Acting 1-Making Nonsense Make Sense

After learning, memorizing, and working on improving monologues, a recent class activity we did really stood out to me. Since the beginning of the semester, it seems we have been focusing so much on the movement of the body, breathing, voice and diction, specificity with intentions, and stuff like that. We would then take everything we have learned and put it into our monologues. I quickly discovered that this type of specific work was much easier when I memorized my lines so well, I could then focus on the meaning of what I was saying and the specific choices I was trying to make. Our recent Dr. Seuss activity put all of this work on a whole new level.

First, we were divided into groups of three or four. I was in a group of four. We were then handed our script. This was unlike any other script I had ever seen before. There was no separation of parts, it was just a verse that we were to divide up and decide who would speak which lines. We were given the instructions that we had to say at least two of the lines in unison and we could split the rest in any way we wished. We were told we would be graded on memorization and specific choices. This wouldn't be a problem normally. There were only about 10 lines or so and there were four of us. The catch was, the lines were nonsense. Yeah. The first line was "Give me the gift of a grip top sock." That was probably the line that made the most sense too. The entire verse was full of rhymes, alterations, and tongue twisters.

So with our instructions given we decided to dig in. First we split the lines up within our group, giving us each 2 lines by ourselves and 2 lines to say together. The next challenge was applying everything we have learned in our workshops and with our monologues to this mess of nonsense. What specific choices could we make with it? What could we do to show clear intentions all the while, trying to memorize and not trip over the tongue twisters within. Our group decided to take it as literally as we could. We decided that a grip top sock was literally a sock that didn't have a top to help it stay up. Eventually, we decided that a regular sock was an ankle sock and a grip top sock was a knee-high sock. With our group, we figured the best scenario would be that we were all roommates and I would be the one who wants the gift of the grip top sock. Two of my roommates would think I was ridiculous and say their lines with a hint of mockery and light-hardheartedness. The third roommate was truly interested in what a grip top sock was.

It was such an interesting experience to see how the more specific we became with our intentions and back story, the easier it became to understand what we were saying. All of the sudden, I started to believe there was such a thing as a grip top sock! It was also extremely interesting to see the other groups perform the same dialogue with a different order of people saying it and completely different intentions. All of the sudden it became a whole different story!