ENGL 4203, 4313, 5583 Mercer

Enhancing Your Performance in an Acting Scene, Monologue, or Recitation

To enhance your performance (and thus your grade) on the acting scene, monologue, or recitation assignment, please try to do the following:

· Choose your scene, monologue, or other lines at the very beginning of the semester, and work consistently on memorizing them week by week. It is not difficult to memorize three (3) lines per week. It is almost impossible, however, to memorize 30 or 45 lines in one evening! Do NOT procrastinate!

· When you perform, say your lines audibly (not too softly), clearly, smoothly, and confidently. Do not give the impression that you are painfully straining to remember your lines.

· Say your lines in a way that reveals your understanding of their meaning. Convey the ideas and emotions of the lines.

· Say your lines with word-for-word accuracy. In Shakespearean performance, it is customary to cut lines if necessary but never to change the words.

· If you feel comfortable doing so, perform in class rather than only in my office.

· If you are planning to perform in class, first perform for me in office.

· Use gestures and movements implied by the lines and appropriate to the scene. Do not stand stiffly; do not sit unless your lines specifically require you to do so.

· If your acting scene or monologue doesn’t give you the minimum number of required lines (or as many lines as you’d like), memorize additional lines from any assigned tragedy and recite them later in class or in my office.

· If your class performance doesn’t go as well as you’d like, keep working on your lines and then recite them again for me in my office within two weeks of your original performance.

· If you perform in class, consider using costumes and props.

· Perform your in-class acting scene or monologue while we are studying that play in class.

· Schedule the date of your in-class performance in advance, and stick to that date.

· Perform more than the minimum number of lines.

· If you’re reciting your lines privately in my office, complete this assignment in advance of the specified deadline.