ACTING 103 – HOMEWORK 1
Your assignment for this week is to memorize the short monologue at the bottom of this page, then perform it as five different characters. Your character fired a man, and is talking about why.
The characters
Character 1: Compassionate and caring. You feel sorry for the man who was fired. You hated firing him but felt you had no choice.
Character 2: Arrogant and obnoxious. Your character has no empathy. From your point of view, the man you fired was a doofus. It was fun firing him. You actually think it’s kind of funny.
Character 3: Shy and soft-spoken. You’re afraid you might be fired yourself, if your boss doesn’t understand why you fired Joe.
Character 4: Stoner. You’re high on weed. It’s all kind of hazy. You remember firing Joe, but don’t quite remember why.
Character 5: Stickler for the rules. Your character always obeys the rules, and thinks everyone should. “The world would be better if we all just did as we’re told.” It’s obvious (from your POV) why you should have fired Joe. You’re a little irritated at having to explain.
The scenario is: You’re the manager of a local office. You fired an employee (Joe). You’re explaining the reason for the firing to the regional manager (your boss).
At the beginning of the scene, you’ll walk into the room in character; sit down in character; then tell the story as the character would tell it. Don’t only learn the words, but practice walking, sitting and gesturing as the different characters.
Pay attention to your posture, tone of voice, emotional energy, facial expressions, and other elements that go into finding and creating different characters. When you’ve practiced it a few times, try filming yourself playing the different roles and playing it back when you’re practicing, to get an idea of how to improve it.
The monologue:
“He kept screwing up. I mean, he’d call up a client, and be really nice at first. Then he’d start yelling at them. I was like, “You can’t do that, Joe.” He was like, “I’ll get better. I promise.” Then he’d do it again.” (beat) I fired him two days ago. He was crying. He was saying, “Please, I need this job!” I said, “Clear out your desk and turn in your key on the way out.”
