first year - Feb. 13, 2014 - Feb. 12, 2015 second year - Feb. 13, 2015 - Feb. 12, 2016 third year - Feb. 13, 2016 - today! *********
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.
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- for a list of the titles and blurbs from each day, click here There are now over 1050!
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Get more great award-winning monologues - MonologueZone.com
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Thank you for your comments - and for liking and sharing this site. Wishing you much success!
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Monologue Mania Day #1058 A Dolphin's Tale (another scene) by Janet S. Tiger (c) Jan. 5, 2017
This movie used to start on Day #1057, but I think today will be the opening sequence. Based on a wonderful story (at the bottom there is a link)
A Dolphin's Tale
(another opening scene -working title for movie)
(Not really) A Monologue by Janet S. Tiger
© all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
A Dolphin's Tale
(another opening scene -working title for movie)
(Not really) A Monologue by Janet S. Tiger
© all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
A Dolphin's Tale (working title for movie)
(Not really) A Monologue by Janet S. Tiger
© all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(Not really) A Monologue by Janet S. Tiger
© all rights reserved
tigerteam1@gmail.com
(Now we get the opening credits - they will have the sounds of dolphins underwater, with a lot of visuals from a dolphin point of view. We see Harrison, at a computer, with TV screens watching the dolphins, who we see have cameras mounted for him to see what they see in the pool they are in now for training. He looks at his watch, gives a signal with an electronic device, and the dolphins return to the edge of the pool.
He removes the cameras and gives them treats - they are happy and he says goodnight to them.)
HARRISON - Thank you, Merlin, Roxanne, Victor.....good work tonight! See you tomorrow......
(But when he turns to leave, he hears someone - in a computer-sounding voice say...'We're not finished')
Harrison looks around, and calls out...
(He looks at the dolphins who are now staring at him from the edge of the pool. Victor, the largest dolphin nods at him, and we hear his 'voice')
VICTOR - Harrison, I think it's time we had a talk.....
(Harrison looks around, smiling)
HARRISON - Good work, you guys! Where you hiding? This is impressive!
VICTOR - Even more impressive when you figure out that Jarrod left two hours ago.....and this is not a joke....Go take a look at your computer...
(Harrison goes over and he sees a program on the screen)
VICTOR - That's a new one for you, isn't it? Merlin is the brains here, and he has figured out how to give us our own voice......I mean he stole the idea from Stephen Hawking, but, still, pretty amazing, huh?
(Harrison's mouth is hanging open, the dolphins laugh)
ROXANNE- I told you he was gonna go open mouth on us!
VICTOR - Well, we don't have a lot of time, Harrison, we need to get to work to save our cousins, the vaquitas (this comes out with a Spanish accent)!
HARRISON - Wha.......
VICTOR - Look at the screen and listen.....
ROXANNE - and you might want to close your mouth so the flies stay out!
VICTOR - Merlin here has found a program that turns our language into English....so we can communicate! But not with everyone yet....first, we have a problem to solve.....take a look at the screen.....
(Harrison goes over and watches as an article appears)
VICTOR - As you probably guessed, this has been going for awhile....but when our family is threatened, well, it's time to take action.....see those vaquitas.....porpoises......only 60 left in the whole world, and we have a plan to save them, but we need your help....
HARRISON - My help? I still think Jarrod is around here hiding.....
(He starts looking behind desks)
MERLIN - I told you he wouldn't believe us!
VICTOR - Okay, here's what's going down......we've been trained for all kinds of work with finding objects of mass destruction, and we're pretty good, but you know our project is threatened because the PETA people do not want us in danger.....which is really none of their business since we're smart enough to make our own decisions, but that's for another day......we are talking about an idea that we save our cousins and get some great publicity for this program - whaddaya say, Harrison?
HARRISON - I say, someone slipped some mushrooms into my afternoon coffee.....because, I mean I know you guys are smart, but.....I mean...
VICTOR - We're smarter than you think ......Merlin took one of those online Mensa tests and scored 175!
HARRISON - How long has this been going on?
(Roxanne starts singing the son...'How long has this been going on?"
VICTOR - Roxanne! Pay attention! We have to focus!
ROXANNE- I am focused! You're the one doing all the talking, when do I get to sing?
VICTOR - Roxanne wants to get on that 'America's Got Talent' show......
ROXANNE- Think of the novelty! I would so win!
VICTOR - Okay, after we get this project going......look, we have to save our relatives in Mexico, but.....
HARRISON - (Getting some rational thought back) How are you talking to me? How is this possible?
VICTOR - Okay, Merlin, please explain...
(Merlin explains using the computer, how he figured out how to turn the dolphin sounds into human sounding speech using Stephen Hawking's algorithms. Harrison is impressed)
MERLIN - But my favorite part is the Spanish......vaquitas (with a Spanish accent) That took a little time to figure out!
HARRISON - Muy bien....
VICTOR - Enough patting ourselves on the back - which is pretty hard with just these fins.....the real issue is.....how do we get you to go to the big brass.....I like saying that....the big brass....
(A trumpet sound is heard and the dolphins dance to it, then Victor signals for them to stop)
VICTOR - How do we convince you, that this is something you have to do....
HARRISON - And if I don't?
VICTOR - Well, you've seen what we've done now.......if we're not happy....
(The computer is now showing scenes of terrible destruction, the dolphins laugh)
VICTOR - Just kidding, if we're not happy....
(On screen it shows that the dolphins have figured out how to escape, and Harrison looks at the screen, then at the three of them)
HARRISON - What do you want me to do?
(End of opening scene)
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Based - kind of!- on a true story! https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/04/last-endangered-mexican-porpoises-to-be-rounded-up-by-us-navy-trained-dolphins
Last endangered Mexican porpoises to be rounded up by US Navy-trained dolphins
Conservation plan involves sending dolphins into Gulf of California to find vaquita and then surface to raise the alarm
US Navy-trained dolphins and their handlers will participate in a last-ditch effort to catch the last few dozen of Mexico’s vaquita porpoises to save them from extinction.
The trained animals will use their sonar to locate the extremely elusive vaquitas, then surface and advise their handlers.
The number of vaquitas, the world’s smallest and most endangered porpoise species, has been devastated by illegal fishing for the swim bladder of the totoaba, a fish which is a prized delicacy in China.
According to rough estimates, with the vaquita population falling by 40% a year, and only 60 alive a year ago, there could be as few as three dozen left.
Although the vaquita has never been held successfully in captivity, experts hope to put the remaining porpoises in floating pens in a safe bay in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, where they can be protected and hopefully breed.
International experts confirmed the participation of the navy marine mammal program in the effort, which is expected to start in the spring. Jim Fallin of the US Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific said on Tuesday the dolphins’ participation was still in the planning stage.
“Their specific task is to locate” vaquitas, which live only in the Gulf of California, Fallin said. “They would signal that by surfacing and returning to the boat from which they were launched.”
The dolphins have been trained by the navy for tasks such as locating sea mines.
Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho, the chairman of the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, wrote that “an international group of experts, including navy personnel, have been working on two primary goals: determining the feasibility of locating and catching vaquitas, as a phase one. And as a second phase, to determine the feasibility of temporarily housing vaquitas in the Gulf of California.”
Rojas-Bracho said the effort by the international team of experts “would involve locating them, capturing them and putting them in some kind of protective area”, probably a floating enclosure or pen in a protected bay where they would not be endangered by fishing nets. Mexico has banned gillnets that often trap vaquitas in the area, but has had trouble enforcing it because the totoaba draws very high prices on the black market.
“At the current rate of loss, the vaquita will likely decline to extinction by 2022 unless the current gillnet ban is maintained and effectively enforced,” Rojas-Bracho wrote.
Some experts, like Omar Vidal, Mexico’s director of the World Wildlife Fund, oppose the capture plan, which could risk killing the few remaining vaquitas and open up a free-for-all of illegal fishing once they are removed from their natural habitat. “We must strive to save this porpoise where it belongs: in a healthy Upper Gulf of California,” he said.
Catch-and-enclose is risky. The few remaining females could die during capture, dooming the species. Breeding in captivity has successfully saved species such as the red wolf and California condor, but the vaquita has only been scientifically described since the 1950s and has never been bred or even held in captivity.
Experts including Rojas-Bracho; Barbara Taylor, leader of Marine Mammal Genetics Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; and Sarah Mesnick of the NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center, emphasized that the capture program “should not divert effort and resources away from extension and enforcement of the gillnet ban, which remains the highest-priority conservation actions for the species”.
Veterinarians would evaluate vaquitas’ reactions and release stressed individuals, they wrote. Should a death occur, the team would re-evaluate the sanctuary strategy. “It is important to stress that the recovery team goal is to return vaquita from the temporary sanctuary into a gillnet-free environment,” they wrote.
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* Note: A few words about 'free' - all these monologues are protected under copyright law and are free to read, free to perform and video as long as no money is charged. Once you charge admission or a donation, or include my work in an anthology, you need to contact me for royalty
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Janet S. Tiger 858-736-6315 CaregiversAnon.org
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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