Monologue, Metaphor and Money
The fact that February is nearly over is baffling me. 2022 is completely flying in. Some general life updates and thoughts, University is going really well, the workload has cranked up this semester but I’m still enjoying everything we are doing and I’m happy with the work I’m creating. Compared to last semester I would say I’ve been feeling a bit more homesick, I think because this time round I don’t have the milestones I did before, like family or friends coming down, I find it easier if I have something to look forward to or work towards. I can say to myself “it’s okay because in a couple weeks…” I think this effects my productivity which I find frustrating. I also had covid recently so now I completely understand the term 'covid brain'. I felt like I was in a fog for days and I couldn’t focus on anything but thankfully now I’m feeling a lot better.
I’ve been struggling recently with my writing in terms of ideas, I have so many ideas for my writing but executing them is a different story. The draft I had been working on was getting there, but something wasn’t working, I felt like I couldn’t get out the story I wanted it to be. I love this idea still, but I’ve come to realise that its going to be something I will continue working on outside of the programme. I need more time to figure it out and it’s something I think I want some more time to develop so moving onto something else in the programme is the right decision. I was given an exercise by Ali, and this has helped immensely with my writing and my new draft. Previously in the programme I wrote a monologue based on a metaphor of saying a fear of the sea is like the fear that a lot of people have due to assault or abuse. She asked me to rewrite/tweak the monologue after being given four different prompts:
1. Someone about to go into court, giving testimony about sexual assault.
2. A businesswoman about to give a major presentation to ‘the guys’.
3. A war correspondent answering a journalist about ‘how it feels’ doing her job.
4. A sex worker being interviewed in her local police station by her brother.
This helped me generate a lot of different ideas for the monologue and left me feeling very inspired. After sending these drafts over, I had a great chat with Nigel. We stripped down the monologue, chatted about why I was writing it and worked on the metaphor of the sea. Now the monologue has grown and there is another character which fuels the idea of new friendship and how important it is to share things but even more importantly how they react to things you tell, these situations help me personally when it comes to new relationships, and I wanted to explore that in my draft.
A play I read recently and enjoyed was Lungs by Duncan Macmillan. The themes of global anxiety, political unrest and a young woman in want of a child with time running out all went together beautifully, it was honest, funny and edgy. I loved the hyper-real dialogue and the way Macmillan used time. We the reader were left to decide how much time passed during the play, there was no scene changes, but he showed that time does pass as we watch, but also challenges this. A very interesting read which I would recommend. A play I went to see recently was A Number at the Old Vic theatre, I went with a group of friends from University and it was a great night. Not only was the play entertaining but the Old Vic is just such a beautiful theatre. Being a student, I don’t have the funds to see as much theatre as I’d like so when I do it feels very special.
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