn't feel alone as much and as I was walking up to the stage my fear left and I did great!

sammie - 3 years ago

i thought writing my monologue was fun. i liked being able to share a deeper side of myself.

Amarion Temple - 3 years ago

My monologue is good, I just need to put some more things like I need to get more ideas for my script. The writing was a bit hard, I just didn't know what to write about and what the topic was gonna be like. Also presenting the script to people felt really embarrassing because I don't like talking in front of a lot of people anyways so I got a bit scared when I messed up on a couple of words.

Lu - 3 years ago

The monologue helped me channel my feelings into theatrical work and to preform it in a way that I would want to express it on my own. The scoring helped me to remember where and when I needed to express certain things. The creative writing itself was fairly easy to do in my opinion but the acting part was a little difficult. In the end, I did do really well, but preforming it in a way helped me focus more on the script then the audience.

Audrey - 3 years ago

The writing process was probably the most difficult because I didn't really know where I was going with the story and I changed it up a couple times. My monologue was going to be based on a thing that actually happened to me, but then I scrapped the whole idea and made up a new story. Scoring was pretty easy because I knew what emotions I wanted to convey, and rehearsing was easy because I did it with a friend. I did a recording because it seemed like it would be less stressful, and I stand by that.

Jackson - 3 years ago

I knew I wanted to do a monologue about the waves and surfing and "upbeat" or happy. But I didn't know what message I would give. Then I came up with the idea, of doing something that makes you relax and feel good. I feel I was actually more nervous to rehearse it, then actually perform it. I did my own little spin on my own monologue. So I came up with a a lot of lines on the spot and they just all kind of flowed together and I was happy with it in the end

Kayleigh<3 - 3 years ago

I feel like this was a very new experience for me. I am very used to writing speeches and used to using emotion but to the extent of this. But I wrote about something that I am very passionate about and something that I knew that I can proficiently write out and complete. I wasn't nervous when I had to perform, I was excited. Something about performing made me just happy and excited to once again talk in front of people. I did mess up on a sentence so it did not make sense, but I acknowledged it in my head and just continued. Because if I didn't just let it go, I would've stumbled and things would have been 10x worse. Overall I feel like this was something that I would love to do again and hopefully can continue to do with ease!!

Alyssa - 3 years ago

When I was writing this monologue I kept trying to think how I was going to act it and hw long the writing would be. there was a lot of scoring and cut out from when I started performing it. The actual performance was nice and easy because I couldn't really see anyone because of the lighting. It was overall very good, I'm glad that I got to at least practice before going and getting feed back practicing.

Ronnie - 3 years ago

Writing my monologue was very difficult but I made my way and got it done. my Monologue is about a man that is eating and get done and isn't able to pay so a old man payed for him. The monologue was like a movie for me i thought of it as a way express my way of thinking through a scripted

Larissa - 3 years ago

In my opinion my monologue was creative and something unlike the other students but One of my many thing I need to work on it that I need to memorize what I need to say. I also need to work on time, I think my monologue was longer that 2 minutes. When writing my monologue I thought a lot about history and what people went through during ww2. I had to think about how my grandma would talk to me. That's how I wrote this monologue

Michelle Rodriguez - 3 years ago

Writing my monologue was a little difficult because I had so many different ideas and I didn't know which one would be the best to do. I had my whole monologue ready, but then I decided that I had a better idea so I re wrote the whole thing. At first I was a scared because I didn't know if it was good or not , but with a lot of practicing and re reading I began to love it. I think that writing my own monologue made me more creative in a way.

Ethan Collins - 3 years ago

When I first started my monologue, I had my doubts. It was, at first, messy, uncoordinated, and unplanned. Until, I compared my monologue to the real world, and it started to improve. Before I knew it, it was a fleshed - out, well - done monologue. When I performed it, however, I was nervous at first. I was always wondering; "Will people like it?" "Will people think about it?" Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. It may seem nerve-racking at first, but once you're on the stage, most of the fear usually goes away... And you give it your all. Overall, I really liked my monologue, and I liked everyone elses too.

America A - 3 years ago

When I was first writing my monologue I wanted to make is serious instead of funny. When I started writing I realized that maybe telling they way I feel when I have to talk to new people and how I often over think in a funny way would be better. So I did just that but told it through a made up characters eyes. I wanted the character to not 'get over their fear' because sometimes you can't, and that's ok. I'm still barley able to ask to go to the bathroom, only done it once last semester.

savanna renno - 3 years ago

When I first started writing my monologue, I had no clue where to start or how it was going to go but I decided to write it about something common and funny. I wish I had gone with a more calmer role because when I started to preform it I realized I don't like preforming and it didn't go well.

Amanda - 3 years ago

When I was told that we were suppose to make monologues I was nervous since I didn't know what it should be about since I had so many ideas. I eventually found what my monologue was going to be about but I really put so much words that I could've probably made a book of it. What I had trouble on was acting it out, I couldn't really put a lot of emotion into it during rehearsals but when I was performing it; I put more emotion into it. I should still work on being the character when I'm performing it though, either way I still loved doing the monologue.

Liz - 3 years ago

The writing and creative thinking process really helped with getting out my ideas and fixing it up so it would'nt be rough. The acting part was the fun part even though it was scary at the start. over all a really fun project.

Rey Castro - 3 years ago

First starting my monologue, I wanted it to be a tragedy but I didn't want to overshare. At first, I didn't know what to write about but after asking others, I got my basic idea of what my monologue was going to be about. When I actually got to writing my monologue, I didn't know how to actually write about my topic. Because of this, I made many revisions to my monologue. I went through this process many times before coming up with a comedy. However, this made me a little worried that mine wasn't going to be as good as others after hearing a few people's because theirs was sad or dramatic. I still stuck with my monologue and it ended up being pretty good. During and before my performance I was nervous and my heart started beating really fast. When I finished that feeling was still there but it felt good.

Gaby - 3 years ago

Work on my emotions and talk to group of people

Thu Mai - 3 years ago

There's this memories that had with my mother and somehow related to my fear so I just make them into a story and make the character do what I wouldn't do in that situation. The character "Abbey" is actually a female version of a character that was made by me a while ago named Adam, they have similarity in personality with short term frustration and anger. At first, I started my monologue with describing a little less on the weather and surroundings but my completed monologue still describe little to no about surroundings but I did describe more about the weather, cloudy (so it can gives a hint more of what kind of mood the story should have). In the starting preforming I wasn't going to yell that loud and just go for a passive anger but as I yell I felt that anger overflowing like I was THE character that felt it soo it wasn't me, it was the character that yelled.

Alex T - 3 years ago

Doing this felt like opening up a bit about how I want to live my life and telling people how I felt about everything. I thought my monologue was long and stupid but I performed it and people liked it.

emiliana - 3 years ago

i took forever on this monologue i barely started writing it the night bbefore it was due becxause i had no idea what i was doing or what i should. I think what i wrote though good enough for a monologue because i added details even though i didnt wanna share some things i did.

Kurt Mann - 3 years ago

Working on my monologue was pretty fun to do. I had the ability to write about whatever I wanted and present it to the class. I'll admit that it was difficult when choosing a topic, but I had fun with it overall. The best part was seeing what other people chose to do with their monologues.

Daniel - 3 years ago

I overexaggerated a lot of my story but for more drama. After I wrote I went back and i thought in my head what emotion my character would say the words with and I said it with that emotion. I procrastinated a lot of this project.

Ryan B - 3 years ago

The monologue just came to me, I got into my own head and closed my eyes, thinking of a scenario. I ended up performing the same Monologue I took to Lenae, I am happy with how it turned out, And I feel proud that I was able to able to experience something as special as making a monologue.

Wali - 3 years ago

The first unit of theatre was not what the word theatre promised me, I have expected more acting and advanced things because of the name, "Professional Theatre" but even though I got a package I did not order, I am fine with the outcome and that we had at least one act.

Tyler - 3 years ago

my monologue was was something that happened but made it a little more exciting and interesting.

Alex T - 3 years ago

Coming up with ideas for my monologue was difficult. I had a lot of ideas, but didn't know how to write any of them. It took me a few days to finally be okay with my topic of choice, and I almost immediately started writing so that I could write some good lines while I was still feeling connected to the idea. I wrote the majority of my monologue in one day, but ended up making some minor changes before turning it in. Being able to share it with the class was also hard, and I kind of let my nerves get the best of me. I hope to be able to give a live performance next time, as I was only comfortable recording for this first time. I didn't rehearse as much as I should have either, as I was nervous about giving a performance in front of a live audience. I hope to gain more confidence as I receive more assignments so that I can perform without worrying about the audience watching me.

Makiah Sparks - 3 years ago

My prosses was slow. I didn't really know what I wanted to write about, I had to many ideas. Then one of the questions was "what is your biggest fear?" I thought at first that it was what I had already been going through. I thought it was getting hurt and not being able to do all the things I wanted to do anymore. But after facing that possibility and coming out of it on the other side with good news I realized that I am not ready for the real world which seemed so crazy to me because I have always wanted to grow up and live on my own terms. I wanted to break free from school and to get a job and have fun. So I wrote about being stuck because that became my new fear.

miguel - 3 years ago

I couldn't think of what to write about so Mr.Hanks suggested to write about my Cheto. I didn't rehears it because i just didn't. i just read the script to Mr.Hanks during launch. A takeaway it that Mr.Hanks has too high of expectations.

Reagan - 3 years ago

I had a lot of fun writing my monologue. In general I love writing but I thought it was fun writing something I was going to preform. I started off with the idea that I love to travel and branched off from that and it turned into the monologue "Lost in Rome". I have been to Rome before so this is where the main idea came from. The writing process was pretty easy for me because I write a lot in my free time. I kind of thought of where I wanted to go with the story and then "brain farted" on the page. Then I went back in a revised a ton and boom done. Then it was time to practice. My character "Cassidy" is actually my cousins name. She was 12 at the time we went to Italy and I'm not going to lie she has some attitude. So I tried to incorporate that into my character. Overall it was a fun project.

Matthew - 3 years ago

The reason why i wrote a monologue was to show what i can express about myself, like writing about me and my friend and writing about the character, the process of writing a script was very fun, i liked writing about character, expressing the emotions my character had and also talking about what the character was saying, What I learned from this monologue, was writing it, performing it, practicing my script a few times, it helped think about what thoughts i had, brainstorming new ideas

Maile - 3 years ago

I really had no idea what I wanted my monologue about, but as we continued to work on it, I knew it had to something I was passionate about. I ended up changing by focal point dozens of times and only settled on a final script a few days before performing. I never was really done revising as I continued to fix all the way through rehearsing. Looking back I still want to fix a bunch of things. My monologue was different from most people's as it wasn't told as a story, but as a description from me to the audience. I knew I was going to be an odd one out but I still enjoyed this project we did. I really had a lot of fun with this project and can't wait to see what comes next.

Jake Y - 3 years ago

I've never put this much emotion into a monologue before so this was very new to me. I know it was an origin story monologue, but I just went with what was easy to write about. To be completely honest, I barely rehearsed this monologue more than 5 times. As time goes on, I will eventually have to perform on stage instead of using a mp3 file, so this will be kind of hard.

Mary - 3 years ago

When I began brainstorming my monologue I wasn't sure what to write about. I had ideas for what I wanted to say but nothing felt right. I changed gears a little bit from wanting to have my monologue set as a story I was telling, to it being a snippet of my life, but as if I was older. This idea came much easier and didn't follow much of what I originally planned, but that was the beauty of it. I was able to have more freedom and felt like my story was a reflection of myself rather than a separate piece. Writing was pretty simple for me and I got it done fairly quickly. Scoring on the other hand was tougher. In my monologue I was constantly changing emotions and had a hard time knowing when to slow down and be louder or quieter. But, when I finally found my rhythm It was much simpler to practice and I loved my script more and more. When it came time to perform I was very nervous, but I was able to push through and I felt good about my performance. I messed up a little bit, but overall I am happy. I loved the process of brainstorming, writing, and performing, and am very proud of how it turned out.

Tyrone - 3 years ago

For as a Student coming up with The Remembering I wanted a s little story mixed with The Giver and Hunger Games emotions and explosions and common things about doing My first Monologue and when I kept writing about more and more but Mr. Hanks suggested that I could fix a little things before I submitted it. I got a great scoring but I am little bit puzzled about Mr. Hanks scoring on Motivation but I understand that I wasn't towards to the audience as I should hope for.

Kyra Sandoval - 3 years ago

Writing my monologue was a little challenging at first since I didn't have a clue what to write. When I did figure out what to write and got some sentences done, then I realized that I didn't really like the way it was going. So I changed it into something completely different. Also when I received advice about what I could do, I took that into account and fit it into the monologue and made it better than the original. Even when I went to perform the newest one, I changed it and I like the way it turned out in the end. Will I always say it the same, probably not but that's okay.

Maxy - 3 years ago

In the beginning I was worried that I wouldn't do a good job in this class because I didn't know much about theater. But Mr. Hanks gave me time until I was really ready and content with my monologue which was a big help because I was so indecisive with my work. The making of the monologue was difficult in the beginning but I got the hang of it thanks to Mr. Hanks patience he is a good teacher.

Rose Antonelli - 3 years ago

I'm proud of my monologue! The monologue's final idea is much different than the original idea. While crafting my script I wasn't confident with my ideas and word choice. The majority of my uncertainty came from my fear of the audience. The script had humor in it, I was afraid the crowd wasn't going to respond the way I intended. On top of that, I struggled to display my character's personality as I wrote formally. But of course I altered the script so the final product allowed my speech to flow.

Dalton Lorentzen - 3 years ago

I came up with starting typing my story in but I thoght of my story by remembering how I learned to play basketball. I didn't practice before presenting to the class. when I got infront of my class to tell my story, I felt a little bit nervous but I felt great. I lerned from telling my story that if I practous I will feel more confident.

Antonio Hayes - 3 years ago

In the beginning I liked football so a made a football monologue and I thought about changing my monologue but I just kept it the same I didn't want to present because I was really nervous

Iysha Lakhan - 3 years ago

When I was first brainstorming about my monologue I was thinking of being a motivational speaker. I always loved hearing those types of speakers and their amazing stories and I felt if I added a funny backstory it would be more interesting and it did. But I kept wanting to change the story line because so many new ideas kept popping into my head but I kept my original idea and it turned out perfect. The most nervous part about this process was definitely going up and performing. But after a while of being in character you get used to it. And at the end of the day I loved my monologue and hope it inspired others as much as it inspired me.

Jalieya - 3 years ago

the process of writing my monologue was actually kind of difficult because i didn't really know what to write and that made it harder to make a story but i got through it. Performing was hard for me because i'm not really a social person or the kind of person to get up on a stage or perform in front of a lot of people.

Elias - 3 years ago

For me it was hard to actually get my ideas out on paper, because I'd plan out everything I wanted to say and then forget immediately afterwards and couldn't write anything. Eventually I started writing as I was brainstorming and only wrote it down in chunks, so like red light green light? I also wrote in where I normally stutter or stall based on how I'd act it out, and color coded everything so that I'd know what emotion in my voice/how I was supposedta be speaking and where. I also wrote words how I speak em

azrai holmes - 2 years ago

it's three monologues: Zodiac force, Crazy Chameleon and ugly duckling musical working title

cara cummings - 2 years ago

I think this experience of creating something from nothing and sharing it to others. I was a very fun but hard process. I had some struggles with this but also some easy pathways during this project.

Finnley Garcia - 2 years ago

For me this monologue was a fun challenge, as I had done acting before, but never really of my own written material. It was fun to try and write my own personal experiences into the scene.

Aleena - 2 years ago

So I think I could have worked a little better or harder on it. I redid it a bunch of times and still was not really happy with it but I think it was pretty difficult because I have never done anything in theatre before.

Amelia Ura - 2 years ago

It was really hard to think of a story line and I kind of hated my story but it what it is. My monologue at first was more of a story but after going over it I think I made it into a monologue. Also when I was actually was kind of awkward and broke character but I am also just starting so I really hope to improve.

CJ - 2 years ago

It was difficult for me to actually get started writing my monologue, because every idea I had didn't feel like it was 'enough' to be my final project, or like it didn't have enough background information. After watching a few of the other monologues, I decided to completely scrap the idea I had been working on and flip to something that was easier to write. Keeping the video of a monologue we had watched in mind, I wrote a funny monologue about an event that I have talk about many times, putting a small twist on it and quickly getting the monologue I ended up preforming.

Bethany de Young - 2 years ago

My brainstorm wasn't too much of issue. I was already in 'the mode,' so it was decently simple to come up with a script for the character. The main issue came to how I wanted each beat to begin and end. the tone is the character was a bit hard since I don't have to best grasp on how I would overreact in a situation such as getting turned down from an art school due to the lack of funding. I wish I gave myself more time with the script to rehearse because although I turned in a recording of my role, I decided to perform. The main reason for this was because of the lack of my bottom half showing in the recording. Acting is a lot easier when you can show your whole body to the audience and that recording wasn't cutting it. So when I eventually got to the stage, I didn't have my entire script memorized and I sadly, had to improvise a bit.

giorgia - 2 years ago

the process of writing my monologue was hard for me because I didn't understand the emotions I felt either. But I'm glad I did that and I overcome some of my fears

Connor - 2 years ago

I struggled REALLY hard to write anything because I have such bad memory that my iceberg was extremely boring and because my iceberg was extremely boring, I had to come up with a new concept to write a monologue about, but then I'd just keep on coming with new monologue ideas and getting rid of the old ones and then I got really upset and I just couldn't. I'd usually be very good at this but writing makes me violently angry and writing a monologue makes my bones hurt.

Kalyssa - 2 years ago

I enjoyed writing my monologue. It was easier to write it then present it because presenting makes me nervous, but other than that I thought it was fun.

Ian Catlett - 2 years ago

I enjoyed making my monologue. For my process I just came up with the first idea and then just started writing. I didn't have an end planned out but instead was just putting down a bunch of ideas and then later when back to make sure it all made sense. Eventually about half way through writing I developed a good idea of where I wanted the story to go so I added that to the end and filled in the middle.

kloey tsukiji - 2 years ago

the prosses of writing my monologue wasnt that difficult becuase i did not write my own monologue and i have not started mine but performing the monologue was scary becuase everyone looks at you and your the only one talking

Lesly Prado - 2 years ago

It was difficult for me to express my feelings in a computer, Sometimes I would know in my own mind how I feel and how I want to be but there wouldn't be many words to describe my feeling. When I got my idea in my computer I knew that I will say everything very fast without thinking and will need to make stuff up so I would space the story make each small and write the emotion and acting I will be doing to make the preforming less nervous and scary.

Joanna Nava - 2 years ago

the process of writing my monologue was hard for me because i would think of the exact thing to write, but when it came to actually writing it down it i would immediately forget what i was trying to write about. Writing it was actually fun because i had so many ideas popping into my head all at once and it all seemed to be so interesting. I think actually preforming my monologue was the toughest part of it all because i am not used to talking in front of a lot of people and being a public speaker.

Mily Alvarado - 2 years ago

When we where first tasked with the project I was excited. But once I started to work on it more I realized it actually was a difficult task. I struggled to find and inspiration and was falling behind. I eventually decided to make something up fully. My imagination took the reigns and I wrote my monologue in one day. Scoring the monologue was easy and enjoyable since there where lots of emotions in it. The more I practiced the easier it became. At first my goal was to memorize it but sometimes just reading it over and over works. Over all I believe this was a great project that was out of my comfort zone but i think helped build my skills

Anthony Johnson - 2 years ago

This felt simple to me because I worked with scripts before. Yet this a little to controlled with my monologue, so I just improvised and did a improv job.

Leala Moreau - 2 years ago

Overall, I feel as if I did a good job at performing my monologue. However, there are some things that I feel as if I could do better at for my next performance. My brainstorm helped me pave the way to create a my final product, but when I was revising it, I realized there were things that I needed to change along the. And again, I feel as if my voice was being strained during some parts of speaking my monologue. I didn't stutter as much and I was consistent when it came to speaking. I'm proud of myself for getting over the fear of speaking to an audience, even if it wasn't spoken live. I feel like I overcame an anxiety of mine.

Semetei - 2 years ago

When I first started the monologue unit, I had no idea what I was going to write about. I was of course nervous about performing the monologue because I get shy about performing in front of people. My brainstorming took a long time. It took about a week because I had a lot of interesting stories to tell. But the one I picked up was the story that almost killed me riding my bike during a thunderstorm. After preforming I felt great

Jaelen - 2 years ago

For my monologue I wrote about baseball because that's the thing I enjoy talking about and playing. I had an idea for it. I made varsity for baseball so I was gonna talk about how i made my coach believe in me to play varsity

MarJai - 2 years ago

For me it was hard to come up with ideas for my monologue and i am not really an acting person so I barely act it out so I just said it and got along with it. Its not really that bad presenting it as long as you only care what you say then you will be good.

Kate L - 2 years ago

The first part of the brainstorm was difficult because writing without being able to have dialogue back is a bit hard for me. I knew what my topic would be pretty easily but I struggled to make a long detailed script. Scoring was interesting I've never done that to a script before. Rehearsing was was actually better than performing it, I didn't mess up as much. Performing was hard because even though I knew what to do and what to say and how to say it, I still messed up and did the wrong things because people were looking at me. I'll try to get better with the performance aspect of everything because I think that was the worst part.

Anastasia Chandler - 2 years ago

I started brainstorming about the topic of my monologue, which was what I wanted my future career to be, but later it changed to my greatest fear. To write the monologue about my greatest fear, I basically just took what goes through my head during a beach trip and wrote it down. I changed a few things during the revising process, I exaggerated my words and actions here and there in order to keep the audience's attention. When I was scoring I added a lot of beats to make the monologue more realistic, because the character I was portraying had a lot of moments where she changed tactics in order for her friend to understand her dilemma. During the recording session I had to restart multiple times in order to get the actions and the lines right. Also, whilst recording, I left out the parts that were more unnatural. I had trouble not tripping over words, but eventually I learned to just stop being tense, and that helped, so I'll keep that in mind for the future.

Hadisa - 2 years ago

When I first start my monologue I have no idea how to started what should I write....It was hard to writ a monologue and most of all the per forming the monologue but it was really fun I enjoy it. I like my monologue.

Levi - 2 years ago

it was fun and pretty easy, I have slight stage fright though so I was shaking a little bit while performing. I hope I can more comfortable perform in front of people in the future, but I feel good about my performance right now.

hayden - 2 years ago

it was fun i enjoyed it i was NOT nervous i prayed on everyone down fall

chris.m - 2 years ago

The performing was kinda hard because I never stood infront of so many people but the rehearsing was the easier part because i could do it in my head or to my freind.

damien M - 2 years ago

It wasn't that hard writing it, i just didn't want to perform live so i did the recording

Marco P - 2 years ago

I enjoyed it because it was fun and the work was very fun but I think that it went by very fast but that's good and I really liked doing the color wheel thing.

Arianna Vazquez Diaz de leon - 2 years ago

I liked creating the monologue because is your creativity but performing the monologue made me kind of nervous.

Clover - 2 years ago

My monologue is based after an animation series idea I've had, so it wasn't really too hard... except for trying to figure out what to say in it. Though I think I did bad in my performance....... I had fun!! AND I LOVED EVERYONE ELSE'S PERFORMANCES, THEY WERE SO GOODDDD!!! GOOD JOB EVERYONEE!!

Penelope S - 2 years ago

I really enjoyed writing and performing my monologue to the class. It seemed scary at first, but once I got on the stage, I got in the character I was performing and felt no stress. it was relaxing and easy, and it was also entertaining! I hope to be writing and performing more monologues in this class soon! :)

alessandra e - 2 years ago

At first I didn't really know what I wanted to write my monologue about. I was nervous thinking about performing the monologue. I liked hearing everyone's monologue.

Brianna - 2 years ago

I think my monologue was good I liked my own story but I need to work on my expressions I feel like.

Kylah - 2 years ago

Writing the monologue was really easy because I didn't really have to think too hard and I just easily lied about what happened. I didn't really have to think on real events that happened in my life and the only hard part was performing it In front of the class because its kinda embarrassing but once I got it done it was bad and the nervousness went away.

Catherine b - 2 years ago

The last four weeks of school have been easy but also kind of hard. It was in the fact of not super difficult projects like essays or a very big test worth our whole grade. But it was hard in the way of ideas, I had troublel coming up with ideas. So i mixed alot of them together to create my monologue while trying to keep it in one story. After making my script it was easy the only hard thing was performing it because i was nervous at first but after i did preform it, I felt better knowing i didnt have to do it anymore. So i would say this was a pretty easy and fun assingment.

Xaviyana.G - 2 years ago

I felt as the time I was doing it I didn't feel as scared
when I went up it felt more scary doing it infont of friend because what of they laugh at me but they were all sportive an help me threw all of it I'm happy I did it an told my story

David G - 2 years ago

The easy part is coming up with monologue ideas, even though it can be challenging to create a monologue story out of nothing , and the less challenging part is presenting, if your not scared

valentina - 2 years ago

At the beginning of my monologue we had to start brainstorming, this process was not easy at all because I had no idea what the talk about. Once I got somewhat an idea on what to write about it did get a little easier. The revising part was the easiest part for me. Having to perform my monologue was the hardest part of the process, at first I was thinking I might as well take the fail grade for how much I did not want to be up there, once I saw everyone going up I noticed it wasn't that bad.

William H - 2 years ago

At first, I didn't know what I was going to write in my monologue, but, as I moved along, I began to know what I was doing. When I was writing my monologue, I just went with my flow, meaning that I wrote down whatever the goal of the monologue was in my mind. I recorded it in a video, but had trouble posting it into Google classroom. But, my teacher told me not to worry about it after we tried and failed several times. It doesn't matter how you try to get things done, but the effort you put into getting things done is what really counts.

itsuki - 2 years ago

the first steps of by brainstorm were kinda hard and I didn't even get a total til later on towards the ends of the writing process and getting the first few words onto the paper were also kinda hard. after getting the first few words down it became a breeze, although I had changed only a few words in the end it made my monologue better. scoring it was kinda tricky because I didn't know what words to use and how to fully do it and I never got much of a shot to rehearse it Witch led to me stuttering and not fully remembering the words that I had wrote I think if I had rehearsed and read through it a couple times I would have had a better performance.

Paulina Herrera lopez - 2 years ago

i think i wanted to stay on thing about a formula driver because i love f1 so I chose someone like Charles Lerclerc. as hes my favorite driver in Ferrari. and that he also wants to become world champion with Lando Norris. but um i cut some stuff off but i really wanted to add about parents because one always wants to make someone proud like parents so i added that. but i wanted to add troubles like the car or the track as he was in Singapore and close to Abu Dhabi. in general i had to cut off some stuff and make stuff with sense.

Snow Meronova - 2 years ago

it started as a cool prompt with lots of ideas that I can do and initially I started with a draft that was so far off from the final design, it might as well be on the moon.after a lot of brainstorming, I wrote a monologue that was very dark and emotional. I liked it, but I wasn't in love with it ... so I decided to keep the initial idea and went in a totally different direction. in the end, I loved the final product, but still improvised a lot on the actual performance

Ameer Harris - 2 years ago

writing my monologue was pretty stressful because at first I didn't want to present it in front of the class. but in the end I did it and now I feel way better now.

Simran Kaur - 2 years ago

When I was writing my ice burg, I thought I would just pick a boring topic and ramble about that to just get my full points and leave. To my surprise, the ice burg was personal and deep. I love writing about my life and deep things that I think of or have experienced. Quickly, the assignment actually became interesting, I actually wanted to have the effort of writing a personal story of mine that I told nobody ever, and have somebody truly listen. Sure it was because they had to be a great audience, I doubt anyone cared, but it felt nice having people just listen to me. It felt so great telling this story of mine. For you it may be different, you may choose a "boring" prompt or something that goes on forever, but I want to be real with you and tell you some advice. Stop being a scared chicken AND GO FOR IT. At the end of the day, we are all nervous to talk in front of a big audience, but if you don't share your story, who will? Just go for it no matter the nerves because after you share your story, you'll feel relieved. This goes for anything in life. Don't turn down or be afraid to do something because you're nervous and have an audience. YOU WILL ALWAYS REGRET THAT YOU NEVER DID IT. So please, if there's one thing you'll take out of this long comment, JUST GO FOR IT!!!!

Abigail P - 2 years ago

I was really scared at first but I slowly started feeling better after I got more in to it and figured out how I wanted it set up , I was really scared to perform but now that I did I feel a lot better.

Cheyla Alverson - 2 years ago

I really enjoyed this project! The brainstorming was extremely helpful, normally I hate brainstorming and like to just jump right into things, but this time it really perfectly set me up for my writing. I am really into theatre, and it was great as this was my first time performing and it was great. I struggled a little bit with finding the perfect idea, because talking about myself is easy, but turning it into a ready to perform script was a little difficult. I really enjoyed learning about the tactics and beats, because I never really knew what those parts of monologues were called. Overall very fun and very interesting assignment!

britnee a. - 2 years ago

I had a lot of trouble coming up with an initial idea for this project, but once I got one it was pretty simple. I wrote it fairly quickly, made some revisions. The acting part was hard, but I'm not sure why, once I started talking it was pretty much fine.

Emma Johnson - 2 years ago

I have loved this unit so much, I feel like it really brought through my inner creativity and artist. I love the art projects we did, the assignments we had to do and the things we learned about color and the elements of art. I also felt like even if I had homework in this class it was fun, and I loved the mood, and attitude of this class overall.

Elizabeth - 2 years ago

It was harder than I thought. I do a lot of writing, so I thought it would be easier. I started with a very simple idea- to write about my coach and what I admire about him. But I found that I couldn't write an entire page about that and make it INTERESTING. It was boring. Incredibly boring. I switched topics a few times, but they were all so boring that I just decided to make something up. I'm not good at writing about myself. I can make jokes about myself, I can project myself onto a character, but the non-personal topics in my life are pretty boring. So I wrote about a character who's in an exciting, interesting situation. I obviously projected myself onto him, but in the end it was nothing like myself. Reciting it was fun. I memorized it unintentionally. I tried to put a lot of emotion into the character, which was kind of hard because I'm not terribly emotional. But I think I did a very good job in the end.

Layleah - 2 years ago

I wouldn't consider myself a very creative person so this process was kinda difficult for me, but once I had a topic and wrote it out the rest came easy to me until we had to perform it to the class which was really difficult for me because I have stage fright but other than performing I really liked the assignment and hearing other's perform was cool too

Dion - 2 years ago

Honestly I just wrote whatever came to my head I didn't put much thought into it since I'm not really into storytelling. For revising I just put in words that would make it sound better. When it was time for me to perform it was pretty difficult for me to start but once I started reading I wasn't as nervous.

Sadie Jones - 2 years ago

I feel like this unit has been very entertaining and fun. I have learned so much already and it has only been a month. I feel like I have become a better actor. I had a lot of stage fright about the monologue and I was very scared while I was on the stage, but after I had done the monologue I felt good about it.

Bailey - 2 years ago

At the beginning when we started to create our monologues, I wasn't sure what I wanted it to be about. I took one idea that I liked and went with it, but I ended up switching it to another because it was easier to work with. My process of writing my monologue was good. once I got the writing process started, it was mostly easy to finish it. Editing my monologue was good too, I reread it a bunch of times and finally got it to where I wanted it. For the preforming part of it, I was nervous before going up and a bit nervous while I was up on stage, but I'm glad I got to do it. It was a great experience. I felt that it was a lot easier to perform with my monologue with me instead of having to memorize the whole thing.

lyn - 2 years ago

When I wrote my monologue, and when I was brainstorming it I definitely struggled. I didn't really know what to do, or what I wanted it to be about. I changed my focus multiple times, because I was unhappy with each one I attempted to write. The one I finalized, and preformed was okay. I could've done better, but otherwise it was alright. I voice recorded mine, because I was too afraid to perform it infront of the class. I hate when there's so many eyes looking at me, and I knew I wouldn't be loud at all. But otherwise, it went decent.

Berlin Smith - 2 years ago

When doing my monologue it was hard but yet exciting. It took some confidence and pushes by my friends to do it. When brainstorming it took me about 4 tries to finally end up with the monologue I wanted. Revising it took me a couple of days because I wanted my monologue to be perfect. Overall the experience is cool you get to share your ideas and what you came up with, with other classmates.

Kaydence - 1 year ago

this process was something a had a lot of fun with. the actual monolog came to the night after Mr. hanks told us about the assignment, I got the idea to share the feelings that have been in my head for a while and I love the result. thank you so much!!

Yeona - 1 year ago

The process of making my monologue was that my first step were that it was hard to come up with a idea and I had a lots of idea but I also didn't know if it was going to be good enough for this assignment but I went with my Idea and I definitely made the right choice with it because it show my true self as a person. The process of making my story was that I came up ideas what to say and the detail and me making sure that I spell things right and that what I wrote made sense and I was happy with it. That process of scoring wasn't the hardest but I didn't know what to change and what to said on the side but than I just wrote what I though I needed to help my monologue and it ended up helping me in the end. The trouble I had was that recording not to sound nervous and making sure I was not talking fast but not talking too fast and making sure that my origin story was good and make sure people understood the story but in the end it all work out.

Olivia - 1 year ago

"You'll be performing a monologue!" A sentence that once sent me into a spiral of stress. Now, I can confidently say that monologues are not world ending.

From just writing the monologue, I already knew I would have fun with the experience. I could perform something that was just mine. I've always like writing, so this was no sweat.

Rehearsing was definitely new. I can't say I've ever performed to a wall before, but I got through it with new techniques in mind.

On the day of the monologue, I didn't even think about it until the end of third period. I was nervous, yes, but it wasn't bad at all. I had fun portraying a character that I have experience in playing. (Myself).

In the end, I am now more confident in my abilities, but also performing in general. I notice that since starting acting, I'm not terrified of presentations or public speaking. Its great! I loved this unit and am very greatful for my newfound skillset.

Ava - 1 year ago

In making my monologue I wanted it to describe me and how I'd actually be talking to my cousin. So although this is theater I made it less ''loud'' and a good kind of . Writing it was easy. I wrote the details for where I was, who I was talking to, and really what my whole point even was. Something I didn't do very well was my tactic and beats, because I already had wrote my monologue and didn't really want to change it but I did change some tone. However I don't regret writing my monologue how it was written but I will do better in the future now that I am more understanding.

Tahlia - 1 year ago

At fist I was doing something totally different. I was gonna talk about my family and make it something deep but last minute I changed it. I changed my mind because i would have more fun writing something funny than writing something that will make me feel sad. My tory stemmed from my fear if heights, I cant stand being super high in the air. The writing process was easy I just had to explain an original experience I've had. Revising was a little hard because I didn't know how to communicate in different tones cause usually I talk in one tone only, it was fun to exaggerate though. Rehearsing my monologue was fun because I got to do it with my friend. Actually performing the monologue was scary, I don't like waiting and worrying about something so I decided to go earlier than I was expected to and get it out the way, although I told myself its fine like everyone has to do it, you don't need to be afraid I was still shaking from nervousness. Moving forward ill be less anxious about doing it because there really is nothing to be afraid of.

Gaby - 1 year ago

I have already preformed monologues before, but I think this assignment was a very good throw back to the makeup of a monologue. Getting to create my own monologue in an educational setting instead of just recreational was helpful. I know what goes into a monologue from previous experience with Mr.Hanks, so I took inspiration from what I've performed in the past. This process was overall a good experience.

MAx - 1 year ago

My Origin story wasn't all that well I fear. I rushed on some parts but still made sure to put creativity in it. I should've added more to it, I should've made a more detailed story. but in the end, what I have made felt enough to me. I'm just happy I got to share my story with others

Kyle - 1 year ago

At first, it was kinda hard to figure out what I wanted to write my monologue about and how I would write it but after a while I knew what I wanted it to be about. Rehearsing the monologue was awkward, talking to a wall next to people is scary but I was next to my friends so it wasn't that bad, still awkward though -v-|| Preforming the actual monologue was actually the hardest part of this whole process. The whole time I was preforming my monologue, I was staring at my friends acting like I was rehearsing in front of them so i didn't faint while on stage. When I was done, coming back to sit down made me feel the biggest sigh of relief :3

Alie - 1 year ago

My thought process for my monologue was that I wanted to do a story that really scared me or made me happy, but in the end i decided on something that scared me so but I put down other good ideas, I finally decided on blood because I remembered something that happed a while ago that kind of changed my life. before the day of performing I wanted to act out the word for example "I pumped some hand sanitizer on my hand" I was gonna pretend to pump some on my hand, but the moment I got on stage I was way to scared.

Kat - 1 year ago

I had no idea what to write for a whole week. It wasn't until the weekend that I stayed up real late and began thinking. If I were a bird, I'd be a parrot. Not because they remind me of myself but because they have cool feathers and I have cool hair. Once I got that idea, I'd imagine how cool I'd be if I were a bird. Then one thing lead to another and I came up with Johnny Daquito, from Jersey and his pet bird, Don Julio, from Mexico. They are both working a scheme for money in Times Square by making people feel guilty for their misfortune. I'm proud of myself for coming up with this story in the span of 17 minutes. I'm not so glad I didn't really put enough effort into it. But I honestly don't care, I think I nailed it and I wish I got to record it.

Cory - 1 year ago

I thought I did a good job I was just really nervous at first and to do it but once I got on stage I started to feel more comfortable and I felt the story, so it went pretty well.

MJ - 1 year ago

The first steps of coming up with my brainstorm were a bit difficult since I could've picked a better question for writing a monologue about. The process of scoring my monologue wasn't too difficult since I already did something similar to it before learning about scoring and how to do it properly so it translated over well. I feel as if I could have performed it better since it was recorded in my mom's closet with a laptop and microphone and you could hear the computer's fan. Overall though I am pretty happy with how it turned out since I'd never done a monologue up to that point.

Wyatt - 1 year ago

When I was writing my monologue I was thinking about how I really disliked this teacher. The steps where really easy because all I had to do was talk bad about this teacher that was not a very good teacher and I wish I was able to say this to his face so he can really see my anger and my dislike towards him. When I was rehearsing this I was thinking his face was the wall in front of me and the walls surrounding me was his classroom just so I can really have anger towards him. Same with scoring it was manly just hate and reject because that all this teacher knew how to do all he did was hate and I didn't have to much written down so it was kind of easy to score it. I don't really think that I had a ah-ha moment so but I don't think I was as serious as I could have been I could have been more mean and more anger but I was pretty calm during performing.

Eduardo - 1 year ago

I thought my performance was bad. because I couldn't pronounce some of my words when I tried to perform, I kept on messing up and I couldn't pronounce certain words. so I just changed so I could. I performed for like an hour trying to pronounce the words. When I couldn't I called a friend to help me it worked after some time and after a couple moments we were done.

Charlotte - 1 year ago

When we started to write our monologue it was like "Uh okay this is fine but also a little boring". But as we continued I was starting to think "Ooo this is cool" and as I started to write more and more I started to understand more. I also wanted to do more and more. On parts that were confusing Mr. Hanks was there to help out (which I really appreciate). As we started to rehearse it was going good but the closer we came to the deadline the more nervous I got for the performance. Just like that the time came really fast and I was incredibly nervous but it was fun! Right when I got off stage I felt relieved but overall it was a fun process!

Hope - 1 year ago

my writing process was very...lets just say messy. at first I had no clue what to write. But when I did figure it out, I wasn't sure how to write it ad was wondering if writing something like this was a good idea. But now I am happy I wrote it, it was fun!

Leonel - 1 year ago

I didn't really know what I was going to make up a story until I thought about it as like it was actually me trying to convince my friend to travel with me. I was a little confused at first but them got the hang of it. I also had to go back and fix my monologue as I was reading it. I was didn't want to hear my voice when you played it but had to. I wasn't that nervous I just didn't want to hear my own voice because I feel like I sound weird.

Aubree - 1 year ago

In the first steps of developing my monologue, I had to figure out how to create a story that related to my life and that represented something important to me. Revising the monologue required me to recognize and correct my mistakes. The process of scoring, rehearsing, and performing called for me to have a lot of self-awareness and the ability to understand my weaknesses and improve them. The moment where I began to understand scoring is when I was able to fully recognize the things I needed to work on.

Julian Capistrano - 1 month ago

When it came to the brainstorming portion of the monologue, I honestly had no idea what to do. That changed when I saw that one monologue from 2017 about that person encountering a spider in their bathroom. After that, I decided to make mine about how I stepped in poop. It was pretty easy to score my monologue because I wrote it with the intention of specific emotions in each part. Acting out the monologue, while a little scary, was very fun. And Mr. Hanks. wants me to perform it again next week for Festival Collab!

Simone - 1 month ago

When I first had this project introduced to me I was super nervous, I didn't consider myself I good writer, or performer. I eventually got the hang of it and was super glad I did. I did keep having to revise it but that excited me since I knew I was developing and getting better. I have really bad stage fright as well but going up there infront of friends, classmates, and mentors wasn't too bad. I am really glad I did this project!

taliyah - 1 month ago

It was fun to record but hearing my voice made me cringe out a lot but thats fine lowk i was just super nervous and felt like people were gonna throw tomatos at me or something but they didnt and they cheered!!! I need to remember that everyone in theater is just another me but different font and theyre all also weirdos with a passion for acting and that this is a safe place!

Ren Bautch - 1 month ago

During my time creating and rehearsing my monologue, I was able to grow as a performer and a creative artist. The brainstorm was a great way to decide what I would make my monologue about. I will say writing was the most difficult part for me, but I was able to grow a lot in this department. I find that scoring and rehearsal is the heart of the performance. I also found performing to be a way of expressing myself freely.

Junior - 1 month ago

In the first step of creating my monologue was the first assignment that was given to me about my ice berg and I had 2 choices to make and I chose the Smallville one because I think its very important for people to not hide who they really are and not to be afraid. Another thing is that for others to be able to find the right friends and not have to try to fit in.

Julia - 1 month ago

It was your typical first-unit project, one of those corny teachers' attempts to get you to be open and vulnerable. Except, it had two twists- one, that it actually meant something internally and you felt like you genuinely wanted to be honest, and two, this was fun! Writing was a bit tricky because of the character I was trying to convey, but once we started scoring and especially rehearsing, I really felt it all came together. Warm-ups for rehearsal felt silly, but mutually so and well-thought out so that we were all prepared to make choices and commit to them. I really enjoyed this project, and made closer friends through it.

Stu - 1 month ago

I think my monologue could use more explanations, I could've specified a lot more too. Like when I talk about my friend who helped me, I could've specified an experience, because I had an idea of one, I just didn't write it. I think my speed was good, and my emphasis was good, but my tactics could've been better, or I could've used different ones. I wish I memorized it more too, but even though I didn't entirely it turned out smoothly aside from needing to look at the script from time to time.

kenny - 1 month ago

I had no idea what to write about at first it took me a couple days to think about it i wanted it to be a little relatable so i chose something that has probably happened to many other people in the past , I was very nervous and anxious with writing it and performing it but it was a little fun.

Layla - 1 month ago

At first, coming up with an idea was really hard for me. What did I want to do? that was the biggest question. it took some time until I realized that It doesn't have to be meaningful, you could always just... talk. Talk about your life, your day! anything! until then, everything else such as scoring wasn't so bad. rehearsing with my people and classmates really helped me preform onstage, Although I wish I did more rehearses... Well, at the end of the day I am glad I tried my best. Something that really helped me is acknowledging the entire CLASS is going through this, so I wasn't alone!

Nevaeh - 1 month ago

At first it was slightly confusing when creating my monologue but I guess I had got the hang of it. I wanted to create a script that kind of related to me in a way or related to something that already happened to me, and the script had mistakes and things I had to fix but at the end it came out fine. I tried to rehearse and couldn't really get it down because I kept stumbling over my words and ended up losing the script...

Fletcher - 1 month ago

I COMPLETELY changed my monologue more than halfway through the process, so I was definitely behind a lot more than most other people, but once I found what I wanted to write about, everything clicked into place. Scoring and rehearsing were honestly the hardest part as I changed a LOT physically, but once again, when I found my groove, everything worked out. The performance was great! Also, I didn't end up being deep with mine, I just wrote about a funny moment, but it was still great for me to see how I expressed my monologue through my writing and physicality. Thank you so much for this opportunity Hanks! Also we love Terry!!!! 🤍🤍

Cora - 1 month ago

At first thinking of ideas for my monologue was kind of hard, I didn't have a clue what to do. Then I answered one of the questions and knew right away that's what I was going to do. I started writing my monologue, there was some writers block of course but my finished product I really liked. It was fun to rehearse, I would practice with my friends and then they gave helpful feedback, then I would get better. Leading up to the performance was kind of nerve-wracking, especially since the slate breath confuses me. Preforming it was not as bad as I thought it would be.

Kylie C - 1 month ago

This was a fun assignment! It allowed me to reflect on all aspects of my life and tell a story that I thought might entertain some people and that also reflected me and how I function as a person. This assignment gave me pretty much total creative freedom and there wasn't a part of it that I didn't like. The hardest part for me would have to be the brainstorming because I had so many options to chose from but I would gladly do this assignment over again. The scoring and rehearsing process came naturally as it was me but a little more dramatized to fit the theater aspect. I didn't have any moments of trouble but as I was watching everyone preform I did feel the desire to preform mine on stage. Something I will definitely do next time.

Abby - 1 month ago

The Brainstorming of my monologue was very interesting to find out what I wanted to talk about and how would I talk about it for a long time. Rereading my monologue helped me think if it made sense like the grammar I put. Th process of rehearsing with partners was nerve racking at first but as I practiced I got more confident. That led up to the performance I felt like I was gonna be judged ands that mainly why I was nervous. Once I got up there I did my performance and my peers all clapped and
I relived I really had nothing to worry about.

Alyssa - 1 month ago

when I first started writing my monologue I knew what I wanted to write about it was just I didn't know how to write it, what to say first, but once I thought about it and finally got the beginning it was pretty to write the rest, but the hard part about all of this was performing it. I'm not so used to performing by myself in front of crowds just yet so I was really scared, but once it was over with, it wasn't so bad.

Gracie - 1 month ago

When I started I was really stressed .I went home and read the prompt of what I wanted to do over and over till I figured out what to write about. I chose to use memories of mine but add a little bit of dramatics to it to make it more enjoyable. When I was scoring I was worried what I had wasn't good so I went home and read every line and found something that sounded more realistic compared to was I had originally wrote. During rehearing I was given great pointers by peers on wording and how I should have more projection in my voice. It let me think of how much I liked my monologue and how if I wanted to feel happy if I wanted to feel the feeling of when I was thinking of those memories as I was writing them down to do it just as I was asked to make it better. When we started performances I was horrified, I had never performed before! I waited a day to perform to see if it would help(which it didn't) but one I asked to go after someone and got to the stage it was like every single worry was proved wrong .I was happy, and I felt to emotions that I needed to convey my monologue. Even if I didn't get a great score it didn't matter, what mattered was the feeling of happiness as I told my memories and my feelings in two minutes.

Sophia Raya - 1 month ago

I remember when I first started brainstorming, I wasn't too sure on what to write specifically because unfortunately, my life isn't quite as interesting HAHA! But then suddenly, I gained an idea of working with the past and the present and decided to roll with it. Which was fun, for sure. Revising my monologue with friends and peers was fun as well, I've gotten a chance to be immersed in their shoes for a small moment. I think something I was definitely nervous yet ready for was the performance because I didn't quite practice my monologue as much as I was supposed to since life has been pretty busy as of recent--but with the support of my friends and peers, I think it gave me a new sort of courage. Which I am incredibly thankful to them for. Alongside the tips of course!! As to summarize the whole experience, I enjoyed it all the way! Even with the bumps along the road, you'll reach your goal. Don't be afraid of how people will think, just go for it. Break a leg! :)

Evelyn V. - 1 month ago

In the beginning of the prosses I figured out how to create a story about me. When revising I relised there was things to improve. I found the unit very fun.

Roshna - 1 month ago

The process of writing my monologue was not as hard as I thought it would be, because my monologue was about my first and last time visiting my dad's birth place. And when writing my monologue I asked my parents about that day because I don't fully remember everything from that day. But I will say performing it live made me really nervous. But I tried to keep my voice loud and and moved a bit so I don't look so stiff.

Illiy - 1 month ago

When I first started the brainstorm I struggled with answering the questions because I felt like I didn't know how to respond, like there was a wrong way. But while sitting alone in the black abyss of my room after days of procrastinating inspiration finally slapped me in face. I had begun to dig deeper into the answers I already had, even if it was a tad uncomfortable at first. The processes of digging deep was harder than I imagined but doing so paid off in the end. The experience leading me to be able to better feel and act the emotions I was trying to convey in my monologue. At first I was incredibly anxious about actually preforming, seconding guessing wording and tactics, but when I actually got up there I felt so confident. It wasn't perfect but it was really good for my first ever performance.

Jasper - 1 month ago

My first concept of my monologue was too hard for me to actually think of what to write for it so I scrapped the whole thing and restarted n a whole new concept that ended up working really well and made it easier for me to write it and preform it. My brainstorm came together pretty well and fairly easy other than finding out where to set it but when I read what I had written in my monologue it made sense of where to set it. my takeaway from this is that if your struggling with something and have the ability tp change or remake it you should remake it because it makes the process a lot easier sometimes.

Daryna - 1 month ago

When at first I realized that we should write monolog I was excited to write something really cool, that will stuck in people's minds, or just something. But then when I started thinking what I should write, my mind came blank. I always have some stories, feelings, or just something in my mind, so I started to think about some ideas but then, I started to write, with out stopping. Maybe it was some kind of inspiration? I don't really know, but after I finished my writing, I redid it many times and after my monolog was done I was training at home to say it many times, that much that it got stuck in my head. Before I came to stage I was really nervous and excited at the same time. And before I volunteered to go I was that scared that my hands were shaking. Then I told to myself the phrase that I love so much and its always in my head "The time to jump is when you're most afraid." After I came to stage I just did it how I remembered. I felt very nice when I was on stage and after. I very love this project and so excited for more! Thank you Mr. Hanks for that experience.

Mateo Torres Olivares - 1 month ago

It was an amazing time creating a script on your own. At first when I was first creating the script I was really nervous and confused. But after a while I got the hang of it and created a story that was true. When I went off to perform it was very suffocating because of how I was going to be judged. After I finished, I felt relieved and well and was ready for the next time I'll perform.

Evelina - 1 month ago

I was in a pretty bad mindset at first when I was doing my monolog, especially the beginning. I am a fairly indecisive person and I was worried that I would have a severely hard time picking out ONE topic to do a whole monolog about. However, I just decided to take what I already have and I was revising, re-reading it and tweaking it until it was just right. It was a great experience preforming: from practicing with the wall, to then doing it with other people and eventually on stage in front of the whole class, it tought me to not be scared when performing, that everyone is also learning with you and that you just need to put your best effort into the performance and make it great!

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Each Unit we'll reflect on the learning that occurred through the creative process.

Origin Story: Monologue

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