first year - Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 13, 2015
I've continued with a monologue a day until the spirit moves me to stop, so if you have any ideas for a monologue you want me to write, please let me know at tigerteam1@gmail.com.
If you just started this blog and want to read the earlier monologues-
To start at the beginning - Feb. 13, - click here.
For a list of the blurbs from each day, click here There are now over 400!
Help a playwright and get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
If you'd like to write your own monologues, I happen to have a book for that -
How to Write a Monologue in 10 Easy Lessons (Well, maybe not so easy)
Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site. Wishing you much success!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monologue Mania Day #496 Life sentences by Janet S. Tiger June 23, 2015
This monologue is in the same play as Day # 495 - some elements are similar - onstage they may merge. Not sure, still in progress.
Life Sentences
A monologue by Janet S. Tiger © all rights
reserved 2015
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(As with Day # 495, this
is a monologue in the sense that only one actor will be speaking, but there
will be two actors onstage - one an old woman sitting in a chair, looking off
into space. She can be nodding, with a vacant stare - most of the
time. But some of the time she can react to the other actor, a younger
woman, maybe 20s or 30s who comes onstage and looks at the older woman with fear,
tears and sadness)
I can't believe it. Why don't you get up and wash your face! And brush off your skirt! My God, how did you let yourself get to this point.....
(The woman does not react)
Look, they came to talk to you! Look....
(She indicates the audience)
They are worried about you, they miss you.....they think you don't recognize them, but you do.....I know you do.....because.....I am you.....
(The woman looks at her and smiles faintly)
I'm just talking to myself. Literally. That is me. I still can't believe it. How did I get to this point.....
And they don't know I'm in here because just like she can't hear them, they can't hear me.....
(She goes to the audience and puts her face out)
(Screaming) I know who you are! You are my daughter! And my grandchildren! Why are you all so blind!
(She starts to cry and stops as the woman starts to cry)
I have to stop. The only connection here seems to be when I cry.......how lovely. I can't do anything but cry! And that's all they see......they comfort me, they hold my hand.....but everything I am thinking and feeling....I might as well be in.....in prison.....locked up.....
(Laughs) It is funny.....I used to be a teacher, the irony....an English teacher! My favorite subject was poetry, where I would have the students....and yes, my children, too......take a poem apart a sentence at a time.....down to its ultimate meaning. And then they'd write their own poems.....and one student would always turn in a limerick that started with.....'There once was a man from Nantucket.....'
(The older woman looks at her and smiles)
So original! I would have them write a whole new limerick that they could read in front of the class......
(The woman nods)
Somewhere in there you do remember....how they hated it at first, then they got to like poetry.......I used to tell them anywhere they went, that one sentence with the word 'Nantucket', people would react. That's how important words were. How one group of words could change the world....(chokes a little)...now I can't even speak without repeating myself....
(She wraps her arms around herself)
Here I am.....in....solitary confinement.....in my own body.....my own mind.....
(The older woman stands, unsteadily, the younger woman goes over and helps her pick up a cane)
Here you go, you don't want to fall....that would add a whole new level of torture.....to my already impossible sentence......(Laughs) Funny, I guess I've been convicted to a......a life sentence.......
(They start to walk out, stop, look back)
(Shaking her head).....and the thing is....I don't even remember the trial....
I can't believe it. Why don't you get up and wash your face! And brush off your skirt! My God, how did you let yourself get to this point.....
(The woman does not react)
Look, they came to talk to you! Look....
(She indicates the audience)
They are worried about you, they miss you.....they think you don't recognize them, but you do.....I know you do.....because.....I am you.....
(The woman looks at her and smiles faintly)
I'm just talking to myself. Literally. That is me. I still can't believe it. How did I get to this point.....
And they don't know I'm in here because just like she can't hear them, they can't hear me.....
(She goes to the audience and puts her face out)
(Screaming) I know who you are! You are my daughter! And my grandchildren! Why are you all so blind!
(She starts to cry and stops as the woman starts to cry)
I have to stop. The only connection here seems to be when I cry.......how lovely. I can't do anything but cry! And that's all they see......they comfort me, they hold my hand.....but everything I am thinking and feeling....I might as well be in.....in prison.....locked up.....
(Laughs) It is funny.....I used to be a teacher, the irony....an English teacher! My favorite subject was poetry, where I would have the students....and yes, my children, too......take a poem apart a sentence at a time.....down to its ultimate meaning. And then they'd write their own poems.....and one student would always turn in a limerick that started with.....'There once was a man from Nantucket.....'
(The older woman looks at her and smiles)
So original! I would have them write a whole new limerick that they could read in front of the class......
(The woman nods)
Somewhere in there you do remember....how they hated it at first, then they got to like poetry.......I used to tell them anywhere they went, that one sentence with the word 'Nantucket', people would react. That's how important words were. How one group of words could change the world....(chokes a little)...now I can't even speak without repeating myself....
(She wraps her arms around herself)
Here I am.....in....solitary confinement.....in my own body.....my own mind.....
(The older woman stands, unsteadily, the younger woman goes over and helps her pick up a cane)
Here you go, you don't want to fall....that would add a whole new level of torture.....to my already impossible sentence......(Laughs) Funny, I guess I've been convicted to a......a life sentence.......
(They start to walk out, stop, look back)
(Shaking her head).....and the thing is....I don't even remember the trial....
(They
exit, as we pray for a cure for this horrible disease. June is
Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month - for more info - http://www.alz.org/)
------------------------------------------------------------
Janet S. Tiger
858-736-6315
JanetSTigerMonologueMania.blogspot.com
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-83
No comments:
Post a Comment