Acting workshop

It is unbelievable how much you can learn from watching other people. Watching other people work with the subtext exercise that we were doing, I was able to detect when they were using the subtext and when they dropped it, or fell out of the exercise. We also were saying our monologues sitting next to someone, so we had a real person to talk to. When Bari read hers, I was her "listener" person, and I noticed a huge difference when she used the subtext. There was more of a journey that the character went through, rather than just playing the mood of the piece, and it was very honest when she did this. This was really important for me to see because I've been working on this a lot with my songs that I'm using for college auditions.

We also focused on breath, and making sure you allow yourself to breathe during the coarse of the monologue. I realized that this completely relates to something I had learned in an acting workshop in the city a few weeks ago. At that workshop, we were told to try and communicate and make as much eye contact with the person we are talking to. To take beats, and to take time to look at them and let what you're saying land on them. It forced you to get the subtext going because you're not saying anything, you're just "looking" at this person you're talking to and so immediately you're able to focus on what your little mind is saying behind what the monologue tells you to say. If you do this, and also breathe at the same time, it adds life to the piece. It can add contrast, but in a simplistic way.