APR
22

The Secret Garden and The Adventures of Rikki-Tikki Tavi

One of the greatest challenges for young actors is to play a role that is completely outside the world they know, to become a character who is unrelatable to them.

Such challenging roles might be characters who are much older or younger than the actor playing them, or characters from a different culture or part of the world.

Today’s monologues offer a bit of both.  Both also offer the opportunity to practice and develop pantomime skills as the suggested props do not have to be real.

In Gary Peterson’s beautifully adapted The Secret Garden, house servant Martha is trying to teach young Mary to be a proper, free-spirited child.  The spoilt Mary barely knows how to be a kid, and Martha is incredulous that the entitled orphan doesn’t even know how to play.  Martha gladly demonstrates a jump rope rhyme from her own youth to help get Mary in the spirit.

Puran Bhagat’s monologue from Tim Kelly’s The Adventures of Rikki-Tikki Tavi presents a much different challenge.  Puran is an elderly holy man who vacillates between boasting of his legendary storytelling and dropping heavy hints about just how hungry he is.  Puran proves to be full of blessings, but only after he has finished his fish and rice dinner.

We’re in our last week of Monologue Mania! but we’d still love to see your videos.  Here are our updated guidelines:

• Perform the memorized Pioneer monologue either with or without costumes and/or props.
• Email your video to monologues@pioneerdrama.com or choose your favorite social media platform (Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook) to post your video using the hashtags #pioneerdrama and #monologuemania so we’re sure to see it.
• Uploading the video and tagging it with #pioneerdrama gives Pioneer Drama Service explicit permission to share the entire video on our own social media platforms.
• The video must start with the following:
• The performer’s first name
• The full name of the play
• The full name of the playwright(s)
• “Published by Pioneer Drama Service”
• A short introduction to set the scene.  For many plays, this can be done in just one or two lines.
• Do NOT include your full name or any school name or location since we want to protect everyone’s privacy.

Here are today’s monologues:

Male:  https://www.PioneerDrama.com/Newsletter/Teaching_Resources/Adv_Rikki_Tikki_Tavi-Puran_Bhagat.pdf

Female:  https://www.PioneerDrama.com/Newsletter/Teaching_Resources/Secret_Garden-Martha.pdf