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Press: Plymouth-Whitemarsh freshman has winning monologue about coronavirus

8/24/2020

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A great article featuring winning writer Mokeira Gekonge from our 2020 Digital Mouthful Monologue Festival.   Read it below, and then check out the Monologue Festival Performance!
Article: The Reporter
2020 Digital Mouthful Monologue Festival
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Monologue Writing Student Advice

4/29/2020

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​Two PYP Resident Plawyrights share their advice!

Video by: Kaya Trefz
Written Guide by: Brenden Dahl

Disclaimer: These are only suggestions and you should let you creativity soar!

  1. Know your world. It helps to develop as much context as you can for your monologue. Who is your character? What are the important relationships in their life? How old are they? Where are they right now? What time period is it? What external factors inform your character’s internal conflict?

  2. Motivate your monologue. Characters will likely have a reason why they give a monologue. What was the conflict or event that prompted them to speak? Are they speaking to another character? Are they convincing someone? Telling a story? Asking a question? Reflecting on the past or experiencing the present?

    This can change throughout the course of the monologue.

  3. Find your character’s voice. Everybody has a particular way that they speak. A 70-year-old retired British professor sounds very different than a bratty toddler. How does your character sound? What kind of language do they use? Do they speak in long or short sentences? Do they second-guess themselves a lot or do they plan out what they’re going to say? 

  4. Don’t be afraid to tell a story. Monologues can still absolutely have a clear beginning, middle, and end. For the beginning, try to grab the audience’s attention while also giving context for why the character is speaking. For the middle, try to move the “plot” along while also providing plenty of detail and small twists. For the end, try to find a way to wrap up the character’s thoughts without over-explaining. Trust the audience to derive meaning from the monologue themselves.

  5. Delete half of what you write. This may sound a bit extreme, but you can often tell the same story in half of the words you originally do. What can be inferred in between the lines? How can you “show” something happening versus “telling” it? 

  6. Read it out loud. Monologues are meant to be performed. Try having a friend or family member read your monologue out loud to you and really listen to how it sounds. Does it tell the story you want it to? Does it seem natural? Does it feel too short or too long? This will likely inform your revision process.
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The Road to the 2019 MOUTHFUL MONOLOGUE FESTIVAL: The Performance & the Afterglow

3/19/2019

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BY ISABEL MEHTA

The fourth and final installment of Germantown Friends junior Isabel Mehta's blog series about the process behind the Mouthful Monologue Festival.

Picture

Catch Up On Isabel's Blog Series

Blog #1: Helping Select the Winning Monologues
Blog #2: Meeting the Team & Getting to Work
Blog #3: Writing for the Stage
PictureTaiwo Sokan performing Isabel's monologue "What I Will Tell You." Photo: Jen Cleary
And so it is finally complete. The Mouthful Monologue Festival. Two weeks, nine shows, six actors, 18 monologues. Some were hilarious, some heartbreaking, and so many were both.

Before even entering the performance space is the lobby. With the walls adorned with photos and quotes from the 18 playwrights, it was the perfect way to bring audience members into the world of PYP.  I entered the Drake Theater space nervous, but was pleasantly surprised by the quirky music playing and the dim, warm lights. There was something special about the air, but maybe that’s just theater. The anticipation of a performance is what gives space energy.

What makes the Drake Theater so special, I think, is its intimacy. The theater seats 80 people maximum, so it has the feel of a small, back-alley comedy club. If sitting in the front row, an audience member could be less than three feet from a performing actor. While I never sat in the very front row, I was surrounded and engulfed by the entire theatrical experience.

As the background music faded and the last audience members took their seats, the five or so actors for the first piece, "Organic," emerged on the edges of the stage with backpacks, posing as students. After a short introduction video with some “turn off your phone” and “this is what your about to see” type messages, the first performance began. "Organic" was the perfect piece to kick off the show, because it was the right balance of humor and heart. A young teenager who can’t stay awake in class transitions into an inner monologue about his struggle with identity and staying true to himself. It set the tone for the rest of the show.

After "Organic," the monologues rolled in, one after the other. Each one with its own great one-liners, moments of power, humor, and imagery. Each one with a dedicated and passionate actor driving the performance. Each one touching the audience in some way, whether it was relating to the teenagers in the audience about the loneliness of summer vacation or having everyone contemplate the meaning of life through the perspective of a balloon. This, folks, was magical.  It was fast, all of the performances contributing to the collective rhythm of the show. Not a second was wasted, not a moment was spared. An impeccably orchestrated night.

As Jack, who had a balloon tied to their rear end, spoke the last lines of "Letting Go" and the house lights came on, the other five actors emerged from backstage and took their bows. After a friendly Q&A between the audience and the writers and actors, the theater emptied out.

But what stayed in the space were lines like “I just want to belong” and “I’m so lonely;” lines like “I am reclaiming the right to be happy” and “I’m scared you will stop loving me.” These words, and so many more, will live in that space forever.

That’s the point of theater, I think. To tell stories that will hang in the air long after the audience leaves, long after the lights shut off and the curtain closes. So the Mouthful Monologue Festival of 2019 lives on, because when the actors and writers triumph, it is our triumph, and a gift for everyone to hold on to forever.

See Photos from the 2019 Mouthful Monologue Festival
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PHOTO RECAP: 2019 Mouthful Monologue Festival

3/11/2019

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The 2019 Mouthful Monologue Festival featured 18 monologues written by students in grades 8-12, directed and performed by theater professionals.

The winning monologues were selected from more than 660 submissions from students in 27 different schools.
​
PHOTO CREDIT: Jen Cleary
Learn More about the Production
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