Scene 1 Final Showing

Monologue 1 First Showing

Women and Wallace. Character: Wallace

"My Mother's Turtlenecks."  By Wallace Kirkman.  Age Sixteen.  My mother loved my father and hated her neck.  She thought it was too fleshy or something.  If I hated my neck, I'd have it removed, but my mother never trusted doctors, so she wore turtlenecks.  All the time.  In every picture we have of her, she's wearing a turtleneck.  She had turtlenecks in every color of the rainbow.  She had blacks, she had whites, she had grays, she had plaids, she had polka dots and a hound's-tooth checks and stripes and Mickey Mouse and even a sort of mesh turtleneck.  I can't picture her without a turtleneck on.  Although, according to Freud, I try to, every moment of every day.  We have a photograph of me when I was a baby wearing one of my mother's turtlenecks.  Swimming in one of my mother's turtlenecks is more like it.  Just a bald head and a big shirt.  It's very erotic, in an Oedipal shirtwear sort of way.  It's a rare photograph, because I'm smiling.  I didn't smile all that much during most of my childhood.  I'm taking lessons now, trying to learn again, but it takes time.  I stopped smiling when my mother stopped wearing turtlenecks.  I came home from a typical day in the second grade to find her taking a bath in her own blood on the kitchen floor.  Her turtleneck was on top of the kitchen table, so it wouldn't come between her neck and her knife.  I understood then why she had worn turtlenecks all along.  To stop the blood from flowing.  To cover the wound that was there all along.  They tried to cover the wound when they buried her with one of her favorite turtleneck dresses on, but it didn't matter.  It was just an empty hole by then.  My mother wasn't hiding inside.  (pause.)  She wrote a note before she died, asking to be cremated, and I asked my father why she wasn't.  He said my mother was two women, and the one he loved would have been scared of the flames.  (pause.)  I look at that photograph of little me inside my mother's shirt all the time.  It's the closest I can get to security.  There are no pictures of me inside my mother's womb, but her turtleneck is close enough. 

from: Romeo and Juliet... playing part of: Benvolio

O noble Prince, I can discover all the unlucky manage of this fatal brawl:  There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, that slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio.  Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo's hand did slay!  Romeo that spoke him fair, bid him bethink how nice the quarrel was, and urg'd withal your high displeasure;  all this uttered with gentle breath, calm look , knees humbly bowed, could not take truce with unruley spleen of Tybalt deaf to peace, but that he tilts with piercing steel at bold Mercutio's breast, who, all as hot, torns deadly point to point, and, with the martial scorn, with one hand beats cold death aside, and with the other sends it back to Tybalt, whose dexterity retorts it.  Romeo he cries aloud, "Hold, friends!  Friends, depart!" and swifter that his tongue, his (agile) arm beat down thier fatal points, and 'twixt them rushes;  underneath whose arm an envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt fled;  but by and by comes back to Romeo, who had but newly entemin'd revenge, and to't they go like lightening, for, ere I could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain;  and as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly.  This is the truth, or let Benvolio die.

scene 1 first showing

Mr. C's questions...

I believe my strength as an actor is that I evolve. With every performance of "Hello, Dolly!", I believe I got better each time. Of course, I am only basing this on "Hello, Dolly!". I believe the thing I do well is comedic timing, because there were some scenes that, when I did them differently, I would get different reactions from the audience. An area for opportunity would have to be, me opening up sooner. Each night I opened up more and more but I believe I could improve if I would just open up sooner. I really want to work on "becoming" the character this semester because that is a very easy way to be convincing... Absolutely nothing terrifies me as an actor. I am ready to put on anyones shoes in this semester.

My autobiography

Well, my name is Collin Laster, I am in tenth grade at South Pointe High school and I am in advanced acting with Mr. Chrismon.  I am also in Concert Choir and I am very excited for this semester because of these two classes.  I play the piano, sing, act and write my own music when I'm inspired.  I have found my calling thanks to my dad, Mr. Chrismon, and Mrs. Laney, my chorus teacher and also my girlfriends mother.  My first and only theatre experience was "Hello, Dolly!" last semester, I played the role of Cornelius, a fun-loving thirty-three year old store clerk who had never kissed a girl.  This was very coincidental because I like to believe that people think of me as a fun-loving guy and up until I met Jessie, my girlfriend, I had never kissed a girl.  I really, really want to buy a Jeep.  Not one of the new ones with the hard-tops.  An old one with the floppy doors that can be taken off.  If I cant get a Jeep for some reason, then I want to get a Dodge Challenger.  I would be perfectly fine if I got any car though.