#theate

Hermes and Odysseus!

took me like two weeks of on-&-off drawing-

anyway, hope you like it- heh-

Happy Birthday David Tennant born April 18th 1971.

Born David McDonald, David was brought up in Bathgate and Ralston and he knew from an early age he wanted to be an actor, at the age of three, Tennant told his parents that he wanted to become an actor because he was a fan of Doctor Who. His parents were very religious people and tried to discourage him but he himself admits to being “absurdly single minded” in his ambitions, educated at Ralston Primary and Paisley Grammar School. He acted in school productions throughout primary and secondary school

At aged only 11 the respected Scottish actress Edith MacArthur told his parents he would become a successful stage actor, David attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama on saturdays and passed an audition age 16 to enter the academy as one of its youngest students. From there he took several stage roles at Dundee Repertory Theatre.

His first big break came in 1994 when he was cast in a lead role in the Scottish drama ‘Takin’ Over the Asylum’. He then moved to London where his career thrived and, most notably, he spent several years as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and took lead roles in the critically acclaimed TV dramas ‘Blackpool’ and 'Casanova’ and of course the role which catapulted him into “stardom” as Doctor Who.

Since leaving Doctor Who in 2010 his career has gone from strength to strength, with lead roles in films such as Fright Night, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold and in TV series including Spies of Warsaw and the very popular Broadchurch which has just finished it’s third run on ITV. Tennant still treads the board regularly, as well as being in demand for films and TV work, he is married to Georgia Moffett who he met when they co-starred in Doctor Who, her father is actor Peter Davison who took was also Doctor Who in the 70’s!

David’s career has gone from strength to strength, with lead roles in films such as Fright Night, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and St. Trinian’s 2: The Legend Of Fritton’s Gold and in TV series including Spies of Warsaw and the very popular Broadchurch which was remade in the U.S as Gracepoint, which showed his ability to adapt his accent to a different audience.

During the pandemic over the past couple of years David has kept himself busy withthe likes of Ducktales, which as an animated series he has not had to break restrictions.

We saw him in the thriller Livtenko, about the Russian dissident poisoned in London, he was also in the drama series Inside Man, which, in my opinion was just a bit silly, although well acted silliness.

💜Jenna Rolan Calling!! 💚

I’ve already posted some general tips for finding a good audition song so I figured I’d share some monologue tips I’ve gathered over the last few years! I’ll be honest, I find monologues wayyyy harder to find than a good audition song, particularly because there’s just so much out there and so much you can cultivate. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things to avoid when you’re searching for a new piece. So here’s some things that I try to look for in a monologue! 

(Note: A lot of these tips are based on my opinion and what I’ve been taught by my professors. You may hear different things from different people)

(A second note: this list is more for contemporary pieces as Shakespeare/classic monologues are a bit of a different territory)

 Find something active with an active target: Remember that even during a monologue, your character is addressing someone even if they’re not saying anything back. You want the words in the piece to be reaching someone else as your character is trying to get something from them. A piece that begins on an active note that will grab someone right away will be way more compelling than one that doesn’t. 

Find something that is short/ can be coherently cut: Typically auditions are going to ask for a piece that is 1-2 minutes long. If you happen upon a good piece that runs a little long, make sure any cuts you make don’t erase the character’s objective and makes the piece not make any sense. 

Find something within your playing age: I always think this tip is the one with the most variety of opinions but I’ll always take the side of not doing something out of your age range. Someone who looks 15 years old isn’t going to be a believable Blanche DuBois. Also take into account that your playing age might slightly differ from your actual age. For example, I’m 21 but have been told many times that I’ll be playing teenagers for a good while. 

Not all “comedic” monologues need to be laugh out loud funny: This was an important note I got from a professor once. We’re often told we need two contrasting pieces, often one comedic and one dramatic. I’ve found myself going nuts because I couldn’t find a piece that made me laugh. My professor told our class that a comedic or contrasting piece didn’t necessarily need to have the audience in stitches but can be a lighthearted piece that’s not heavy in content. 

A cobbled/”monologue as dialogue” piece: Some of my favorite/strongest pieces I’ve used have actually been dialogue that’s cobbled together. Why? Because these pieces allow you to “hear” your target and actively respond to them which makes for a much stronger and compelling piece! Now, not every two person scene can be cobbled into a coherent monologue. Typically these pieces will feature one character speaking a lot of text while the other character only responds in a few words or a sentence. 

Stay away from overdone pieces: The quintessential tip. Of course, I can’t name many monologues that are overdone off the top of my head the way I can with showtunes (except for Phoebe from As You Like It) but they exist! Typically, monologues featured in a monologue anthology will be overdone. They’re an easily accessible searching tool which leads to many pieces becoming popular. Another way to avoid finding an overdone piece is to not go on Google and search “monologues for women” or “monologues for teenagers”. Those first few pieces that pop up are likely to be overdone.