Mr Death Monologue Troy Maxon's Life


https://youtu.be/IjdjqWLuLFk

    During this week in IB Lit Peformance, I was asked to perform a monologue from the play "Fences." Everyone from the class was told to pick a monologue they liked.  Being the always energetic, lively person I am, I decided to twist things up a bit. I decided to choose the monologue where Troy faces Mr. Death. This monologue Troy had in the play stood out at me because its as if he accepted death to come swoop him anytime it wanted.  Troy would be okay with it as long as his fence was complete. Troy finishing the fence would symbolize his life cycle ending.  This was interesting to me because I felt that I'm that moment Troy lost the will to live. I knew it was going to be hard to portray that kind of  emotion, but I felt as if I took this challenge head on.

  The first thing I thought about with this monologue was how to capture that raw emotion of hopelessness, and presenting that in a strong willed way. Troy never cowdly backed down from any challenge throughout the play, and once he confronted death it's as if he accepted it. Troy is a confident man, and once his mind is set there is no going back to change it.  When I performed the scene, my voice tone showed confidence, and no remorse. This was crucial for me to show because of my interpretation of the scene. I showed confidence confronting death, and my staging showed me walking up and down an imaginary fence symbolizing no fear and the close boundary of death.

 Things I could have done better going into the day of performance was studying my lines more. I barely had any time for school work over the weekend, juggling football, and family obligations. This is no excuse especially becuase I am striving for all As, but by the time the school week came around I was bombarded with work. I did a decent job only stumbling on one line, and once I got over it the scene became natural. I learned that there is always room for improvement in acting, with no scene being ever being perfect. You don't need to memorize your lines 100% in a monologue,  and if you stumble ITS OKAY!  I learned don't stop becuase the audience will only know if you messed up if you announce that you did. I enjoyed watching my classmates perform. We have some skilled actors in the class this year. Things that my peers could work on were pretty much the same things I needed to work on. Many were nervous, forgot there lines, or stopped acting when they screwed up. We can all take pointers coming out of this project.  It was the first of many scenes we will be doing this year, and I am confident that all of us will only get better as time progresses.

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