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  1. What is the difference?- Emma Simmons

    November 20, 2020 by simmonsec

         When I got the email about being able to write my own monologue about something going on in 2020, I got so excited and knew exactly what I wanted to write about. I had been watching the news day after day seeing the numbers of deaths from Covid-19 rising but all we really heard was the numbers. There weren’t many people grieving with these families who just lost someone. It got me thinking about 9/11 and how we grieved as a country for all those who lost their lives. I lost my father on that day and being able to see my country stop, think, and mourn with my family and I every anniversary helps me because I know that the day will never be forgotten. I want that for the families of those who have lost someone due to the Corona Virus. I want them to know that the country is grieving with them during this national tragedy.
          Also on the news I would hear people saying, that the virus is all a hoax and that everyone is overplaying how bad it is. It got me so mad because I could not imagine hearing someone say that to me after I just lost someone to the virus. These people who just lost someone that they love have to listen to others say that the number of people who have died is a lie and that the virus is just like a common cold. I can not imagine the anger that they must have felt.
          I wanted to address the issue for these families in a way that I knew best, theater. When I received the email about this process I knew that I found my way to express myself and my frustrations.
         The process of writing this monologue has been amazing because of the amazing writers, director, and stage manager. Everyone has been so supportive of each other and willing to listen to one another. I feel like lately people do not stop to listen to each other so for this group to stop what we are doing for a few hours twice a week and just talk and listen to one another is in my opinion pretty amazing.
         I have struggled like so many other with feeling isolated this year so having these meeting twice a week was something that I looked forward to because I got to have some social human interaction that was my choice to have, not just classes.
         I am so excited for everyone to hear our monologues and our perspectives on things that have happened in 2020.
         Lastly I would like to share a picture of my dad as my monologue is dedicated to him and my family

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  2. 9-5

    November 17, 2020 by Brandon Alston

    One of my favorite books is Good Omens written as a collaboration between the English authors Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. In the book angels, demons, famine, war even pollution have personified human forms and have grown and changed along with humanity.

    The longer they’ve been on earth around humans, the more humanistic traits and characteristics they’ve picked up. Ever since I read this book a few years ago, I’ve been infatuated with a character idea for a human personification of the most stereotypically cold and uncaring “being,” Death. I wanted to give him what human emotions he might have picked up while working amongst humans. I’ve tried to write a story for this character multiple times, but each time the story didn’t quite fit or seem significant enough to house this character. I knew he was an important character that could tell an important story, and it wasn’t until 2020 that I figured out what that story was. 

    This year as many were, I was glued to the news day after day watching new videos of unarmed black men and women being brutalized and killed by not just the police but their white neighbors as well. I watched the judicial system fail its people, again and again; Americans consumed and then quickly forget black names like it was the latest Netflix show. During the Pandemic while everyone was quarantined, names were said, donations were given and black squares were posted. It was a nice distraction from the boredom of being at home all day, but when the chance came most Americans wanted to go back to the way life was before the pandemic. What some don’t know or choose to ignore is that life before the pandemic for a black man was just as scary as life during the pandemic. The number of nuances and situations that we have to expertly navigate every day is tantamount to maneuvering a hallway of laser beams because the consequences are just as severe. 

    I felt like this monologue would be easy, I was trying to write a counter-narrative from a position where I have always been the other, but it was difficult to decipher the answers to questions about a society I can only try to understand. Attempting to remove myself to provide a completely omniscient view required changing my understanding of who the real perpetrators of injustice are. This year has been a wake-up call. We live in a country where the living cares less about those that have been killed than death himself. I know I’m tired of watching black lives lost for no reason and I have to assume death is too. 

     

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  3. An incredible journey

    November 16, 2020 by smallwood07

    I started at CofC in 2004 as a young actor. I’d never written a play, never considered writing a play, and wouldn’t until two years later. Franklin Ashley’s playwriting class was my introduction to dramatic writing. That class, that opportunity, has been pivotal to my development as a writer, an actor, and a theatre artist. So when Janine approached me about helping with a monologue workshop, I leapt at the opportunity. And it’s been an absolute joy.

    I can’t wait for all of you to see the work these students have created. The themes they’ve chosen to explore are relevant, poignant, and tackled with the maturity and insight of artists twice their age. The exceptional character and dialogue work on display is even more fantastic when you realize that many of our ensemble are writing for the first time.

    Our World: Student Voices on 2020 has given our students the opportunity to express themselves through writing and performance, and they have taken this opportunity to tackle some of the biggest issues facing us today. And they have done it brilliantly.

     

    Michael Smallwood
    Director

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