Week 3 (Academic Week 15)
Tuesday, January 31st 2017
Our third week of rehearsals began with Melissaâs feedback and advice. She enjoyed listening to our three monologues; however, she underlined the fact that Nayantaraâs text, which is about passion and the ecstasy of falling in love, doesnât really fit with the two other pieces of writing. It is not the same topic. A solution would then be to find two other monologues that could intertwine with 9âs and to save the two others for another part of the performance.
As for my performance, Melissa felt confused about the focus. Indeed, it is about three boys whom I met during a party and who are soon attracted to me. I may then find three members of the audience and keep an eye contact with every of them, each time I mention one of the three male characters. Melissa added that my text shall be shorter.
Furthermore, if we all share our stories at the same time, we should do similar things (ex: domestic tasks, or talking directly to the audience, etcâŠ).
Melissa also suggested a scene about the madness/foolishness of love. As for our rough idea about a Bollywood dance in a section on romantic love or clichés, we need to get some structure around our writing.
As the end of this session drew near, Melissa gave us a task: we share our stories while sitting. We still cut each other during our story telling. Nayantara starts, but neither Tendai nor I seem to pay attention to Nayantara. Sometimes I do look at her, but it is very brief. This alternative was very interesting as it gave another dimension and dynamic to this scene. However, Melissa highlighted the importance of being careful with pace: we must share the same kind of energy.
 After this meeting full of sound advice, we wrote down a list of the sections we would like to put in our performance:
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Ecstasy of love
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Not finding the right love
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Heartbreak
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Sex (empowerment; vagina)
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Getting out of the friend zone
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Unrequited love
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Flings and rebounds
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Iâm not too young
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Marriage
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Societal pressures
Our assignment is now to produce pieces of writing for each section, so that we gather enough material which we can build on.
Â
Wednesday, February 1st 2017
We all came to this session with a new monologue. Mine is a paragraph from the novel called Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead. The quote is about the feelings of a woman being kissed by her lover from the first time. I read it out loud, as if it were my own work and experience. My colleagues fell for it, until I revealed the name of the writer. We agreed that using authorâs texts within our show is a relevant idea.
10 brought spoken words that fit better in other sections such as heartbreaks or unrequited love.
9âs text was about a friend who always gave her advice and pushed her to find the right love. This monologue corresponds to the section about the inability of finding the right love. Moreover, this text could probably fit with my story about the three boys at the party.
 After our talk yesterday, we thought of starting our performance with a Bollywood dance. It would definitely set high energy for what follows!
 10 rewrote her very first monologue which is about three boys with whom it didnât work out. This time she used the 2nd person, a rectification that shows the acknowledgment of her past lover. She tells them/public directly why it couldnât work.
During this time of rehearsal, we also deliberated about how to link each section to the other. We may use interludes/transitions between all sections which may be based on one common theme: the inability of finding the right one.
 Thursday, February 2nd 2017
Unfortunately, we are once more not very lucky with the keys: today there was a problem of organisation at the security, so we lost a bit of timeâŠ
This session started in a very cheerful way! Indeed, it was our first Bollywood dance rehearsal! Bollywood perfectly integrates our show theme, as this dance has sexual overtones and refers to desire and sensuality.
Then we had a great discussion about the potential presence of male characters on stage:
1)Â Â Â Â Â 10 would like to bring different male performers at different points of the show, each time for a short term only, for dialogues for example. I am not totally convinced by this idea as it would give a face to the protagonists of our stories. 9 also worries about the fact that those men could become props if we donât use them enough.
2)Â Â Â Â Â My idea was therefore to enter ourselves the roles of the men during our stories: it would be more performative and original. Moreover, it would allow to keep the secret regarding the charactersâ identity and the audience would freely guess how they would look like. If we perform it well, the spectators would be able to see the male characters via our female bodies.
3)Â Â Â Â Â 9 suggested an alternative: In order to bring 10âs text into life, she could take a man from the audience. The implication of someone from the public fits with the subject Unrequited love: indeed, 10 would hug him or take his hand and hold it during the entire recording of a male voice. The embarrassment of the spectator would then remind of 10âs crush who didnât really care for her.
We adjusted our list of sections, hereâs the (definite?) one:
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Ecstasy
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Inability of finding the right love (=> interludes)
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Heartbreak
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Flings and rebounds
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Unrequited love
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Marriage
-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Societal pressure
Friday, February 3rd and Sunday, February 5th 2017.
First of all, we re-organised our deadlines. Then we learnt the second part of our Bollywood dance. It already looks great! We might all be already on stage at the beginning of the performance, doing different everyday tasks.
We also spent a lot of time on my monologue about Unrequited love called âTwo Yearsâ. My idea was to share my story next to a fan, an almanac in my hand. I would replace the pages of the almanac as the story unfolds, so that the fan would âblow the days awayâ. Yet 10 found this scene too two dimensional and too flat. Also, I entered a delicate persona, which is fine because âdelicate and pretty people also experience bad timesâ. However, her request was to break it through. The explanation of my love is wistful and dainty: I should therefor break this mood halfway through, engage more dynamic and a more precise pace.
9 and 10 thus asked me to shout the whole monologue. It was a delicate exercise as I am quite a silent person and I often forgot to maintain the big voice. Still, this time my performance was more engaging, my anger even made sense in some parts of my story.
I then had another idea for this scene: why not use food, eat until I am stuffed until I am stuffed while sharing my story? 9 and 10 suggested another task: I should improvise a baking show in the kitchen, sharing the recipe of one of my favourite cakes. I have small confidence in my ability to speak correct English spontaneously, so this task quickly became a big challenge for me. Improvising in English is hard for me and I felt very confused. I then decided to try this baking scene once more, this time in French. My diction and my pace were quite better; even if 9 and 10 could not understand everything I said, they confirmed that I seemed to enjoy more my task and therefore I was more eye-catching and interesting. Now I need to trust my English a bit more and to allow myself to make mistakes. My colleagues suggested that if I have any big doubts, I am allowed to use French words: moreover, it may give some originality and good spirit in my talk.
9 and 10 also worked on their monologues about unrequited love:
10 danced with music, surrounded by what looked like male clothes; put some on; she finally threw them with anger on the floor and store some others in a backpack. She then came into the audience and without any words, chose a man from the public. She brought him on stage and took his other hand. A recording of a maleâs voice rose while she kept staring at the man. She started dancing again, and finally let go his hand with a disenchanted expression. She took the backpack, gave it roughly to him and begged the spectator to go with a simple wave.
9 did her monologue while running on a treadmill. She pressed the buttons relevantly at different parts of her speech to change the velocity of the treadmill: she got more tired and less trustworthy along with the difficulty of the exercise, until she got exhausted.
Moreover, small texts appeared on a screen behind her as she read her monologue, a sort of conscience objecting her allegations and proclaiming the unwanted truth. Still she didnât notice the board until the very end, when she finally saw the last word.