For this week I mainly used this time to decide on a monologue. I decided on using a monologue from The Darker Face of the Earth by Rita Dove. It is a monologue by the character Phebe, who was born on the plantation as her mother died from illness, and her father was simply never there. In this monologue, she tells the story of her mother's death to a newcomer, Augustus Newcastle, who is one of the main figures behind the rising revolution.
She explains how her mother used to set up table scraps, along with the little decoration of flowers, hoping that it would give the field workers a sense of joy and hope. Then comes the nightmare of the fever that spread through the cabins. Phebe's mother took the risk of giving food to those who were quarantined outside the house. But soon, she caught the illness too. Phebe tells of her long efforts, her role in the house, taking care of Massa's baby girl, even when her mother left her. But n the end, she meant nothing to them, indispensable, as she was left to die in the end.
Since this monologue is a recollection of past events, I think it would be interesting to physically act out the descriptions of Phebe's mother, while vocally I will be expressing the story. It works with the warm-up i discussed before, where we isolated phsyciality and vocal expression. It's gonna be interesting to see how they can contrast and interplay, along with the added element of media.
Moving forward I intend to dive deep into the monologue, not only experimenting what I could do physically and verbally but also in relative to media. I plan on doing some sotryboarding and seeing how that relates to blocking or vocal expression.