LEARNING PACK
APPROACHING A MONOLOGUE
As a student of drama or performing arts you will at some point have to select, learn or write a monologue. In English, RE or PSHE and other subjects, you might discuss, review and present a persuasive and compelling speech in class for an assessment or as part of your exams.
THE MOUNTAINTOP allows us to really look at the speeches made by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and especially the speech “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” the last before his assassination at the Lorraine Hotel, in Memphis.
In the play, both actors deliver monologues that must hold and engage the audience, which gives us further insight into who they are, why they react in the way they do, their intention and motivation while moving the plot and action on.
DEFINITION OF A MONOLOGUE
A dramatic speech delivered by one character.
A monologue is the term used to describe a speech by a single character in a dramatic context: a play, film, TV show, video game, etc.
A monologue can be spoken to another person, alone or to the audience as a soliloquy.
Interesting fact:
It comes from the Greek words “monos” (alone) and “logos” (speech)
What is a Monologue?
A breakdown on monologues for actors: https://www.stagemilk.com/what-is-a-monologue/
HOW CAN A MONOLOGUE MAKE AN IMPACT ON THE AUDIENCE?
It gives the audience the perspective from one character’s point of view.
The character could share their true feelings, a secret, a lie or something the other characters do not know – adding dramatic irony.
It can draw the audience in to have a better understanding or elicit empathy. It can add context from the past, present or future, that will drive the plot.
READ WHAT THE DIRECTOR FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP NATHAN POWELL HAS TO SAY ON THE MATTER AND HOW HE WOULD GET AN ACTOR TO APPROACH THIS ELEMENT IN A PLAY.
As a director, what advice would give an actor when approaching a monologue, any top tips?
When approaching a monologue, the first tip I would give might sound simple, but take your time to truly understand what the monologue says. Make sure there are no words or phrases that you don’t understand. Then think about the context that you are delivering this monologue in. What’s happened just before, where are they, who are they with etc. All these things will have an impact on how they deliver the words.
Once you understand as much as you can about the monologue, you’ll have the freedom and space to explore the most effective and interesting way to deliver it.
There are a few monologues in THE MOUNTAINTOP, all with different contexts so we made sure we spent time interrogating each one and understanding its purpose.
Photography: ELLIE KURTTZ
DEVELOPING YOUR CHARACTER
Creating a character study
Choose a monologue extract from the play THE MOUNTAINTOP or from a play you are currently studying. Make sure you read it a few times and make some notes or ask questions about the text and dialogue being delivered. It may also help to ask the following questions to help you begin to understand the character, their intentions and motivation, before, during and after the extract you’ve chosen.
HERE ARE SOME TO GET YOU STARTED
Who am I?
Who am I talking to?
Why?
Where am I?
When is this extract taking place?
What time of day is it?
What time of the year is it?
How do I feel at any given moment?
What might have happened just before this extract?
What do I want from this interaction in the scene?
What might happen after the extract?
And there will be some additional questions raised as you start to answer these.
KEEP PASSING IT ON! NOW READ YOUR EXTRACT AGAIN, HOW HAVE THINGS MOVED ON?
• Record yourself saying your monologue. Listen back and consider WWW and EBI and why?
• Read your extract and annotate the script with facts, assumptions and questions you still have. Make reference to what has happened before, during and after the scene.
• How has it changed your understanding of the character, their relationships, intention and motivation?
YOU CAN ALSO USE:
• Stanislavski’s – GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES or THE MAGIC IF
• Uta Hagen’s 6 or 9 questions for an actor
• Katie Mitchell’s Naturalism and Live Cinema (Multimedia) – Six Layers Breakdown
Six Layers = character biography, place, time, immediate circumstances, event and intentions.
Practitioners in Practice: Katie Mitchell (Education pack)
https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/learn-explore/schools/teacher-resources/practitioners-in-practicekatie-mitchell-film/
Photography: ELLIE KURTTZ
NATHAN POWELL
Director
Training: Artistic Directors Leadership Programme – RTYDS, 20 STORIES HIGH.
Previous Curve theatre credits include: SUCKER PUNCH by Roy Williams.
Previous theatre credits include: 14% by Keisha Thompson (Contact Theatre); A PLAY FOR THE LIVING IN A TIME OF EXTINCTION by Miranda Rose Hall (Shakespeare North Playhouse and Headlong); SUCKER PUNCH by Roy Williams (Queens theatre Hornchurch, National Theatre); DOGS by Joe Ward Munrow (Liverpool Playhouse Studio); THE LIES YOU TELL by Yolanda Mercy (New Wolsey Theatre, Theatre Royal Bury St. Edmunds); LOVE LIVERPOOL (Liverpool Playhouse); A SENSE OF BELONGING (Action transport Theatre); HOME GIRL (Derby Theatre as writer); THE SPINE (National tour); 846 and 846 LIVE (Theatre Royal Stratford East as writer) and MACBETH (Orange Tree Theatre).
Nathan is the Creative Director at Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse.
RAY STRASSER-KING
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Training: Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance – BA Acting.
Previous Curve theatre credits include: THE MOUNTAINTOP (Performed Reading) and SUCKER PUNCH
Previous theatre credits include: SUCKER PUNCH (UK tour, Theatre Nations); STORMS AND VOYAGES (Street Theatre); MAYDAY MAYDAY TUESDAY – PLAY ABOUT MIKHAIL (Ugly Duck Theatre); APOCALYPSE LAOW (Katzpace Theatre) and EIGHT (The White Bear Theatre).
Previous TV and film credits include: PIGLETS (Monicker Pictures/ITV); TEN PERCENT (BRON Studios & Headline Pictures/Prime Video); THE TROUBLE WITH MAGGIE COLE (Genial Productions/ITV); FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (Working Title Films/HULU/Prime Video); DECRYPTED (Substantial Films/Prime Video); GENIUS (Michael Grandage Company); KICKING OFF (Happy Hour Productions) 1 JVC HEADPHONES (Natcho Creative/JVC); Gym Shark and The Gym Group.
Other credits include: TAMERLANO Opera Fight Director (The Grange Festival).
Ray Strasser-King is a London-based actor. Since graduating from Rose Bruford College he has gained momentum in the acting world with recent credits that include Roy Williams’ SUCKER PUNCH (UK tour, Theatre Nations), PIGLETS (ITV), TEN PERCENT (Prime Video), FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (HULU) and THE TROUBLE WITH MAGGIE COLE (ITV). He has also worked on campaigns for major brands such as Gym Shark and JVC.
He looks forward to returning to the role of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. following last year’s successful performed reading of THE MOUNTAINTOP. Ray is a keen writer, DJ and mixed martial artist. He is also passionate about creating spaces for young people to thrive within performing arts having owned two franchise performing arts schools.
JUSTINA KEHINDE Camae
Justina Kehinde is an actor, writer and director.
Training: University of Cambridge, BA (hons); Associated Studios (DipMT); ALT Actor Training.
Previous Curve theatre credits include: THE MOUNTAINTOP (2023).
Previous theatre credits include: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY (UK and Ireland inaugural tour); BEST OF ENEMIES (Young Vic); NHS THE MUSICAL (Theatre Royal Plymouth) and PASSENGERS (Adelaide Fringe Festival).
Previous TV and film credits include: SANDMAN (Netflix); HOLBY CITY (BBC); TIPPING POINT (Cherry Films) and BAIL.
OVER TO YOU
DEVELOPING YOUR CHARACTER
When thinking about developing your character and making it believable on stage, there must be depth and layers to who they are. You will need to do some research and ask yourself some questions that will help you understand and build the context needed to bring it to life.
You will be able to find out through interviews, videos, pictures, speeches and podcasts about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as your own interpretation of what is said throughout the play.
However, the character Camae, is made up and is held as a tribute, to the playwright Katori Hall’s mother, who wasn’t allowed to attend the march where he made the speech “I’ve been to the Mountaintop.”
INTERVIEW WITH KATORI HALL IN THE WASHINGTON POST
“When my mom told me that story, I thought, If my mother was afraid to go to the church, then Dr. King must have been really afraid to go to the church,” says Hall. Her mother regretted that she missed her final chance to see King speak, and so this play “was a way to put my mother in the room with King because I knew she didn’t get a chance on April 3, 1968 ”
As an actor, you have to be ready to fill in the gaps, make choices and decisions as the character through the facts you have in the play and research, assumptions made from the text or subtext and things that we you just won’t know!
Be inspired, as we pass the baton on, by listening to the actors of THE MOUNTAINTOP and how they developed their roles.
RAY STRASSER-KING (SUCKER PUNCH) as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
HOW HAVE YOU APPROACHED YOUR PORTRAYAL OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING?
JUSTINA KEHINDE (GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY) as Camae
HOW HAVE YOU APPROACHED YOUR PORTRAYAL OF CAMAE?
OVER TO YOU
EXPLORING A DUOLOGUE
THE MOUNTAINTOP is told by two actors, a two hander or Duologue.
A duologue is a good stepping stone to building up to exploring and performing a monologue. You share dialogue, (conversation) and the stage with another character, show their relationship; status, emotions and how their views and opinions differ, adding tension and building rapport, so that an audience cares and will fully engage with the story that each one wants to convey. Katori Hall dramatically pulls us into to imagined historical moment that explores the last night before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, through his enlightening but challenging conversation with Camae, the maid and Angel who aids his passing.
DEFINITION OF A DUOLOGUE.
A play or part of a play with speaking roles for only two actors.
Dialogue or conversation between two characters on stage.
There are many famous and well-known duologues in literature and play text, from Shakespeare to modern and contemporary playwrights. Either use an extract from THE MOUNTAINTOP or from a play you are currently studying to complete the task below called, ‘The Duologue Dash.’
DUOLOGUE DASH
Resources:
• A timer, a stopwatch or your phone
• A duologue script extract
• Lined paper for notes and ideas
• Pen, pencil and a highliner
• Two chairs
INTERESTING FACT:
duologue is a borrowing from Latin or Greek, combined with an English element.
Etymons: Latin duo, Greek δύο, monologue n.. duologue, n. meanings, etymology and more Oxford English Dictionary (oed.com) https://www.oed.com/dictionary/duologue_n?tl=true
ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, GO!
2 MINUTES = PREPARATION
You will be working with a partner, decide who will portray which character and read the extract through at least twice, picking up on any words you don’t know or understand. Help each other first, before asking your teacher or the practitioner for help.
3 MINUTES = WALKING THE SPACE, INDIVIDUALLY
1. Read the duologue, but only your part, every time it’s your partners lines, pause, freeze or stop, then change direction as you say your next line of dialogue.
(The pause, stop or freeze, signifies you, listening, hearing and reacting to what your partner is saying. Depending on how long your extract is, you might be able to repeat a few times in the allocated time) 30 seconds – a quick discussion about anything that worked well or not.
3 MINUTES = WALKING THE SPACE, TOGETHER
2. Stand side by side, as if you are runners ready to start a race, you are going to walk the space like before, but together. Read your duologue again and you will find that as you stop and start, you will be passing each other as if moving to a finish line. You will need to listen intently for those stops and starts, so you can pick up your cues.
(The moving past each other added to the pauses, stops or freezes, will help with building your relationship, timing and responding to the lines of dialogue being delivered. Again, you might be able to repeat this task a few times) 30 seconds – a quick discussion with your partner about what worked well or not.
5 MINUTES = SITTING, STANDING OR MOVING
3. In a space, together, place two chairs, apart from each other. You are going to decide whether to start, sitting, standing or positioned somewhere between the chairs. You will be saying your duologue again, almost as if in a relay and passing a baton between you, but the baton is the dialogue. (conversation) You must make eye contact with each other, especially as if you had the pauses, stops and freezes, like the start. By exploring positioning and moving in the space and what it communicates, you are now considering Proxemics, between the actors, the set and the audience.
DEFINITION OF PROXEMICS
Use of space between actors to communicate meaning.
Proxemics refers to the use of space between actors and how that use of space communicates their relationship to the audience.
Remember: Proxemics can also relate to an object or piece of set and the audience. Where the actor is positioned in space in relation to these things, can send a totally different message!
Repeat this exercise for another 5 minutes – and again discuss for 30 seconds, what worked well and what didn’t and why? Now, is there anything in this exercise that you might want to use or keep?
10 MINUTES = WHAT AUDIENCE? WHERE?
4. Now set up your area for your duologue, taking on board the tasks 1, 2,or 3 that you’ve just done, but also, where the extract is taking place and what you know about the setting and location of the play. You are now going to think about your Performance Space or Staging, will you use End-On or End stage, Thrust, Traverse or Theatre-in-the-Round. You must be clear about where your audience is, as they are who you are communicating this extract to.
Run your duologue again and build on what you have done before, but now make it flow more between you, and any pauses, stops or freeze have been specifically chosen, by the two of you.
(Each Performance Space or Staging choice will affect the way your extract will be perceived by an audience. Does it need the intimacy of Theatre-in-the-Round or will Traverse add a challenging dynamic to enhance the dialogue?).
5 MINUTES = ANNOTATING YOUR EXTRACT
2. Using your paper, pens and highlighter, work through your extract individually making decisions about how you want to bring this extract to life, through some choices made.
PEN = Your positioning and movement in the space.
PENCIL = Your eye contact to your partner, a point in the space or the audience.
HIGHLIGHTER = Your vocal choices, such as Tone, Pitch, Pace, Pause, Silence, Stress or Emphasis, Inflection and Volume.
(Share your ideas with each other, and don’t be afraid to Add, Edit or Adapt your ideas as you explore the duologue, together. Enjoy trying out your ideas, as you run it again and again!).
FEEDBACK: Share your duologue with another pair, listen to their constructive criticism, ask them to point out 1-3 things WWW (What Went Well) and 1 EBI (Even Better If) that you could improve. Is there a Star Moment that really shows your characters relationship and or rapport with each other? And that concludes your Duologue Dash! And the winners are...
YOU, PASS IT ON!
A WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE MOUNTAINTOP:
Is it difficult directing just two people? Are there any challenges in this type of theatre?
Directing just two people isn’t difficult, it’s actually really brilliant for a play like this because it allows space for really important conversations. It means we can go into real detail about the subject in a way that might not be possible with a cast of 15.
It is tiring for the actors though. They don’t get a break, or a moment when someone else is in the scene but they aren’t. They are always on stage, so it’s important to make sure there are plenty breaks and moments for them to rest in rehearsals.
JUSTINA, PLAYING THE CHARACTER CAMAE
“...this everyday woman ...that is a normal, regular person, who happens to end up in an extraordinary situation.”
RAY, PLAYING THE CHARACTER
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
“...it’s important not to mimic... not an impression of... it comes from an authentic place in me.”
Finally, what has been different for you, from doing the staged reading to now developing the full-blown production. How has your vision and intention changed to achieve this?
My vision definitely has changed. With the rehearsed reading our job was to make sure these words were heard in the most meaningful way. Now with the full production, as well as this, I have had the space to think about what it means to make this show now, in the UK in our current societal, political context. That’s been really exciting, and I’ve been able to work with a brilliant creative team to develop that vision.
Nathan Powell
ELLIE KURTTZ
Photography:
OVER TO YOU
LOOKING AT CONTEXT: HISTORICAL, CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL LANDSCAPE OF THE PLAY.
When working with text or a script extract, we need to enter the world of a play, it’s important to understand the era and period when it was written by the playwright, but also the specific times it reflects, as these historical aspects give the actor a deeper context to work with, when exploring, developing and rehearsing.
Read the timeline and look at the events that formed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. life’s work, but also what led up to that fatal morning.
You will be able to apply your knowledge and understanding to THE MOUNTAINTOP activity tasks 1, 2 and 3.
Context
The Civil Rights Movement Timeline
1954 U.S. Supreme Court declares school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
1955 Rosa Parks refuses to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, as required by city ordinance; the Montgomery Bus Boycott follows, and the bus segregation ordinance is eventually declared unconstitutional in 1956.
1957 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helps found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The federal government uses the military to uphold African Americans' civil rights as soldiers escort nine black students to desegregate Little Rock High School.
1960 At the Greensboro Sit-in, four black college students refuse to move from the lunch counter of a Greensboro, NC, restaurant where black patrons are not served, launching sit-ins across the South.
1961 Dr King assists the Albany Movement in Georgia, which protested for voting rights and desegregation. The campaign was unsuccessful.
1962 Malcolm X becomes the National Minister of the Nation of Islam .
1963 The SCLC campaigns against segregation of public spaces in Birmingham, Ala., by staging peaceful marches and sit -ins. Police respond with such brutality that the footage makes national news.
Dr King is arrested and writes "Letter From Birmingham Jail."
Dr King, Jr, delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands of supporters during the March on Washington, the largest Civil Rights march in history.
1964 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, giving the federal government powers to prosecute discrimination based on race in employment, voting, and education.
1965 A year after splitting with the Nation of Islam, Malcom X is assassinated in New York City.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., organizes a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Police beat and tear -gas protesters; the images are shown on television across the country.
The Voting Rights Act is passed, outlawing the practices used to disenfranchise African American voters.
1966 Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seales found the Black Panther Party .
1967 King speaks out against the Vietnam War, in an address titled
"Beyond Vietnam: A 'Time To Break Silence ." On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. At Riverside Church in New York City He argues that money spent on fighting in Vietnam should be used to fight poverty at home.
Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American justice on the Supreme Court.
1968 Dr King focuses increasingly on the plight of America's poor. He and the SCLC plan the Poor People's Campaign.
King arrives in Memphis, to support black sanitation workers on strike for fairer treatment. He delivers his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" address at Mason Temple. The next day, he is assassinated outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. His death sparks riots across the country
The Poor People's March on Washington, a march against poverty planned by King before his death, goes on.
1983 President Ronald Reagan will sign a bill establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to honor King's inspiring legacy of achieving social change through non-violent action.
The Road to April 3rd 1968
The Memphis Sanitation Strike began on February 11, 1968 , incited by the poor working conditions and the recent deaths of workers Echol Cole and Robert Walker, two black men crushed by the accidental trigger of a compactor machine, while they were taking shelter from the rain with the garbage, because city rules prohibited them from waiting anywhere else. Along with these deaths, twenty -two black sewage workers were sent home that day without pay while their white supervisors were paid.
On February 12, most of Memphis' 1,300 black sanitation and sewage workers did not go to work, and the mayor, Henry Loeb, refused to meet with the strikers. By February 15, 10,000 tons of trash were piled in the city, and Loeb began to hire white strike breakers.
Strikers campaigned for better wages, benefits, safety, and union recognition. Even with a recommendation from the city committee, Mayor Henry Loeb refused to comply with their requests. With support from the community and organizations such as the NAACP, they organized a city-wide boycott.
Dr King first visited Memphis on March 18th to speak at a rally in front of 15,000 , and he promised to return the next week to lead a march. That march occurred on March 28 and was peaceful until a group of students used their picket signs to break windows and loot stores. The police response was violent, involving batons and tear gas, and ended in the shooting death of a sixteen-year-old boy named Larry Payne During the strikes and marches, men waved and wore signs that bore the slogan "I AM A MAN."
Despite being warning from his SCLC colleagues not to, Dr. King returned to Memphis on April 3, hoping to turn the Memphis movement back to nonviolence. On his way to Memphis, his plane was delayed because of a bomb threat .
By the time he arrived, Dr King was exhausted and asked his friend Ralph Abernathy to speak for him at the Mason Temple. Abernathy agreed, but realized when he began speaking that people had gathered in the hundreds to hear Dr King speak. He called King and convinced him to brave the storm to speak. When Dr King arrived, he received a standing ovation, and gave the speech known as "I've Been to the Mountaintop."
The conclusion of the speech:
I left Atlanta this morning, and as we got started on the plane - there were six of us - the pilot said over the public address system: "We are sorry for the delay, but we have Dr. Martin Luther King on the plane. And to be sure that all of the bags were checked, and to be sure that nothing would be wrong on the plane, we had to check out everything carefully And we ’ ve had the plane protected and guarded all night."
And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out, or what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers.
Well, I don’t know what will happen now; we’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter to with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live along lifelongevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do Gods' will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything . I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
April 4th 1968
In the evening of April 4, King was preparing to leave the Lorraine Motel for dinner at the home of a Memphis minister. He stepped out onto the balcony of room 306 to speak with SCLC colleagues, who were standing in the parking lot below his room.
At 6:05 PM, an assassin fired a single shot from a balcony across the street from the Loraine. The bullet hit King and caused severe injuries. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital where doctors attempted surgery, but he was pronounced dead at 7:05 PM.